Young Scholars programs focus on culture

Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania Charter School focuses on teaching students to be lifelong learners and prepares them for a global economy. The kindergarten through eighth-grade school, which has students from the State College, Penns Valley, Bellefonte, Bald Eagle, Huntingdon, Moshannon Valley, Mifflin County, Bellwood-Antis, Keystone Central, West Branch, Philipsburg, Clearfield and Tyrone school districts, runs various programs throughout the school year. Below are some highlights.

International Mother Language Day and Chinese New Year Celebration

One of the biggest events that happens at Young Scholars each year is our International Mother Language Day and Chinese New Year Celebration. The event always starts with a fashion show in which students and staff wear clothing from different countries. After the fashion show, students perform songs and skits in Chinese and Spanish. Along with the fashion show and performances, the students have the option to have Chinese food for lunch. The students always look forward to this event.

Robotics

YSCP has a robotics team that is made up of middle school students. Last year, our team, RoboScholars, won several top awards at the regional First Lego League competition and qualified for the FLL World Festival that took place in April. At the Southwest/Central Pennsylvania First Lego League competition, the team won a First Place Champions Award and a Robot Performance Award. In April, they traveled to St. Louis to compete in the FLL World Festival. More than 265,000 children from 80 countries gathered for this competition. The FLL competition consisted of three areas with separate judging: Robot Game, Project and Core Values. For the Robot Game area, RoboScholars designed and programmed an autonomous robot that completed specific tasks. For the Project section, they designed and made the PronunciAID — a device that can record short messages and play them back, optimized for classroom use with the goal of helping students during language courses. RoboScholars ended up with a third place in Mechanical Design in this global competition.

Science Olympiad

Young Scholars also has a Science Olympiad team, and last March they had an amazing performance at the regional competition at Millersville University. Our team won 22 medals in 10 categories at the competition. Among the medals that our team won were first place in Bio Process Lab, Solar System and Crime Busters. Our team qualified to compete in the state finals.

Reading Club

Students in grades 4-6 are able to take part in the YSCP competitive reading team. These students read from a list of more than 40 books, focusing on their understanding of the important details in the text. The team meets weekly to discuss the books and answer questions in an effort to prepare for the competition. In March, the team competes against other teams from within a three-county radius. This three-round competition focuses on the team’s ability to answer comprehension questions about the books read. At the end of the competition, teams are awarded trophies based on their scores. Last year was only our second year to participate in this competition and the YSCP team received a third-place trophy.

Art and Music Showcase

Every May YSCP holds an Art and Music Showcase. The event serves as a culminating showcase of our students’ efforts in the visual and performing arts for the school year. The students work hard all year on art projects that will be displayed on this evening. Every student in the building has at least one piece of art displayed in our hallways. The parents are then invited in to view the projects in a gallery setting. Following the viewing of the projects, our bands and choir perform in their second concert of the year.

Touch of Culture

Each year, the Parent Advisory Committee at Young Scholars hosts a Touch of Culture Night. The purpose of this event is to highlight a specific culture. To highlight the chosen culture, there are foods, performances and activities from the culture. Some of the cultures that have been highlighted are Australia, Africa and Greece.

This story was originally published February 29, 2016 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Young Scholars programs focus on culture."