Monday morning news roundup

2013 holiday card
Rachel Acuna’s winning holiday card design.

A Meridian fourth-grader’s artwork will grace the state Education Department’s 2013 holiday cards.

Rachel Acuna, a student at Meridian’s Eliza Hart Spalding STEM Academy, was the winner of the state’s annual holiday card contest.

Her depiction of Santa Claus leaving presents of a Christmas tree will appear on the Education Department’s card, which is sent to schools and districts statewide. She will also receive a certificate and her own copies of the holiday card.

Other grade-level winners are as follows:

  • Kindergarten: Scarlett Stone, Pioneer School of the Arts, Meridian School District.
  • First grade: Kate McDougall, Whitman Elementary School, Lewiston School District.
  • Second grade: Jessy Wilson, Fruitland Elementary School, Fruitland School District.
  • Third grade: Lila Hess, Hagerman Elementary School, Hagerman School District.
  • Fifth grade: Matthew Mallory, Silver Sage Elementary School, Meridian School District.
  • Sixth grade: Reid Uptmar, Prairie Elementary School, Cottonwood Joint School District.

Boise school sends ornaments to D.C.

bluebird ornament
A bluebird ornament designed by Fairmont Junior High School student Ethan Seward.

Students from a Boise junior high school incorporated a little bit of Idaho — including the state horse, the appaloosa, the state bird, the bluebird, and, of course, the potato — into ornaments for the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C.

Boise’s Fairmont Junior High School was selected to provide handmade ornaments for the tree, which was unveiled Friday. The tree will feature ornaments from 56 schools, one for each U.S. state, territory and the District of Columbia.

“Working on such a project validates the students’ ideas and creative efforts and gives them a hugely meaningful sense of purpose,” said Ritta Nielsen, a visual art educator at Fairmont.

Here are more details from the Boise School District.

Boise School District graduate earns perfect score on AP exam

Maxwell Mulcahy
Maxwell Mulcahy

Boise High 2013 graduate Maxwell Mulcahy is one of only 33 students in the world to earn a perfect score on the Advanced Placement Microeconomics Exam.  Max took the AP exam last May and earned every point possible on the exam, answering every multiple-choice question correctly and earning the maximum scores on each of the essays in the free-response section of the exam. Nearly 68,0000 students worldwide took the exam.

Mulcahy is a student at the University of Virginia where he plans to double major in economics and commerce.
“I knew I had conquered the test, but it was a surprise to hear that I did it to this extreme,” Mulcahy said.

 

Idaho EdNews Staff

Idaho EdNews Staff

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