Icy Roads and Salt

On a day like today, when the roads are a combination of snow, sleet, and ice, you might get the curious question from so many kids: “Why are the putting salt on the road?”


The answer is: Freezing Point Depression. A common example is the lowering of the freezing point of water (a solvent) when salt is added (solute). The combination of salt and water freezes at a lower temperature than 32 degrees Fahrenheit resulting in a slushy road-way and not a frozen one. A great way to experience this phenomenon with your kids at home is making ice cream in a bag. You’ll use rock salt and ice to get a solution that is below the freezing point of your favorite ice cream ingredients (mine include the whole milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla). Put the ice cream mixture into a sealable sandwich bag, put that in another sealable freezer bag, add ice and salt, close and mix for 20 or so minutes.

The following sites have some great instructions that are easy to follow:

http://crafts.kaboose.com/ice-cream-in-a-bag.html

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/homemade-ice-cream-in-a-bag-684806/

http://www.ehow.com/how_4879437_ice-cream-bag-minutes.html

~Dean Whitfield
Math and Science Department Chair

הכל התחיל משיר לט"ו בשבט

לפני כשבועיים חשבתי לשתף את חבריי לעבודה בשיר ספר שמתאים לט"ו בשבט. כוונתי הייתה ללמוד אותו מחדש עם חבריי לעבודה. "הקולגות" אהבו מאד את השיר וחשבו שאולי כדאי יהיה לנו ללמד את התלמידים שלנו את השיר.

התהליך החינוכי התחיל "שם". ישבנו חבריי ואני למדנו ונתחנו את השיר. הרעיונות עלו ושצפו אותנו את מוחנו ואת רגשותינו והתאהבנו מחדש. נשאלה השאלה, כיצד נוכל לרגש את התלמידים ולגרום להם להתאהב בשיר וברעיונותיו ...

כעבור שבוע,

חגיגת ט"ו בשבט. שחקנית בקהילה מציגה מונולוג של השיר. סופר ומשורר מהקהילה לימד את הילדים לכתוב שיר חדש תוך שימוש בפורמט שהשיר הקיים מציע. אני שרה את השיר ומורה אחר מלווה אותי בפסנתר.

תלמידים מציגים את שיריהם מול חבריהם בבית ספר.

הכל התחיל משיר אחד קטן אך גדול של , נתן זך, "כי האדם עץ השדה".

אנחנו אנשי חינוך אחראיים ללמד לעניין ולרגש את התלמידים שלנו, להעניק להם חוויה משמעותית שתשמש להם מקפצה לחשיבה גבוהה, ביקורתית ומעמיקה יותר.

הכל התחיל משיר קטן ובהחלט לא נגמר "שם"

~Beatrice Maimon

Hebrew Instructor

On Snow Days

One of the “benefits” of working at a school is the deliciousness of snow days and delays. As much as anyone loves school (and believe me, teachers at schools like Cardin do!) there’s nothing quite as precious as an extra hour of sleep in the morning, often unexpected, sometimes anticipated. Snow days not only provide a break to the monotony that can so easily characterize the dark days of January and February, they also remind us of our place in the universe – there’s a lot we can control, but certainly not everything. “Weather events” serve as a warning that we humans are limited, and to some extent we must accept this and deal with it. Our attitude can affect our experience: if we think only of the clearing of our cars, we will miss out on the winter wonderland that glistens around us. Something I’ve learned to appreciate in my years at Cardin is how our head of school determines what will be the school’s response: we have time off when we genuinely need it, not as a reflexive reaction to the threat of snow. A week ago, snow was predicted but no more than a dusting appeared – but Baltimore and Howard Counties had decided too early and delayed school for what was essentially a non-happening. In the case of Cardin, we reacted to the actual event and didn’t lose valuable school time. On Wednesday, January 12, 2011, however, we did open two hours late, and the sun dazzling off the snow lit up the many classrooms with large windows.

~Leslie Smith Rosen
Dean of General Studies

Snowy Trivia

As we progress into winter, we are constantly surrounded by rumors of snow. Students everywhere are wearing their pajamas inside out in hopes of having a snow day.

Here are some Snowy Science Facts:
 It’s not true that no 2 snowflakes are alike.
 Snowflakes are composed of crystals—the more crystals, the larger the snow flake.
 There are 6 main types of snowflakes: columns, needles, plates, dendrites, columns with plates, and irregular.
 One year Valdez, Alaska received 260 inches of snow.
 New York State has the snowiest cities in the United States (you can vouch for this if you’ve been to Buffalo).
 To be classified as a blizzard, wind speeds must reach 35 mph and visibility less than a ¼ mile.
 Billions of snowflakes will fall during a single storm.
 The average snowflake falls at 3.1 mph.

~Ms. Alexandra Sloane
Science Instructor

Tu B'Shevat in Israel

חודש שבט הוא החודש האחד עשר אם מתחילים את השנה לפי חודש ניסן שהוא החודש הראשון לפי התורה, והחודש החמישי אם מתחילים את השנה מחודש תשרי שהוא החודש הראשון לפי הלוח היהודי.
המשנה קבעה את ט"ו בשבט כראש השנה לאילנות. מימי התלמוד ועד עתה ט"ו בשבט נקבע כחג.

במשך הזמן, החג קיבל צביון עממי, ומנהג אכילת פירות יבשים מארץ ישראל נשתרש בחג. בישראל תלמידי בתי הספר יוצאים למקומות שונים ונוטעים עצים
.
ט"ו בשבט הוא החג המדגיש את הקשר שלנו לארץ ישראל.
רבים הם הילדים והילדות שהשם שלהם קשור לטבע כמו: טבע, סתיו, שחר,
לעצים כמו: אילן- אילנה, אורן- אורנית, שקד, גפן ועוד...
לפרחים כמו: נופר, שושנה, ורד,
למים כמו: יובל, ירדן, ימית, אביטל,
בגולה נוהגים לתרום כסף לקרן הקיימת לישראל האחראית על נטיעת העצים ביערות ישראל.

~Zohara Chaban
Hebrew Instructor

The Voladores de Papantla

I spent winter break in Mexico city from Dec. 25th until Dec. 31. Mexico D.F.,usually hustling and bustling with traffic and people, quiets down
significantly. Business activities slow down, or close down for Christmas
celebrations. Driving into the city from Metepec,(where I was staying)can
take up to two hours. With so many people out of the city I was able to
reach the center of Mexico D.F. in about half the time. On Thursday, Dec. 30 I visited the Museum of Anthropology. The voladores de papantla were perfoming their ritual ceremony at the park near the Museum of Anthropology. The “voladores” are believed to have originated in pre-colonial central Mexico in a region called Veracruz. It is said that the ritual was an attempt by the native people to please the gods during a period of drought. The “voladores”, or “hombres pajaros”, climb up a 30 foot pole. Tied to the pole, they launch themselves into the air. One dancer remains on top of the pole turning the wheel to which the flyers are attached and slowly releases rope as the “voladores” slowly descend to the ground.

Watching this ritual is a breathtaking experience. There are no safety nets. This was just one of many obvious expressions of the integration of traditional cultures into modern Mexico.

~Rosemarie Steinberg
Spanish Instructor

New Tool to Combat Cyberbullying

Today I read an article about a new program called MouseMail which will provide parents with a new weapon against cyberbullying. MouseMail works by filtering children's emails for inappropriate words and unknown contacts and forwards these messages to a parents' account. The chairman of the board of Safe Communications, Les Ottolenghi, says that the system is "designed to help a parent manage their child's relationship with the Internet and their relationship, in turn, to their child."

While I'm sure many kids would be disappointed by their parents' involvement in their personal life, I'm thrilled to read that programs and others like it exist. I understand that policing an adolescent's emails and texts is an impossible mission for parents, which is where MouseMail would come in handy in helping protect children from dangers that are so foreign to us adults. Bullying has tamped up to stratosphere-ic levels in recent years making the need for systems like this all the more imperative. G-d knows, parenting is hard enough and we could use all of the support we can get!

~Jackie Villet
School Counselor

Personal Finance Students Go Catalog Shopping The "Old Fashioned" Way

If your house is anything like mine, you’re still digging out from under the mountain of catalogs that arrived in December. Although online shopping has taken the lead in off-site buying, those glossy catalogs are still used to grab your attention and entice you to send Aunt Susie a basket of Wolferman’s muffins, or your brother-in-law a snazzy gizmo from Sharper Image. When surveyed, I discovered that all of our seniors had shopped online and paid for their purchases with the click of the mouse, but few had ever had to wrestle with reading the small print on an order form in a catalog and write a check to pay for their purchase. As a culminating activity to our unit on banking, the students in Personal Finance had that opportunity during their last class in December.
Each student received a catalog and a sample checkbook (courtesy of our friends at Susquehanna Bank) and told that they could buy anything in the catalog up to $250. The class was cautioned to be aware of possible sales taxes and shipping fees. Completed order forms and checks were reviewed for accuracy. The class discussed why some vendors must charge sales tax and others have no such legal requirement in Maryland.

With the advent of electronic banking and money management software, this generation of young people may not have to struggle over pencil and paper bank reconciliations, but they do need an understanding of how to monitor their money as it travels through the banking system. Our classroom catalog shopping experience was an enjoyable way to help demonstrate that lesson.

~Jan Schein
CFO, Instructor Personal Finance

Enjoying Winter Break

Winter break is just that- a time for a break. It allows students, faculty and families a time to recharge, reflect, spend time with family, take trips and gear up for the rest of the school year. I know that I needed those 10 days to NOT get up at 5:30 (I was successful 30% of the time!), NOT put on my “school clothes” and NOT have meetings every evening. I also used the time to clean out closets, drawers and cabinets, finish a crafts project that I started this past summer, visit some museums with my son, and catch up on some book and anime series.

An example of how the Cardin students see each other as family is illustrated by how often they made plans to see one other. It began on the Thursday prior to break when I overheard students planning lunches, movies and sleepovers. Throughout break they got together in pairs and groups to see one other. Only at Cardin? Probably not. But, when potential families and students perceive the size of Cardin as a negative, this is a shining example of how it is not!
Happy 2011!

~Barbie Prince
Head of School