Seventh grade students from Lynbrook South Middle School recently began creating their own marble mazes during their inventor’s workshop course. Facilitated by science teacher Stephanie Reel, the full-year elective course encourages collaboration, communication, creativity, innovation and problem solving through exciting hands-on projects.
 
For their most recent project, the students were challenged to use a cereal box to build a marble maze that met specific requirements. They had to create a maze that was contained inside a cereal box and one that had a moving part, activated by the marble’s movement. In addition, the maze had to allow the marble to move freely through the box with no outside assistance at least two consecutive times. The seventh graders started their project by doing research on mazes. They then worked either independently or with a partner, using different materials such as a hot glue gun, Elmer’s glue, scissors, string, a plastic spoon and a paper cup.
 
Just like real scientists, the students practiced trial and error as they built their mazes. Once completed, the seventh graders will test their creations with a marble. The winning maze will be the one that allows the marble to move the slowest. If a marble gets stuck in the maze, that student or group will be disqualified.
 
Since the inventor workshop course is held every other day for students, each project takes about a month to complete.
 
“They enjoy it because they get to be creative, think outside of the box, problem solve and they are practicing science concepts without even realizing that they are doing it,” said Mrs. Reel. 

Sixth and eighth grade art students from Lynbrook South Middle School and Lynbrook North Middle School recently participated in an in-class workshop with a museum educator from the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the women’s suffrage movement, the Heckscher Museum of Art chose two women artists for this year’s programming which the art students learned all about.
 
Sixth grade students engaged in a mixed media project, featuring oil pastel and collage. The project was inspired by contemporary artist Sabrina Beretta. Beretta is well known for her fractured or shattered images. Eighth grade studio art students put their creativity to the test with a mixed media “fan” project that incorporated printmaking, drawing and collage, inspired by artist Miriam Schapiro.
 
The studio art classes visited the Heckscher Museum as a culmination of the program. During the eighth graders visit, the museum had three Miriam Schapiro works of art in their current exhibition. The students were able to see her creations up close, connecting to all that they learned about the artist. The museum partnership allowed the students to improve their visual literacy while also developing a greater understanding of the importance of art in everyday life. It was a great experience for all! 

Lynbrook South Middle School students enrolled in the school’s public speaking class, recently participated in a writing celebration with first grade students at Marion Street Elementary School. The eighth graders wrote their own original fables, complete with visuals. They visited first grade classes at Marion Street to share their books with the younger students. Students sat in small groups at decorated tables and enjoyed a snack as the middle school students read their original stories. It was a great day!