math

Math + Students + Fun = QUIZ BOWL

Dr. Hubert Huang ~ Upper School Teacher

Dr. Hubert Huang ~ Upper School Teacher

~ Dr. Hubert Huang, Upper School Teacher, Guest Blogger

As a new mathematics faculty at Logos Academy, I feel blessed to be able to serve God while doing what I am passionate about: teaching. Prior to coming to Logos Academy, I worked for four years at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, PA where my wife was completing her residency program in OBGYN. Although my primary responsibilities included designing curriculum, assessments, and workshops, teaching physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers, performing data analyses, and providing consultative services as a research statistician, I was also fortunate to be able to work with youth. The two programs I most enjoyed working with was a dual-enrollment program for high school seniors interested in healthcare careers and a competitive undergraduate summer research program. Before my wife’s residency, I was a high school teacher at York Suburban and Northeastern. Among the academic programs I started at both high schools were quiz bowl, Model United Nations, and a robust AP human geography and AP U.S. history program. I believe deeply that these academic extracurricular activities are important to developing academically strong students and a culture of high achievement.

Here at Logos Academy, we have several academic competition teams starting up this fall, most notable quiz bowl. So what is quiz bowl exactly? Quiz bowl is an academic competition that can be described as team Jeopardy! although unlike Jeopardy!, quiz bowl focuses on more content and subjects aligned with school curricula. BrainBusters on channel WGAL on Saturday mornings gives you a comparatively better idea of what Quiz Bowl is. screen-shot-2016-11-10-at-7-51-16-amWhile Quiz Bowl covers the middle school and high school curriculum, including American and world literature, physics, chemistry, mathematics, history, theology, music, art, and current events, it often requires students to dig deeper into these subject areas than they would normally do so in their classes. Academic extracurricular activities such as Quiz Bowl offer students the opportunity to take what they are learning in the classroom here at Logos Academy and apply it in collaborative, fun, and competitive environments. Research suggests that participation in extracurricular activities promotes greater academic achievement.

screen-shot-2016-11-10-at-7-51-31-amIn a standard quiz bowl match, two teams of four players face off against each other and compete to answer pyramidal toss-up questions (questions with three- to five-sentence clues that start out difficult and become increasingly easier) and associated bonus questions. Players each have a buzzer that they may “buzz in” as soon as they want to answer. This rewards players’ breadth and depth of knowledge rather how fast they can press a buzzer.

Every third Tuesday of the month Logos Academy is hosting a faculty-student Quiz Bowl match in the auditorium from 3:45pm to 4:30pm. Parents, students, and the community are welcome to come see what Quiz Bowl is about! Besides Quiz Bowl, Logos Academy will also be participating in Envirothon, Math Olympiad, Science Olympiad, and National History Day this year.

2016-2017 Schedule for Logos Academy Academic Teams (subject to change)

  • Pennsylvania Central Region Science Olympiad at Millersville
  • York County Envirothon at John Rudy Park
  • Math Olympiad
  • Moody’s Mega Math Challenge
  • Lehigh University High School Math Contest
  • Faculty-Student Matches
  • Manheim Township Academic Challenge at Manheim Township HS
  • Manheim Township Middle School Quiz Bowl Tournament at Manheim Township HS
  • Regional High School and Middle School Science Bowl at City College of New York
  • Penn State Spring Academic Bowl at Penn State University, University Park
  • Conestoga Valley Quiz Bowl Tournament at Conestoga High School
  • Pennsylvania Academic Challenge
Logos AcademyNov 10 , , , , , 1 Comment

What is the Classical Tradition of Education?

Jesse blog

Education in ancient Greece aimed at the formation of free individuals who were in control of their own thoughts and feelings and who loved to search for beauty and truth in all areas of life and the world. We get our modern word “school” from the Greek word scholé which means “leisure time spent in contemplation, study, prayer, celebration or worship.”

In contrast to this tradition, today’s prevailing models of education have their origin in Prussian educational reforms during the 1800s. These were inspired by the factories of the industrial revolution and ideas of mass production. They had the goal of creating a national workforce for a growing industrial state, and American educational reformers such as Horace Mann brought these ideas and practices to public schools in the United States. Even with the work of later school reformers such as John Dewey and the current quest for technological solutions in the classroom, American public education has continued to focus on “large-scale” and “efficient” responses to personal and human needs.

Our classical tradition of education at Logos Academy keeps us focused on the development of the most important human capacities within each individual student. We love the whole and diverse human story and what it means for each child in our school.

So how does this classical tradition look in our classrooms?

  • Teachers use the natural love of children for song, movement, and story to encourage wonder while teaching basic skills and giving their students a rich treasury of information about the Bible, science, world geography and folk stories from many cultures.
  • Our curriculum map integrates the curriculum horizontally from year to year, with students covering the entire human story twice between kindergarten and graduation. We also integrate horizontally across subject areas at each grade level. For example, second grade students investigate Nile River flood patterns, create models and give reports to their classmates, using the human story to integrate across earth science, history, and writing.
  • All students master critical thinking and conversation skills through exercises such as debate and Socratic dialogue where they are regularly expected to ask creative and meaningful questions.
  • Our middle school students parse Latin sentences while they learn about the roots of modern languages such as Spanish and English and gain valuable self-discipline as students.
  • We teach math and science at all grade levels as a great story of collaborative problem solving across time as well as a way to showcase God’s glory throughout creation.
  • All students spend time enjoying and imitating great works from the visual and performing arts (in music, poetry, painting, sculpture, digital design, and theater).
  • Our high school students study logic and rhetoric as they master writing, communication, and presentation skills. Their education culminates in a senior thesis project where they share research and deliver a constructive challenge to our learning community before school board members, community partners, and peers.

We are grateful to have you partnering with us in this exciting venture. To learn more about the classical tradition of education, consider some of these resources:

  1. A Student’s Guide to Classical Education: One Student’s K-12 Journey by Zoë Perrin
  2. Wisdom and Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm for Classical Learning by Robert Littlejohn and Charles T. Evans
  3. The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had by Susan Wise Bauer
Logos AcademyFeb 15 , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Meet Graham

GrahamGraham came to Logos Academy in 7th grade after tumultuous years at both suburban private and public schools. Although his IQ was very high, he struggled to learn in these educational settings, especially when it came to math. His teacher at Logos worked with him, encouraged him, supported and loved him through that challenging 7th grade year. She provided hope and opportunity that ultimately provided Graham with an excellent education. On the last day of school that year, Graham gave her a note thanking her for helping him fight his fear and learn to like math. Now in 11th grade, he has consistent A’s in advanced math, but more importantly, he knows that he can do it. He sees himself as a scholar, eager to learn and and see the beauty in the world. Graham is a photographer and musician and shares those talents with Logos. The Vibrant Learning Community at Logos gave him that gift that he will carry with him.

Logos AcademyFeb 09 , , , , , , 2 Comments
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