NKES Odyssey of the Mind Team Places 5th at World Competition!

Over the past weekend, May 22-25, the New Kent Elementary School Division I Pet Project Team participated in the World Finals competition at Michigan State University. The team from NKES performed splendidly and took 5th place in the world competition! What a fantastic result for a very deserving group of creative students, along with their coaches and parents!

 The Odyssey of the Mind World Finals featured more than 800 teams from schools around the world. The NKES team placed 5th out of 55 teams in their division! More information about the OotM World Finals is available here and the link to the team scores page is available here .


Great job by all team members and coaches! Special thanks go to NKCPS Gifted Resource Teacher Mrs. Angie Estis who accompanied the team to Michigan!

NKES Division I Pet Projects Team

NKHS Teacher to Conduct Research with NASA

New Kent High School science teacher Sue McIninch was recently accepted as a teacher-researcher in the NASA Long-Term Engagement in Authentic Research with NASA (LEARN) program. Mrs. McIninch was selected from over 500 applicants from across the United States to participate in this research program. As a NASA LEARN researcher, she will have the opportunity to engage in two weeks of research alongside NASA scientists this summer and will continue her research throughout the 2013-2014 school year. Sue will also be able to integrate her research into her instruction at New Kent High School. The partnership culminates in a presentation of research in June, 2014. More information about the NASA LEARN program is available here.

Congratulations, Mrs. McIninch and best of luck with your research!

GWES Students Use Blabberize to Learn About History

Courtney Brown's first grade students at George Watkins Elementary School have been learning about famous Americans, and Ms. Brown found a wonderful technology resource for her students to use.  Ms. Brown used Blabberize, a web-based video creation tool that allowed her students to create a video with simple animations.  Even better, students were able to create voice-overs for the animations to share what they have learned.  Check out the students video below, or on the web: http://blabberize.com/view/id/962990.

Inquiry Learning in Biology

Monica Schnautz and Shelia Morris, science teachers at NKHS, have incorporated authentic scientific inquiry opportunities for students in their classes.  Ms. Schnautz recently shared the strawberry DNA extraction lab that her students performed, with outstanding results.  Below is an image capture of one of Ms. Schnautz's students' DNA samples.  The student was able to capture the image using a smartphone - a great application of mobile technology.  Better yet, this is a fantastic DNA sample, with the double helix clearly visible in the slide!  Great work!

Mrs. Morris' biology students recently complete a field work exercise on local waterways.  Students learned to make field observations and collected samples for water quality testing.  This was a fantastic opportunity for our students - thanks Mrs. Morris!

NKHS Teacher Published!

Congratulations to NKHS math teacher Dr. Candice Barkley, who was recently published!  Dr. Barkley's essay Connected Principals: In Pursuit of Social Capital via Social Media was published in the volume Principal 2.0:  Technology and Educational Leadership, published by Infoage Publishing.  Information about the book is available here.

Great job, Dr. Barkley!

NKHS Future Business Leaders of America Excel!

Congratulations to the NKHS Future Business Leaders of America participants and winners in the 2013 FBLA Spring Competition.  Our students competed against students from many other schools across our FBLA region and excelled in the competition! Our students' results were fantastic, and the following NKHS students placed in the FBLA online competition events:

1st Place - Introduction to Business Communications, Haley Dunnavant
1st Place - Technology Concepts, Hunter Rudolph
2nd Place - Spreadsheet Applications, Conner Barney 
3rd Place - Management Decision Making, John Burt
3rd Place - Network Concepts, Amber Morris
3rd Place - Business Communications, Amanda Ramon
3rd Place - Computer Problem Solving, Sean Sullivan

First Place winners received plaques, and second and third place winners were presented with a medallion and ribbon.  Again, congratulations to each of you for a job very well done!  Thanks also to NKHS FBLA sponsor, Mrs. Melinda Weaver!

A Great Day with Odyssey of the Mind

On Saturday March 2 New Kent County Public Schools hosted the Rappahannock Region Odyssey of the Mind competition.  New Kent County Public Schools was well represented with eleven teams and more than 70 students participating in a variety of problems that challenge students to think creatively, to problem solve, to collaborate, and to communicate their solutions through drama, music, and art to panels of judges.

One of our New Kent parents wrote about her experience with Odyssey on the Richmond Mom website and blog.  Take a look!

All of our New Kent teams met these challenges, and seven teams from NKCPS earned first place honors in their respective divisions!  These seven teams will be advancing to the Virginia State Odyssey of the Mind competition in April.  First place teams are as follows:

New Kent Elementary School:


Division 1, ARTchitecture: the Musical
Coaches: Yvette Leeds-Bowman and Donna Mathis
Mykaella Bowman, Elena Guiterrez, Julia Hathaway, Kayla Helt, Abby Mathis, Andy Miller, Grant Stanley

Division 1, Pet Project
Coach: Linda Robinson
Billy Bull, Kiersten Fuller, Justin Jones, Courtney Kerst, Leah Robinson, Sam Robinson, Madison Kidd

Division 1, It’s How You Look at It
Coaches: Laura Beach and Holli Perez
Indy Bennett,, Sarah Cook, Isis Cutler, Campbell Gowdy, Megan Smith, Tylar Strickland, Emma West

George Watkins Elementary School:

Division I The Email Must Go Through
Coach: Dorothy Hager
Abbigail Reece, Morgan Setzer, Colin Pierce, Mea Picone, Nathaniel Hager, Eathan King and Russell Hager

New Kent Middle School/New Kent High School

Division II Pet Project
Coach: Peg Noctor
Justin Mitchell, John Richart, Jake Ferris, Jack Daniels, Abigail Bushhouse, Chloe Picone and Maggie Jarvis


Division 3 Tumblewood
Coach: Lori Eckert
Celie Collins, Josh Eckert, Tanner Dail, Amber Thomas, Brian Stevenson, Savannah Setzer, Isabelle Addison


Division 3  ARTchitecture
Coach: Mary Fyfe
Jacob Dilandro, Hailey Richart, Eve Stump, Matt Howard, Nick Parker, Rachael Phelps