Middle School

Middle School students in Drew Bowen’s drama club traveled to Southwest Elementary School this semester and provided eight creative writing workshops for first and third grade students. The Durham Academy students began each session by leading the elementary school kids in energetic, warm-up games that encouraged kids to express themselves and use their imaginations.

The group provided a much needed creative outlet that is lacking at many schools like Southwest, which have recently cut or do not offer classes in art, drama, music and dance. The DA students then worked one-on-one with the kids, helping them create their own original characters. Using these characters, the kids had the chance to write their own stories.

Middle School students don’t just know geography, they can reel off answers to challenging geography questions before the entire MS in a game-show-style competition that’s part of the National Geographic Bee.  Durham Academy held its 11th annual geographic bee on January 28, with 10 students competing for the opportunity to advance to state-level competition and to the national finals in Washington, D.C.

Fifth graders Davis Cromer and Drew Hantzmon; sixth grader Mollie Zoffer; seventh graders Lauren Hunt, Will Wiener and Rob Ziglar; and eighth graders Mark Cohen, James Grubbs, Amanda McClure and Justin Warren qualified for the competition through classroom rounds that involved every Middle School student.  Sixth grader Collin Brown also qualified, but was sick and unable to attend school the day of the bee.  James Grubbs was the alternate and took Collin’s place.

One hundred-and-seventy Durham Academy Middle School students participated in the 2010 American Math Competitions annual contest for middle school on November 16.  The AMC8 is a 25-question multiple choice test that is produced by the math department at the University of Nebraska.  Approximately 300,000 students take the test nationwide.

Eighth grader Abhi Kodumagulla achieved the top score in the Middle School by answering 21 problems correctly.  Jack Fitzpatrick and Hank Tucker tied for second place among eighth graders with 18 correct answers.  Third place in the eighth grade went to Gabe Fox-Peck with 17 correct answers.  

Jon Meredith, an educator with 14 years experience in independent schools, had been named director of Durham Academy’s Middle School.  He will follow Sid DuPont, who has served as interim MS director since 2008.

Jon began his career in independent education at Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., taught at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Ga., and currently is serving as middle school principal at Frederica Academy in St. Simon’s Island, Ga.  He has taught world cultures, ancient history and world history, and has coached crew, lacrosse and football.  He served for 13 years as a counselor at a seven-week overnight camp for boys in New Hampshire.

Durham Academy Outdoor Club observed “Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day” with a late October ride through Lake Crabtree Park in Wake County.  “We had 20 students from three different school divisions, seven parent riders and Middle School p.e. teachers Susan Ellis, Jon Lantzy and myself,” said Mike Keeney, event organizer and MS history teacher.  “It was beautiful weather, no one got hurt and everyone had smiles on their faces at the end of the ride!” 

For families looking for a place to ride mountain bikes, Mike recommends Lake Crabtree County Park as “the ideal location for all abilities, though it tends to cater to beginner and intermediate riders.” 

By Drew Bowen
Middle School Drama

The Middle School community had a special treat last week when professional musician and storyteller Josh Goforth came to visit. The western North Carolina native captivated the crowd with his hilarious storytelling, impressive musicianship and joyful spirit. During his performance Josh introduced us to his tobacco-chewing grandfather, played and sang a 400-year-old traditional English ballad, and accompanied himself on guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin.

In the words of seventh grade student Matt Mosca, “I really enjoyed his performance. He combined his talent on the stringed instruments with his good stories. I especially liked his story about his grandpa’s moat.”

By Virginia Hall

History, Fifth Grade

For most of September, Durham Academy was fortunate to have a giant traveling map of Asia on loan from National Geographic. The map, nicknamed “Genghis,” measured 26' x 33'.

DA's hard-working maintenance staff, with the assistance of Middle School Director Sid DuPont, carefully rolled out the map on the floor of Taylor Hall soon after it was delivered the last week of August. It would be the first of many times our maintenance crew dutifully laid the map out in our busy auditorium (in order to fit on the floor, the new seats of Taylor Hall had to be pushed back and folding chairs had to be put away; this was quite a task!).

A new page on Durham Academy’s web site provides a gateway to international travel led by DA faculty.  From Middle School through Upper School, during spring break or summer vacation, there are numerous opportunities for students to expand their horizons through travel. Practice your Spanish or French, explore ancient Rome, hike to Machu Picchu or participate in an exchange program in Australia.  Check out DA’s international travel page to learn about these opportunities and more!   

The beautiful photo at right, taken in Durham Academy’s Middle School garden, appeared in The Herald-Sun “nature snapshots” section on August 28.  The photographer was MS French teacher Teresa Engebretsen, who joined with science teacher Barb Kanoy last fall to start GRO Club.  MS students enthusiastically supported GRO Club and the result is a beautiful garden adjacent to the Academy Road board room!

“We planted a garden in what had been an empty space on campus,” Teresa wrote in a photo caption that appear in The Herald-Sun. “We have flowers, fruit and vegetables in our beautiful space.  The flowers attracted this butterfly who paid me no attention whatsoever as I took his photo.”

Kudos to Teresa Engebretsen, Barb Kanoy, Gary Brichford of the maintenance staff and students and parents who helped to create this beautiful garden! 

Middle School band director Jeff Zentner was invited to be a guest conductor and clinician at an adult music festival in Georgia. The five-day festival in April was sponsored by the New Horizons Band of Roswell, Ga., and drew about 150 musicians from all over the United States and Canada, including several from the Triangle area.

Jeff was one of 10 clinicians asked to work with various musical groups and was the only one from North Carolina. The festival featured two large concert bands, five jazz/swing bands, six German bands, four Dixieland bands and several small brass and woodwind ensembles. Classes were also taught in jazz improvisation, with each of the attending musicians participating in two to four groups. Jeff was assigned to coach two jazz/swing bands and a German band. He also was responsible for conducting the three groups in concerts held on the last two nights.

Congratulations to seventh and eighth grade Spanish students from Durham Academy who achieved national recognition for their excellent performance on the 2010 National Spanish Examinations.

Of the 129 DA seventh and eighth grade Spanish students who took the national exam, there were four gold, 15 silver and 19 bronze medals, as well as 42 honorable mentions. Special recognition goes to seventh graders Priyanka Purohit, Erin Seewaldt-Dietze, Amanda McClure and Derek Brown, who scored in or above the 95th percentile.

Durham Academy’s Science Olympiad varsity team came home from state competition with a seventh place team finish and lots of medals.

“In a field of 46 teams from across the state, our team came in seventh place,” said Kari Newman, head coach of the DA varsity team. “Twelve of our 18 students got medals, including a first place in Ecology!”

Thanks to a poster created by Durham Academy fifth grader Katie Concannon, students across North Carolina and Virginia have become aware of the Rockhopper penguin, an endangered series. Katie’s colorful and informative poster won the NC Zoo Endangered Species Poster Contest for her age group.

Lower School art teacher Fran Savarin sponsored Katie in the poster contest. In addition to her artwork, Katie had to submit written information about the Rockhopper penguin and why the species is endangered.

Middle School French teacher Teresa Engebretsen took 16 Durham Academy students to France over spring break.  You can read about their adventures cooking and eating French cuisine in this article in the Herald-Sun.  Teresa is a regular food columnist for the Herald-Sun and also writes a food blog.  Teresa’s newspaper column and her blog are called “The Sabbatical Chef,” a reference to fall semester 2008, when she was awarded a semester sabbatical from DA and spent that time as a chef’s assistant in Arles, France.

Eighth grader Ian Concannon, winner of Durham Academy’s National Geographic Bee, has qualified for the North Carolina’s National Geographic Bee. Each school-level winner takes a written test to qualify for the state competition. Ian will compete April 9 in the state-level National Geographic Bee, with hopes of advancing to the national bee in Washington, D.C.

North Carolina’s National Geographic Bee is in Lenoir this year. “That would be a nice geography lesson heading west!” observed Virginia Hall, fifth grade history teacher and organizer of DA’s National Geographic Bee.

Durham Academy’s Science Olympiad teams have been preparing for regional competition for months. The teams got even more time to prepare when a snowstorm bumped the competition from February 13 to March 20.

They’ve constructed bridges, trajectories, trebuchets, water rockets that carry eggs, mousetrap vehicles, birds, planes and, of all things, salad dressings. And they have studied physics, anatomy, cell biology, forensics, chemistry, astronomy, ecology and various applications of those sciences.

A winter of record snowfalls in Washington, D.C., didn’t keep Durham Academy’s seventh grade from making its annual trip to the nation’s capital. Seventh graders and their teachers piled on to buses early on February 17 for a three-day, two-night adventure in Washington.

They had tours of the White House and the United States Capitol, visited museums and memorials along the National Mall and participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

The seventh grade has traveled to Washington since 1982, with the exception of two years following the 9/11 attacks when heightened security resulted in a trip to Williamsburg, Va.

Middle School students don’t just know geography, they can reel off answers to challenging geography questions in a game-show-style competition that’s part of the National Geographic Bee.  Durham Academy held its ninth annual geo bee in early January, with 10 students competing for the opportunity to advance to state-level competition and to the national finals in Washington, D.C.

Durham Academy Middle Schoolers have been recognized for their achievement on the American Mathematics Contest 8 (AMC 8) for students in eighth grade and below. The AMC 8 is a 25 question, 40 minute multiple choice test designed to promote the development and enhancement of problem solving skills. Approximately 250,000 students take the test each year, and DA students have been participating for 14 years.

Students achieving the highest scores were:

Members of the Durham Academy chess team participated in a k-5 (U1100) regional tournament on December 13 and won first, second and third places! This was a “Heads Up” tournament meaning that the players are seeded according to team rank, much like tennis matches.

Team A, placing first, consisted of fifth grader John Heaney, fourth graders Robert Hellinga and Elias Tymas and second grader Christopher Chaves. Team B, placing second, was comprised of fifth grader Nijel Hunt, fourth graders Ian Layzer and Scott Hallyburton and second grader Will Staples. Finishing up in third place was Team C, whose members are fourth grader Eric Bradford, fifth grader Xavier Nonez, third graders Sheridan Kum and Jesse Tymas and second grader Leo Strebel. Congratulations to all of the team members!

A community service project initiated by Middle School administrative assistant Anna Tabor is touching children thousands of miles away.  Spc. Kelly LeCompte of the 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team posted this article about what the donated toys have meant to children in Iraq.  Thanks for the generosity of MS students, Anna shipped 12 large boxes of stuffed toys to Iraq!   

By Jeff Parkin

Middle School Counselor

In all ways – from perfect fall weather to an outpouring of effort and generosity – the Middle School’s community service half day on October 21 was a huge success.  The day’s collective work was a wonderful testament to the Margaret Mead quote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

by Jennifer Longee

Middle School Librarian and English teacher

On September 18 the sixth grade class attended a talk by Duke Professor and Durham Academy parent Dr. Margaret Humphreys at the Durham Public Library on the links between Renaissance science and the Harry Potter novels.  Dr. Humphreys designed a special presentation just for Durham Academy students in conjunction with the traveling exhibit Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine now showing at the library.

Outdoor education is an important part of the Durham Academy experience. Middle School and Upper School students begin the school year with off-campus adventures. Here are photos from the Middle School trips.

In an effort to trim expenses and save trees, the Middle School newspaper is now an online publication with a link on the MS web page.  This new format allows students to publish news in a more timely manner than the traditional print publication.