Published on: Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Hispanic Heritage Month

October is Hispanic Heritage month, and Prince George’s County Public schools is celebrating through various activities and events throughout the month. Schools are hosting assemblies, multicultural nights, international dinners and musical performances. Students are learning more about Latin American culture through creative projects, essays and displays.

Catherine T. Reed students attended NASA event

Catherine T. Reed Elementary School was one of two schools in the region selected to take part in an annual event sponsored by NASA called “Living in the Atmosphere of the Sun”, which took place Sept. 19 at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Five fifth grade students, fifth grade teacher Brian Lanahan and Principal Nicole Warner met with astronauts and science executives, and saw a showing of Dynamic Earth. Speakers from Goddard Space Flight Center, Catholic University, the University of Colorado and NOAA spoke about the effect of space weather on modern society.

Morningside Public Charter School celebrates peace

Morningside Public Charter School celebrated International Day of Peace last Thursday. Students and faculty gathered outside and sang John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Students created an artistic peace wall, wrote about what peace means to them, and created peace flowers that were planted near the school. International Day of Peace was celebrated worldwide on Sept. 21.

National semifinalists

Five Prince George’s County Public School students were named semifinalists in 2013 National Achievement Scholarship Program.

Modibo Abbo, Carmin Chappell, Tommie Day and Arin Squire-Wilson from Eleanor Roosevelt High School, and also Kenechukwu Mbonu from Bowie High School have been named semifinalists. There are 800 Achievement Scholarship awards available, and finalists will be announced next spring. Students were chosen across the nation based on their performance on the 2011 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. There are 1,600 semifinalists and of these, 1,300 are expected to become finalists in January. National Achievement Scholarship winners will be chosen from this group based on their abilities, accomplishments, and potential success in college studies.

Men Make a Difference Day

On Monday, Prince George’s County Public Schools will host “Men Make a Difference Day.” Various middle and elementary schools will host events celebrating significant male role model involvement with students.

Redskins read books

On Tuesday, Sept. 25, the “Redskins Read A Book Challenge” and the “Redskins Read Across Prince George’s County” programs were launched at FedEx Field. Prince George’s County Public School students toured the stadium and rotated through six reading stations. Guest readers read excerpts from various books at each station and provided autographed copies. Students who read 10 or more books this school year will get a certificate of completion and be eligible to participate in a prize drawing. About 40,000 Redskins Read Activity books will be distributed to Prince George’s County Public Schools by the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation.

Drew-Freeman Middle School to plant trees

Drew-Freeman Middle School is one of 10 schools selected for a tree planting by Casey Trees. Casey Trees and the National Cherry Blossom Festival are donating eight trees to be planted on the school grounds. Nearly 30 students will plant the four fruit trees and four cherry trees with assistance from Casey Trees on Wednesday, Oct. 17.   

Annual PGCC art faculty exhibition

More than 75 works of art, created by 28 Prince George’s Community College art faculty are on display through Nov. 8 in the Marlboro Gallery at the Largo campus. There will be a public reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 18.

U-Md. to offer free online courses

The University of Maryland will offer four courses for free this spring on coursera.org, which is an international platform that hosts massive open online courses.

The courses being offered are Developing Innovative Ideas for Real Companies, Women and the Civil Rights Movement, Exploring Quantum Physics and Software Defined Networking.

The courses are free, but do not earn university credit. Students who complete the work can obtain a certificate from Coursera.

- Compiled by Amber Larkins