Arcadia students make Mix Park a lab

Students from Arcadia Elementary School recently became scientists and made Mix Park in Deer Park their outdoor laboratory.

The fun-filled day was a collaboration, put together by Arcadia teachers and Eastern Washington University education students.

The Deer Park District teachers worked with Rodger Hauge of EWU’s Department of Education to create an environmental science experience. Hauge had more than a dozen science educators from five Western states observing so that they might create a similar experience for their education students.

The three-day event gave third-, fourth- and fifth-graders the opportunity to use their science and math skills to study the park’s environment, including taking air, soil and water temperatures and pH levels, calculating stream flow, counting and identifying animals and other species in the park, along with other scientific experiments.

Shoes free to good homes

When the seventh- and eighth-graders at Shaw Middle School received 1,200 shoes from the American Lung Association at the beginning of the school year, they delivered a powerful message: More than 1,200 people die every day from smoking.

During the year, the shoes were used for other visuals such as Shaw’s Martin Luther King, Jr. display. Now, the school year is almost over and the school doesn’t have a need or space to house the shoes.

Today, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Barb Fincher, Shaw’s student assistance specialist, is displaying the 1,200 shoes in the parking lot of the Northeast Community Center, 4001 N. Cook St., for a community shoe giveaway.

The shoes are used, but they have character and are all sizes and styles, including dress shoes, summer favorites such as flip-flops and sandals, and more.

The shoes are free and the giveaway is open to the public. Sacks or boxes will not be provided.

Scholarship event at LC

Tonight, beginning at 5:30 p.m., current seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students, along with sixth-grade students in Title I schools, are invited to the College Bound Scholarship event at Lewis and Clark High School, 521 W. Fourth Ave.

Computer labs will be open from 6 to 8 p.m. and volunteers will be available to help families register online for free college tuition and books and to share information about financial aid and college attendance. Pizza will be provided.

The College Bound Scholarship targets students whose family income meets eligibility requirements or who are foster youth. Students who sign up for the scholarship promise to graduate from high school, to demonstrate good citizenship and to stay crime-free.

The deadline is June 30.

For more information call (888) 535-0747 or visit www.hecb.wa.gov/ collegebound.

Bus routes discontinued

Special bus routes for students in the Mullan Road Elementary attendance area who opt to attend Lewis and Clark or Ferris outside of their home high school attendance boundary will be discontinued in the 2010-’11 school year, according to a press release from Spokane Public Schools.

In 1994, the school board allowed students from the Mullan Road area the option of attending either Lewis and Clark or Ferris when enrolling in the ninth grade. In 2001, the board also agreed to provide transportation services to both high schools.

In 2006, the board decided to allow all high school students the opportunity to “choice” into a different high school. Under this policy, students can request to attend a high school outside of their home high school attendance area. If the request is approved, families must provide their own transportation.

The Spokane Public Schools board of directors made the decision to create equity in transportation practices, and as a cost-saving measure.