KAMSC Newsletter

We had a busy and engaging week between exams and Big Data Days, and we hope families can enjoy some well-deserved PDF—playtime, downtime, and family time—this weekend. Teachers have until Friday, January 23 to finalize semester grades. Semester 1 and Semester 2 are now visible in PowerSchool, and exam scores will continue to populate; nothing is final until next Friday afternoon. During the week of January 26–30, MTSS needs will be reviewed based on semester grades. Tutoring will begin in mid-February, though students may sign up at any time using the QR code outside the office or the link below. We are proud of all our students and appreciate the hard work and support from both students and families this semester.

Heather Kortlandt

Director, KAMSC

Our juniors and seniors participated in our yearly activity called Big Data Days on Thursday and Friday of this week. Students heard from two guest speakers. Dr. Kuruppu, Electrical and Computer engineering professor from WMU on the topic of multipurpose power electronic systems for transportation electrification. Dr. Makin, professor of computer science at WMU spoke on applying machine learning algorithms to data sets. Students also worked in groups to find data sets on alternative energies to make a claim based on their data. Six groups were asked to then present their data and claim to the student body and then the top top (judged by staff) were given some KAMSC swag.

"Research Team" is an opportunity for Juniors or Seniors here at KAMSC to further engage in research with outside mentorship. Mrs. Joyce, our research Director heads up all research activities at KAMSC including Research Team. All KAMSC students are required to do research projects as a part of their science courses but this is above and beyond that requirement and is a choice for students. These students will participate in competitions with their research. The first of which is hosted at WMU's Floyd Hall, College of Engineering on March 20th. This is called the Southwest Michigan Science and Engineering Fair. Students from anywhere in Southwest Michigan are able to submit projects to the fair (not just KAMSC). From here 10 projects will be selected to go on to the state level competition held at Lawrence Tech on April 11th. From there some students may be selected to advanced to the International Fair (ISEF--- International Science and Engineering Fair), held in May in Arizona. Here is a sneak peak at what our research team students are up to this spring semester...click the button below to view all of the projects.

Parents - of 9th,10th and 11th graders view these with your children in case they may be interested in joining Research team next year or beyond. Contact Mrs. Joyce if you have any questions!

Hannah Bippley, Sarah Cho and Aichatou Salifou, are part of the KAMSC HOSA Public Service Announcement team. They have created a public service announcement video that demonstrates different brain healthy habits that, when implemented, can help to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease as we grow older. As part of their competition, they need people to watch the PSA video and complete a survey talking about the video's impact on their opinions on brain healthy habits. Below is a flyer with QR codes for both the video and the survey on it. Please consider participating.

Mrs. Joyce has put together a comprehensive list of summer options at various intuitions around various topics. Summer is a great time to continue to enrich students! See the list below.

The KAMSC parent organization would like to invite you to keep abreast of their meeting agendas/minutes and dates so that you can be as involved as you like. It would be great to get more underclassmen parents involved so that you can help lead as some of our families "graduate" out. Click this link to review meeting minutes.

If there are any KAMSC families that ever wish to use the food pantry on the third floor, you can simply contact Mrs. Allbee, and she will work with you to get you what you need. It is all anonymous and very simple.

I hope that you all have had a chance to review our KAMSC Handbook and sign the acceptance form through PowerSchool. Here is a direct link to it again. I would invite you to be sure that you have read through the MTSS support procedures. I will pull grades to review the 3.0 requirements and use that as a gauge to get more support for students. If your child is showing that need, Mrs. Allbee or I will email you and the child to set up support provided by KAMSC. This is required for a three week interval and then we pull grades again to review. Our hope is always that that three week interval is enough support but students will sometimes move in and out of support throughout a semester. Please know, that this is meant to be a supportive measure. We take our responsibility of helping your child achieve the high standards of KAMSC seriously.

If you are dropping off or picking up your student at KAMSC, please do so at the Vine Street entrance. Please find a safe place to pull over and then have you student proceed to the Vine street entrance. If students are driving themselves:

1. They need to acquire a parking pass from the KAMSC office - please fill this out

2. They need to park by the El Sol playground off of Dutton Street (but then walk to Vine street entrance)

3. They should be reminded to not keep anything valuable in their car and to keep their cars locked at all times.

4. The building will have a campus security officer at the Vine Street entrance during times of arrivals and dismissals.

January 22 & 23 - No students - teacher records days

January 24 - HOSA Regional Competition

January 28 - Open Lab 6-7:30

January 28 - Parent Org Meeting 6:15-7:15