Oh, What a Night!

Connections 2005 rocked the River East Art Center on March 5, raising approximately $200,000 for professional development at Lab. See a slide show of the festivities and say thanks to all those who made it happen.

3-27-05

From Around the Corner and Around the World

Inquiries and registrations for Summer Lab 2005 are pouring in from all over town as well as from far-flung locations as China, Japan and Iran. Open to the community at large, not only to Lab students, Summer Lab 2005 offers Summer School, Adventure Kids Day Camp, Summer Lab on Stage and Summer Lab Sports Camps. There are full day, morning, afternoon and late-afternoon choices for children aged three to eighteen, children who, in true Lab School tradition, "celebrate both our cultural differences and our common humanity."

Be sure to get your registration in soon; programs are filling and the Early Bird Discount expires April 15!

3-10-05

Celtic Club Celebrates St. Patrick's Day

In honor of the upcoming St. Patrick's Day, U-High's Celtic Club sponsored an exhibition of Irish dancing by five lower school students, who performed in the cafeteria during middle school lunch. The audience was appreciative of the intricate footwork, the colorful outfits, and the lively music. Several Lab School students study Irish step-dancing as an extra-curricular activity at various dance schools around the city.

In another event sponsored by the Celtic Club, harpist Cynthia Shelhart played Irish tunes in the Kenwood entrance to the school as students arrived on Thursday morning. Cynthia is a well-acclaimed harpist and a former Lab School staff member. This is her second year performing at Lab.

3-10-05

Lab Explores the World of Science

There was a STARLAB Sky Show in the Hall of Astronomy, a giant cell in the Hall of Biology, bridge-building competitions in the Hall of Technology, and a hovercraft in the Hall of Physics. There were exploding eggs, cosmic rays, launching gummi bears, lava lamps, poisonous plants, giant bubbles, scientists from the University of Chicago, and students from the Laboratory Schools.

An estimated audience of over 500 Lab School students, parents, faculty and staff visited Science Expo 2005, the first all-schools celebration of science. The Halls of Astronomy, Science Fiction, Biology, Earth Science, Technology, Chemistry, and Physics contained 140 projects, presentations, activities, stories and exhibits from all areas of science. See the Program of Events for details.

Science Expo 2005, planned by Diane Snider, Mark Wagner, and Lucy Gray, with help from faculty throughout the schools, was a huge success. Mark your calendars; plans are to make this an annual event.

3-6-05

Gym Show a Hit

From football, basketball, soccer and volleyball to tumbling, tap dancing, multi-cultural games, jump rope and even swimming, this year's Gym Show had it all!

This annual event, which demonstrates the developmental progression within the lower school PE curriculum, brought together students in grades K-4 for two shows. The daytime show allowed all lower schoolers a chance to watch—and to take part in the hamster dance finale! An evening performance gave parents an opportunity to enjoy the show as well.

3-2-05

Let There Be Peace on Earth

Lobby sings usually end with the song Let There be Peace on Earth, and the February sing was no exception. View a short movie of this Lab School tradition, as students, parents, and faculty are led in song by music teachers Cathy Janovjak and En Chen, accompanied on the piano by music teacher Jo Taylor. More lobby sings are scheduled for spring quarter!

2-25-05

Middle School Production Opens

Forty-three actors and crew members present the middle school winter play, Up the Down Staircase. This production, directed by John and Lisa Biser, has a run of three performances over the weekend in Blaine 214.

Christopher Sergel's Up the Down Staircase is adapted from Bel Kaufman's 1965 novel of the same title. Kaufman's novel is also the basis for the 1967 film directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Sandy Dennis as Sylvia Barrett. The piece stands among a number of works of the period, including the film To Sir, With Love and television's Room 222, that focus on the problems that both teachers and students face in large inner-city schools. At the center of each story are individuals able to overcome mind-numbing bureaucracy, the lack of vital resources, and domestic tragedy.

Auditions for the middle school spring musical, Working, will be held after school next Tuesday and Wednesday, March 1st and 2nd. All students in grades 6-8 are invited to audition.

2-25-05

Science Team Places Fifth

On February 12, the High School Science Team placed fifth overall at the Prospect Invitational Science Olympiad. This is the best U-High's Science Team has ever done at this invitational, which showcases the best teams from across the state, including former state and national champions. U-High beat other top schools such as New Trier, Glenbrook North, and Niles West. The team won medals in Chemistry Lab, Compute This, Disease Detectives, Fermi Questions, Physics Lab, Tower Building, Wright Stuff (airplane building), and Health Science.

Team members included Matt Barber, Andrew Hoffman, Rebecca Nusbaum, Jeff Kuan, Leigh Casadaban, Zach Beatty, Sarah Constantin, Jared Spitz, Alice Easton, Katherine Zhou, Andrew Sugaya, Woody Abbott, Rebecca Resnick and others, and were led by team captain Tim He. They will compete again at the Science Olympiad regional at Niles West High School on March 5th.

2-18-05

Senior Instructional Leadership Corps

Eleven members of the Class of 2005 along with eleven master teachers from throughout the Lab Schools have begun a new program called the Senior Instructional Leadership Corps (SILC). Working with lower, middle, and high school faculty, seniors assist in the classroom with everything from reading to photography to chemistry. This opportunity gives seniors the chance to give something back to Lab and in some cases to work alongside teachers they had when they themselves were in lower grades.

So far the experiment has been a great success. As one student put it: "The kids all know me by name and seem really excited when I'm there…I think it's great when their teacher is busy with another student they can ask me their question. I'm finding the whole teaching experience to be very rewarding." A teacher wrote that her student assistant "has been very helpful and I hope to have her become more actively involved in class…We even found an old video her seventh grade class made for science!"

UHigh's SILC program is based on one operating at New Trier High School. Its goal is to enable seniors to become more involved in the life of the school even as they look toward college. For those interested in teaching or working with children it's a great way to experience what it's like to be in front of a classroom; it gives others the opportunity to work with their old teachers or in fields they might be interested in later. For everyone, it's another way to build and strengthen the Lab Schools community.

Will Dix, college counselor and advisor to the program, says that the excitement on all sides has been terrific and inspirational. "To hear the seniors say how much they enjoy assisting is great, and to hear from the teachers how well the seniors are taking responsibility is really inspiring." Each senior is keeping a journal and will share the experiences later in the year. This volunteer program is expected to expand in future years.

2-15-05

The Insider's Guide is Online

With high school registration underway, The Insider's Guide to U-High is now available online. Compiled with data from in-class surveys and one-on-one interviews, this student-produced publication helps students get a closer look at our top-notch academic program from the student's point of view.

For many of the classes offered at U-High, the guide offers a short course description, quotes from current and former students, and ratings on topics such as in-class workload and homework. The student council, who worked hard putting together The Insider's Guide, hopes students will find it useful in choosing among the more than one hundred courses offered to U-Highers.

2-14-05

Girls Basketball Takes Regional Title

The girls basketball team defeated Du Sable High School 55-36 on Thursday to earn the first IHSA girls basketball regional championship in the school's history. Congratulations to the players and to Varsity Coach Jennifer Jones and JV Coach Meghan Janda on this accomplishment!

The team advances to sectional semi-final play at 8:00 on Monday night at St. Francis deSales High School. They will face the winner of the Chicago Christian regional. Go Maroons!

2-10-05

Sneak a Peek at Connections Auction Items

Throw out the first pitch at Wrigley Field! Spend a week in Utah! Dinner and the opera! Summer homes, photography sittings, kid art and more will be up for auction at Connections 2005. Preview the auction items online, and then submit a sealed bid or join us on March 5th for the Lab Schools' annual fundraising gala.

2-09-05

Chinese New Year

To the beat of drums and gongs, a dragon danced down the Blaine hallways in celebration of Chinese New Year. Students joined the parade, with hats and dragon puppets of their own making. The dragon costume was supplied and worn by a contingent from the Chicago Dragon Athletics Association of Chinatown.

This long-standing tradition was begun by former Lab Schools Director, Lucinda Lee Katz.

2-09-05

Students Prepare for Science Expo

Want to see exploding eggs, launching gummi bears, a nuclear chain reaction (simulated), a hovercraft, a giant cell? Students are preparing all this and more for Science Expo 2005, the first annual school-wide celebration of science. All Lab School families and friends are welcome on Saturday, February 26 from 1:00 to 5:00. There will be student projects from the third grade through high school, parent scientist presentations, science demos, sky shows, kid activity tables, Science Jeopardy, Kool Chemistry, a bridge-building competition, and more!

Students are asking questions such as, "What is the effect of doodling on learning?" "Are dogs right- or left-pawed?" "How much do you shrink during the day?" "How good is the traction of your shoes?" They are investigating a wide variety of topics, including bacteria in the house, saving the sea turtles, non-newtonian fluids, the power of suggestion, recycling, cookie mining, making a mummy, global warming, and fingerprints. They are making models that simulate erupting volcanoes, plate techtonics, and tsunamis. All these exhibits will be on display at Science Expo 2005.

2-04-05

Middle School Spirit Day

View a slide show of the student-faculty volleyball game that took place during Middle School Spirit Day. Grades five through eight each fielded a team that squared off against a squad of their teachers for a hard-fought ten-minute game. High school students were on hand to referee and to operate the clock and scoreboard.

Spirit Day continued after school, as fans packed Sunny Gym to watch the girls basketball teams take on Morgan Park Academy. The seventh grade team, coached by Lab grad Tai Duncan, won 38-14 and improved their season record to 10-3. The eighth graders, coached by teacher Allison Gerds, defeated MPA 41-23 and now have an overall season record of 14-1. Go Maroons!

1-28-05

Senior Getaway

Seniors departed in a blizzard for Galena on their annual Getaway Weekend. Ninety-eight students and 16 chaperones swam, skied (both cross-country and downhill), skated, bowled, shopped, played games (including father-daughter sumo wrestling), watched movies, and ate! This trip has been a U-High tradition since 1988.

1-26-05

Favorite Composers

With violin, piano, clarinet, and voice, sometimes in concert with a parent, lower school students performed their favorite music in Blaine Lobby on Thursday. This before-school event, orchestrated by the lower school music teachers, allowed twenty second-to-fourth graders to pay homage to their favorite composers, and entertain students on their way to class.

1-23-05

Summer Lab Registration Opens

Online registration is now available for Summer Lab, the Laboratory Schools' six-week summer program. Information about Summer School, Adventure Kids Day Camp, Summer Lab Sports Camps, Summer Lab on Stage, and the Lab Adventurer Field Study is available on the newly-designed Summer Lab web site.

Registration is open until April 29th, with an early-bird discount to those who register before April 15th. This year's summer program runs from June 20th to July 29th.

Whether your children's interests are dramatic, historic, artistic, mathematic, scientific, athletic or adventure-ific, Summer Lab strives to embody the notion that love of learning is an appetite that never wanes—particularly not on vacation!

1-16-05

A Work in Progress

Students are creating an underwater world on the second floor of the middle school. This project began last year, when teachers Allison Gerds and Peggy Doyle saw an opportunity in the stark white walls of the middle school lounge area to paint a mural that would personalize the space and make it more appealing to the people who frequent it.

It was important to Ms. Gerds and Ms. Doyle that this particular mural be the work of student artists, from concept to the design phase, and all the way through the actual painting. They helped lead the students in extensive brainstorming sessions last winter. The underwater theme was chosen for the fun array of colors and creatures it could incorporate. The students felt that, of all the possibilities discussed, underwater felt the least reminiscent of school in general, offering viewers a momentary escape from school as they pass by the lounge. The variety of the creatures depicted nicely represents the individuality of the different artists who made them, while being harmoniously united by the theme.

Once the production phase began, art teacher Brian Wildeman became the faculty sponsor of the weekly activity project in which the painting is done. All of the work has been completely voluntary, with about twenty individual students, mostly eighth graders this year, contributing their efforts at one point or another. They hope to complete the project by graduation this spring. Stop by the middle school lounge for a look!

1-11-05

Students Play in the Snow

Lab school students broke out the warm clothes to enjoy last week's snowfall. Woodlawn nursery schoolers went sledding, made snow angels and snowmen, shoveled show, and even threw snowballs!

1-10-05

Chicago Buildings on Display

For ten years, students in Joyce Carrasco's third grade classroom have been constructing their favorite Chicago building or landmark. Buildings from the class of 2004-05 will be on display in Blaine Library from January 10-14, and can also be viewed in an online slide show.

As a part of their study of the history of Chicago, Mrs. Carrasco's students have studied the impressive skyline for its many historical images. The Sears Tower, The Water Tower, The Hancock Building, Buckingham Fountain and Wrigley Field have been joined this year by the Pritzker Pavillion at Millenium Park and for the first time ever, the Morton Salt Factory. With help and encouragement from parents, Carrasco's students have built amazing structures from cereal boxes, Pringle Cans, clay, toothpicks and an array of architectural supplies.

1-07-05

Lab Faculty Getting Physical

PE teacher Diane Taylor has created an exhibit that profiles faculty members who exercise on a regular basis. Forty-four faculty, staff, and administrators answered two questions: "What is your exercise program?" and "What is the reason you work out?" Their answers and photos are on display in the hallway of Sunny Gym.

For reasons of health, well-being, and competition, Lab's adult community keeps fit by walking, running, lifting weights, swimming and biking; doing aerobics, pilates and yoga; using the stairmaster, elliptical machine and rower; even fencing, playing tennis, roller blading and ice skating. Many take advantage of the fitness center, which is open daily for faculty from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m.

The exhibit will be on display until mid-January. Stop by and check out your favorite teachers!

1-04-05