If you haven’t already, you need to check out the Spark Cafe, which is located on the second floor next to the Research Library. The cafe is open in the mornings from 8:15 – 11:15 and in the afternoons from noon to 1:30. You can buy drinks, such as hot chocolate and flavored lattes, as well as breakfast and lunch items. The hot lunch on the menu that day is available but not the burrito bowl option. Be aware, too, that the Research Library is open in the mornings starting at 7:30.
ADVERTISEMENT DESIGN CONTEST
2nd Paravi Das
3rd Julia Spewak
4th Madison Tran
5th Sarah Shekihnureldin
GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION TECHNICAL EXAM
3rd Nabiah Haque
STATE PIN DESIGN 2019
2nd Julia Spewak
3rd Paravi Das
STUDENTS OF THE YEAR
1st Paravi Das
PAST STATE OFFICERS
Paravi Das – State President
Julia Spewak – Region 1 Vice President
CHAPTER OF EXCELLENCE PROGRAM: Quality Chapter and Gold Chapter:
President Sarah Shekihnureldin & Vice President Sydney Velandria
100% SKILLSUSA MEMBERSHIP AWARD
Graphic Communications, Academies of Loudoun
SKILLSUSA Virginia Board member
Pam Smith
The SKILLSUSA 55th Annual National Leadership and Skill Conference will be held June 24-28, 2019, in Louisville, Kentucky.
Lead Voting Delegate for Virginia – Paravi Das
National Anthem singer, Opening session – Paravi Das
National Pin Design – 1st Place – Paravi Das
SkillsUSA Professional Development Program #6 International Degree – Deborah Tripp
TA DA!!! It’s finished! The Academies’ new pizza oven!
OVERVIEW:
In today’s rapidly changing graphic arts industry, it’s important to stay on top of the latest trends and keep up-to-date with the newest creative software. Adobe’s Creative Suite is a top of the line package that mixes all the programs needed of today’s graphic designed. Students in the Graphic Design program at the Academies competed today in a two and half hour challenge as part of the 2019 SkillsUSA Graphic Arts Competition to test their use and knowledge of Adobe Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat.
ASSIGNMENT:
Students had to create a full color one-page print advertisement for the “Print Grows Trees” campaign, which is a strategic effort to raise awareness that printing on paper actually helps to grow trees and keeps our forests from being sold for development. It’s counter-intuitive, but by connecting the dots between print and private landowners, who own almost 60 percent of our nation’s woodlands, we’ll come to understand that the existing forestland with all its biodiversity could be better sustained if growing trees was a more profitable endeavor. This will only happen if there is more demand for paper. “Print Grows Trees” challenges the widely held belief that by using less paper, trees will be saved.
Students are to conceive, design, and execute a one page (8.5” x 11”) full-color print ad for the campaign. Students are allowed to choose from the supporting artwork provided to incorporate in their ad or else they can come up with some original art or background to use. They will also be provided some text copy that can be used as body copy for their ad. Finally, they must come up with an original slogan, used in the ad.
DESIGN:
Below are the four top designs, created by Julia Spewak, Paravi Das, Sarah Sheikhnureldin, and Ashley Ayeri. These competitors have earned a place in the state competition this spring in Virginia Beach.
There is a huge focus on authenticity when it comes to education, and you can’t get any more authentic than high schoolers and their connection to pizza. So why not build a brick oven? Our masonry class did just that.
When constructing a project of this magnitude there are several factors to take into consideration – the two largest challenges being the overall weight of the brick oven and the structural integrity of the arch. Traditionally bricks are laid and held in place with mortar to prevent them from shifting. Not in a brick oven – no mortar equates to no grit in your pizza. Using a wooden arch as a scaffolding, the bricks are laid at such an angle that when the support is removed they remain in place – defying gravity. Careful calculations and planning ensured we will be enjoying pizza at the Academies of Loudoun for years to come.
Prior to baking the first pie the oven will need to be fired at least three times, allowing the bricks to cure and any residual dust to be burnt off. Reaching temperatures up over 1000°, that inaugural pizza cannot be left unattended; it only takes a minute for pizza perfection.
Pictured below are students Jackson Donahue and Logan McKinney with the finished product.
by Claire McGuinness
We are now two weeks into the new year after our winter break, and the Academies is moving full steam ahead. On Monday and Tuesday, Telos Corporation CEO John Wood gave presentations on the internships that will be offered through Telos over the summer. The Virginia National Guard spoke on Monday with students interested in learning more about what being a member of the guard entails. Wednesday saw the visit from the United States Army for all those interested in pursuing a career in this branch of the military. Tours were given every day this week to students who are considering applying to the Academies from Dominion, Riverside, Tuscarora, Potomac Falls, and Woodgrove High Schools.
The kick-off meeting for the RoboLoCo robotics team was held this past Saturday at the Academies. The team is made up primarily of students from the Academies but also from local high schools and even a few are home schooled students. The team of about 50 students will compete soon in the FIRST Robotics Competition, known informally as “the Ultimate Sport for the Mind.” FIRST is an acronym meaning “For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology.”
The competition rules only allow for a limited number of resources to be used by each team to build a robot, and this must be accomplished during the “Build Season,” an intense six-week period. The teams of students are challenged to raise funds, design a team “brand,” hone teamwork skills, and build and program industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors.
At the first meeting on Saturday, the RoboLoCo team learned via video release this season’s Challenge. This year’s theme is “Deep Space.” Each robot will be challenged with picking up 13” bouncy balls and then delivering them to and loading them into rockets. The robot will also need to install a panel to keep the bouncy balls in the rocket. Finally, the robot must climb onto one of three levels of platforms for extra points. The RoboLoCo team is already at work now with designing their robot and figuring out how it will accomplish all that it needs to in order to beat out the competition.
Mr. Mike Tomlinson and Mr. Rick Sarr are on board to guide the RoboLoCo team hopefully to the world championship tournament. First, though, the team must compete and triumph within the Chesapeake Division, which fields teams from Maryland, Virginia and DC, about 100 -200 teams in all.
One of the cool things about the FIRST Robotics Competition is that it welcomes all skill levels, technical or non-technical. Teams will need all kinds of skill to succeed in this competition, including programming, electronics, metalworking, graphic design, web creation, public speaking, videography, and many more.
Students in Mrs. Fallon’s Veterinary Science class were on a mission to get the present for the new puppy. In order to open the final box, they first had to solve puzzles, find clues, and work as a team to “Break Out” of their area. Clues included everything from 3D printed horse hooves (thanks to Mr. Ajima in the MakerSpace) to virtual puzzles to conditional forms. What a great review!
Rust Library has the distinction of housing the A.V. Symington Teen Center with its recently opened Makerspace. The space has been designed for and by middle and high school students. There you will find thousands of books, 24 computers, gaming systems with wide-screen TVs, 2 Macs and board games. The Teen Center is meant to be a place for teens to gather and be creative, play games, hang out, study and read.
The Makerspace extends the opportunities for fun and creativity and exploring at the Teen Center. It’s open during regular hours and can be used for free. Some small fees may apply for supplies or printing. The Makerspace now features:
The Teen Center kindly offered to bring here to the Academies of Loudoun for two days this week some items from their Maker Space, and the students enjoyed the opportunity to play and create.
Besides the Makerspace activities, there are other reasons that might draw you to visit Rust Library. The Teen Center also has a number of programs aimed at teens that focus on creativity, academic enrichment, arts and culture and STEM, including:
The programs housed at the new Academies of Loudoun pride themselves in being on the cutting edge of technology and education. They boast a greenhouse that can run seven climate settings simultaneously, an auditorium designed with robotics competitions in mind, and professional-level auto mechanic garages and kitchens that serve as hands-on classrooms.
Well, the school’s cafeteria isn’t about to be left behind.
Well, the school’s cafeteria isn’t about to be left behind.
The Academies of Loudoun opened just four weeks ago as the new home to three magnet programs: the Academy of Science, the Monroe Advanced Technical Academy, and the Academy of Engineering and Technology. Visit the campus around noon on any weekday, and you’ll see 1,200 high school students jetting from labs, makerspaces and high-tech classrooms to one of several spots in the 300,000-square-foot building serving lunch. With wraps, salads, and other sustenance in hand, the students settle in for the 45-minute lunch period all throughout the building—in outdoor courtyards, on comfy couches, in classrooms, and on bar stools in the Innovation Commons.
“We’ve rethought school lunch—suddenly, it’s cool and hip,” said Stefanie Dove, coordinator of Marketing and Community Outreach for the Department of School Nutrition Services. “We’ve literally knocked down the walls of the cafeteria and knocked down the stigma of the typical cafeteria experience. Look at this—it’s so inviting.”
To access the full article from LoudounNow, click here