This past Friday, Chance Hattrick, one of our MSCS 7th graders, competed in the countywide “My Kid’s Got Talent” competition at Ridgeview Middle School. The competition was hosted by “America’s Got Talent” Season 13 Finalist Brian King Joseph, and was coordinated by The Foundation for Financial Education. The competition featured many talented singers, dancers, instrumentalists from the local area middle and high schools. Chance Hattrick won second place and a $3,000 college scholarship for his solo piano preformance of Schubert’s Vier Impromptus No. 4. All of the performers knocked the audience’s socks off, and Brian King Joseph got the crowd hyped by playing five different pieces (including one he had never played live before). Another RCMS magnet 6th grader, Brandon Purba, participated in the competition as well — he won the Student’s Choice award and a $500 college scholarship.
On Tuesday and Wednesday last week, 8th grade students learned about secret world of codes and ciphers in a fun and exciting way. They started the day by hearing a story, “The Gold Bug,” and then tried to decipher the message from the story using substitution cipher. Then, they were given a Scavenger Hunt Questionnaire, which they had to complete by exploring the museum. The hunt was followed by an answer session in the museum classroom. The museum staff went over the questionnaires in a fun and interactive way, and she also gave additional historical information concerning the exhibits. Students were rewarded with frisbees and pencils for correct answers. In the following weeks, students will learn about some basic encryption algorithms and program it using python.
