SEARCH Students Stay Busy in Huntington
There’s never a dull moment in the academic lives of Huntington SEACH students. The youngsters have kept very busy in recent months
Fifth and six grade students are chosen for participation in the weekly SEARCH (Scholastic Enrichment and Resource for the Children in Huntington) pull-out program on the basis of multiple measures.
SEARCH sixth graders researched the “back stories” of William Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe and gained an understanding of why both gifted poets and writers are still well read today, long after they departed this world.
“The Elizabethan period of time was studied in order to understand how and why Shakespeare wrote in the style in which he did,” said Maryann Daly, SEARCH teacher-chairperson. “They understood why Will used common themes relevant to the time he lived in in many of his famous plays. We played ‘pictionary’ games using the words Shakespeare created, which was a fun and different way to have to students take an active role in their own learning. They were amused with how descriptive his insults and compliments seemed and were eager to try his expressions on one another.”
The SEARCH sixth graders also delved into Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet play. Mrs. Daly and her students analyzed each character in depth before reading through the play.
“They each chose a character to become, completed a character analysis while in character and then created a mask in the likeness and personality of the person to wear at the Capulet Ball,” Mrs. Daly said.
Culminating activities included two “Chill with Will” workshops, which included visiting teaching artist Heather Thorgersen covering the fundamentals of stage fight choreography and fencing.
The unit on Poe included the use of interactive apps and iPads. “Every poem and short story included terrific sound effects and scary graphics,” Mrs. Daly said. “We read and analyzed “The Raven, Annabelle Lee, The Oval Portrait, The Tell Tale Heart, Hop Frog and the Masque of the Red Death.”
Visiting teaching artist Heather Thorgersen returned to Huntington to conduct an “Eerie Edgy Edgar Allan Poe” workshop, which involved each team bringing to life an inanimate object found in The Tell Tale Heart. “To do this, they used original sound effects from the garage band app loaded onto their iPads,” Mrs. Daly said. “At the completion of this unit, the children understood why Poe wrote such melancholy stories and would often deliver a twisted and tortured end to each of his tales, which often brought both delight and horror to each group of students.”
The sixth graders are currently immersed in forensic science labs and investigations. The unit includes an acids and bases experiment, hair and fiber analysis, (discovering how different fibers smell when burnt), handwriting analysis and dentistry forensics, including teeth impressions and lessons focused on how to learn whether artwork is authentically label or a forgery.
“Just recently, during a lesson using eye witness accounts, each student had to draw a mug shot of a suspect based on a description from the victim,” Mrs. Daly said. “They were very surprised and amused at how different each drawing was given that every one of the children had the same description to use. A more accurate yet challenging experience was using the FACES software a forensic artist would use where we had the recreate a person using realistic features of the human face. Even with a group of people involved, we still were incorrect at times when trying to duplicate the perp’s face. Real-life detective work will be used to discover, through in-depth investigative work, which of six suspects is guilty in the murder of Dustin Mantel in the fictional ‘Dead and Breakfast Murder Caper’ and another activity entitled the ‘Deadly Murder in Cyberspace Caper.’
The students are having fun as they go about expanding their knowledge in a unique way. “The forensic science unit will culminate in a trip to the DNA Learning Center in June and involve gel electrophoresis and the Mystery of Anastasia Romanov, two really sophisticated and interesting lab sessions, which should captivate these budding scientists,” Mrs. Daly said.
As the school year races to its inevitable conclusion, SEARCH students are cramming as much as they can into every class.