UCFSD | Empower each student to succeed in life and contribute to society
Mission Statement: To meet the needs of each gifted student through an enrichment program that will provide challenging learning opportunities. As advocates for our students, we emphasize the encouragement of self awareness, self motivation and life long learning in a nurturing environment.
Education - helping people understand the past in order to invent the future . . .
Teachers:
Mrs. Mary Jo Knauer - mknauer@ucfsd.net
Mr. Brian Kelley - bkelley@ucfsd.net
PA Gifted Webinars - Important Parent Information
U-PRISE Parent Information session on Gifted in UCFSD
AT - 7th Grade - Summer Reading
7th Grade AT students are asked to choose two mystery books as part of their summer reading. One of them needs to be an Agatha Christie Mystery, the other is your choice - but it must be a mystery and must be something other than an Agatha Christie! These are instead of other books, not in addition to.
We will be doing several activities with the mystery books next year - you will need to be pulling information from the books, so read carefully and thoughtfully.
Have a fun summer!!
Suggestions:
Miss Peregrine’s Series by Ranson Riggs
Kingdom Keepers - Disney at Dawn series
The Blackthorn Key series by Kevin Sands
Serefina & The Black Cloak by Beatty
Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Other mystery writers: John Grisham, Stephanie Oaks, Gennifer Choldenko, MT Anderson, April Henry and Karen McManus
You can also check out the CFPMS Library web page - under books by category there is a link to Mystery Books.
AT - 7th Grade - Summer Reading
7th Grade AT students are asked to choose two mystery books as part of their summer reading. One of them needs to be an Agatha Christie Mystery, the other is your choice - but it must be a mystery and must be something other than an Agatha Christie! These are instead of other books, not in addition to.
We will be doing several activities with the mystery books next year - you will need to be pulling information from the books, so read carefully and thoughtfully.
Have a fun summer!!
Suggestions:
Miss Peregrine’s Series by Ranson Riggs
Kingdom Keepers - Disney at Dawn series
The Blackthorn Key series by Kevin Sands
Serefina & The Black Cloak by Beatty
Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Other mystery writers: John Grisham, Stephanie Oaks, Gennifer Choldenko, MT Anderson, April Henry and Karen McManus
You can also check out the CFPMS Library web page - under books by category there is a link to Mystery Books.
News
Book Recommendation List: Check out this Link
John Hopkins - Good Books to Give a Bright Kid This Holiday - check out the link!
Congratulations to the team of Eric Steuber, Aryan Abbaraju, Josh Vallabhaneni and Akash Patel who represented Patton Middle School in the Chester County STEM Challenge. They came away with a 2nd Place award.
Congratulations to the 30+ Patton Middle School students who qualified to participate in the National Geographic School Bee. The School Champion was Arnab Sircar (3 years in a row) who represented Patton Middle School in the State Bee - Arnab took 1st place and will be representing the state of Pennsylvania in Washington DC this May!
Congratulations to the following students who represented Patton Middle School at the Chester County Science Research Competition: Saanvi Garg, Arnab Sircar, Chirag Choudhary, Marissa Lux, Kristian Tolbert, Hilary Knipe, Sree Yedida, Claire Rawlins, Teddy Eskander, Roshni Singh, and Ria Saxena .
Saanvi Garg, Arnab Sircar, Chirag Choudhary, Marissa Lux and Sree Yedida all qualified to continue on to the DelVal Science Research competition. Many came away with special awards.
Congratulations to the following students who represented Patton Middle School in the Chester County Computer Fair on April 6, 2018: Xander Wunsch, Allison Van, Grace Zou, Ryan Zhuge, Erik Chou, Arnab Sircar, and Aria Zutshi.
Aria will continue on to the PA State Computer Fair in May 2018.
Science Fair
2019 Science Fair Forms:
Form #1 - Checklist for Adult Sponsor
Form #1A - Student Checklist - Research Plan
Form #1C - Regulated Research Institutional/Industrial Setting Form
Form #2 - Qualified Scientist Form
Form #3 - Risk Assessment Form
Form #4 - Human Participants Form
Form #4 - Human Informed Consent Form
Form #5A & B - Vertebrate Animal Form
Form #6 - Human and Vertebrate Animal Tissue Form
Any questions, see Mrs. Knauer in room 218.
Reminders:
Approvals are needed if you are working with any human subjects or with animals. PAPERWORK NEEDED BY NOVEMBER 4, 2018
Approvals are also needed if you are utilizing microorganisms with the study of bacteria, viruses, viroids, prions, rickettsia, fungi and parasites or if your project involves Recombinant DNA, human and vertebrate animal fresh tissues, blood and bodily fluids or any potentially hazardous biological agents MUST HAVE PRIOR APPROVAL!!!! PAPERWORK NEEDED
Make sure you keep a hand written log of all your activity.
The top projects from each grade will participate in the Chester County Science Fair in March 2018. Any questions, please see Mrs. Knauer in room 218.
Necessary Forms: All students who are participating in the school fair MUST complete forms 1, 1A, 1B and a Research Plan. (See attachments below).
Writing Competition: Daughter's of the American Revolution: This year's contest:
2019 winner: Suhan Neema, 8th grader
Bio-Medical Essay and Poster competition: https://www.psbr.org/programs-19/essay-contest
Forensics Events Overview
The upcoming middle school forensic tournament to be held on May 2019 at the Technical College High School - Brandywine Campus, Boot Road, Downingtown, PA.
Umbrella topic: Check back - topic will be announced soon
(All events must pertain to the umbrella topic)
Debate: OPEN ONLY TO 7TH & 8TH GRADE STUDENTS: Public Forum Style, 2 person teams. Involves lots of research. Need to be organized. Requires the ability to present speeches on specific topics, ask questions, think and respond spontaneously. Must be very well prepared.
Debate topic: The US Federal Government should increase it's quota of H1B Visas. See link for more information.
Discussion: Individual event. Involves research and organizing information. Present ideas, and facts to back up ideas, on a specific topic among a group of students.
Discussion topic: Building the Wall on the southern US border will do more harm than good.
Original Prose or Poetry: Present original work incorporating facial and voice expression, as well as hand gestures. (minimum 5 minutes in length - may not exceed 8 minutes).
Oral Interpretation of Poetry: Present poetry, incorporating facial and voice expression, as well as hand gestures. (minimum 5 minutes in length - may not exceed 8 minutes).
Oral Interpretation of Prose: Present literary works, other than poetry, incorporating facial and voice expression, as well as hand gestures. (minimum 5 minutes in length - may not exceed 8 minutes).
Declamation: Memorize and present a speech written by a famous person, incorporating facial and voice expression, as well as hand gestures. (minimum 5 minutes in length - may not exceed 8 minutes).
Original Oratory: Write and present your own speech, incorporating facial and voice expression, as well as hand gestures. Must pertain to the umbrella topic (minimum 5 minutes in length - may not exceed 8 minutes).
Impromptu: Individual event. Involves speaking about a randomly selected topic. Need to be organized and have the ability to write and present a speech “on the spot”. (may not exceed 5 minutes).
Areas that the impromptu topics will be related issues.
NEW EVENT: Duo Interpretation: 2 person team memorize a script from plays, movie scripts, short stories or novels.
All UCFSD school buildings are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students and staff are currently participating in distance learning.
Spring break will continue as planned (April 6th through April 13th).
April 14th will be an in-service day for teachers - this will be a day off for students.
After Spring break students will return to distance learning on April 15th until further notice.
Please click here for the latest information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.