Education

The Kee High School Music and Drama Departments will be presenting a pair of one-act musicals this weekend as the school's annual musical production for this school year. "Big Bad Musical," which is about fairytale characters taking Big Bad Wolf to court, and the "Cinderella Musical" are both plays that will be interactive with the children in attendance. The "Big Bad Musical" book is by Alex Strum with music and lyrics by Bill Francoeur. It is produced by special arrangement with Pioneer Drama Service, Inc., Englewood, CO. The Prince Street Players LTD production of "Cinderella" is based on the Fairy Tale of Charles Perrault, with adaptation and lyrics by Jim Eiler and music by Jim Eiler and Jeanne Bargy. The Cinderella-Prince Street Players Version is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).

Waukon Middle and High School teachers and students showcased numerous projects they have worked on throughout the school year during spring parent/teacher conferences last week. The new annual event is called “Pride Projects.” The hallways of the middle and high school were lined with tables, display boards and projects that students explained, such as those pictured above and below. Staff and students were excited to show robotics, green screen projects, health activities, video presentations, mentoring experiences, math, reading and science projects, as well as band and chorus. The collaborative event was open to all parents and the community to view and interact with during spring conferences held Monday, March 20 and Tuesday, March 21. Photos and information courtesy of the Allamakee Education Association.
 

In today's world, people, animals and materials move around the planet in record numbers and speed. These same advances that make modern infrastructure so efficient have made epidemics and even pandemics inevitable; and as outbreaks of Ebola, MERS, yellow fever, Zika and influenza have demonstrated, the planet is woefully underprepared for the fallout.

Luther College in Decorah will host Waukon native Michael Osterholm, University of Minnesota Regents Professor and McKnight Endowed Presidential Chair in Public Health, for the first Dr. David J. Roslien Distinguished Lecture in Science and Leadership at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 4 in the Center for Faith and Life Main Hall on the Luther campus.

Osterholm's lecture, "Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs," is open to the public with no charge for admission. His critically acclaimed book by the same title was published March 14.

by Brianne Eilers

The Allamakee Community School District (ACSD) Board of Directors met for its regular monthly meeting Monday evening, March 20. Prior to the meeting, board members were invited to attend a presentation from the Industrial Arts class at Waukon High School, where they viewed the CNC Plasma Cutter in action as instructor Brian Hilsabeck and student Trevor Brink showed how the machine is used. Hilsabeck noted that project-based learning is a major focus.

Instructor Jed Hemann also gave a brief presentation on the projects his classes have worked on due to the fact that there is no house building project this year. Projects have included the concession stand at the Waukon City Park, improvements to the press box and concessions stand at the high school and the shot put area at the high school.

The Kee High School Speech program had five students perform in multiple categories at the State Individual Speech Contest held at Waldorf College in Forest City Saturday, March 11, with one of those performances being selected for All-State recognition. Kee senior MaKayla Manning (pictured at above right) had her expository address, entitled “EMOJI,” selected to advance on and perform at the All-State Individual Speech Festival being held Monday, March 27 at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. There were 93 schools that performed at the March 11 Northeast State Contest and five expository address speakers were selected to perform at All-State with the other 17 top expository address speakers from across the entire state. The All-State Speech Festival is a showcase honoring the best speakers in their events from the entire state.

The Honors English 11 class at Waukon High School has been working on a 20% time project this semester. The project is designed after the concept used by the 3M company that had its employees take 20% of their work time to work on something other than their regular duties. Sticky Notes are a result of 3M’s 20% time. The Honors English students were given 20% of their class time to work on an individual project not assigned in their course work. Monday and Tuesday, March 13 and 14, the students presented their project ideas, goals and completion timeline to classmates, faculty and community members (some of which are pictured in the photos above and below). The projects will be finalized at the end of the semester with a finished product which will be presented in TED talks in the high school auditorium. Photos and information courtesy of the Allamakee Education Association.
 

The sixth grade students at Waukon Middle School have been busy working on a career unit in English. They have completed research to write a report, created dioramas to display work environments and made posters to display the facts and information they found throughout their research of a career they would be interested in pursuing. The sixth grade students presented their projects at the annual career fair Friday, March 3, some of which are pictured in the above photos. The goal of the unit is to get students excited about education and thinking about their futures. Photos and information courtesy of the Allamakee Education Association.
 

Four students at Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) were honored at the 2017 All-Iowa Academic Team Recognition Banquet held in Des Moines March 1. The annual ceremony recognizes exceptional community college student scholars who are members of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, the world's largest and most prestigious honor society for two-year college students. Students from each of the state’s 15 community colleges were invited to attend.

Among those honored students was Jacqueline Welch of Waukon, who is a Business Specialist and Pre-Nursing student at the Calmar campus. Welch is a Phi Theta Kappa All-USA Scholarship Nominee and was named to the Dean’s List at NICC. After graduation, she plans to transfer to Upper Iowa University. She is a 2015 graduate of Waukon High School and the daughter of Kim and Amy Welch of Waukon.

Youth got their hands a little sticky when investigating how to make a better play dough recently. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach partnered with the Community Connections 21st Century Learning Center (CCLC) Kids Club at West Elementary and Waterville Elementary schools to bring to life the "Engineering is Elementary: Improving a Play Dough Process" curriculum. Youth in both settings started with exploring “good” and “bad” play dough. They were able to feel and explain the differences and what made each one good or bad. Next, they moved to learning about the ingredients, which include salt, flour and water. The youth experimented with each ingredient and how it affected the play dough, such as too much water made it very sticky but to compensate they could add more flour.  They also discussed the order of their recipe and how much of each ingredient to add.

Finding a rewarding and well-paying career in life starts with a plan and having opportunities to learn about different occupations firsthand from individuals who work in the field. This was the motivation for the third annual Career Workshop event at Waukon High School February 10, which was developed in partnership between Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC), Allamakee County Economic Development (ACED) and Waukon High School.