The MUS Lower School Blog

Science Olympiad competes at State

From Mr. Wayne Mullins: I wanted to pass a long a detailed description of results. My goals for our team’s first encounter at the state Science Olympiad level were to finish above last place out of 18 teams and to win at least three medals out of 23 different events. This is about all you can expect for first year students. We took 15 students to Knoxville last Friday for an “all day Saturday” tournament. Memphis-area schools are particularly challenged as a result of the driving time and distance as we lose an hour to the Eastern Time Zone.

Final results will not be posted until Wednesday, but I feel very confident that we finished in the middle third of the 18 schools from division B (grades 7-9). The director at UT, Knoxville handed out medals for the top six places at state level. We brought home seven medals in the following events:

First place in the state in Scrambler, an engineering event that launches a car towards a wall with a raw egg mounted on the nose. The goal is to get as close to wall as possible in the shortest time without hitting the wall. Ben Taylor and Francis Carlota were supported on weekends by Harold and Carol Taylor.

Second Place in the state in Ecology. Our student’s had help from Mrs. Lawrence. Several students in multiple events commented about positive experiences from 7^th grade Life Science this year. William Lamb and Francis Carlota earned silver medals in this event.

Third place in Trajectory, another engineering event that launches a ball using a catapult device was accomplished by Ben Taylor and Michael Green. They were supported by working with Harold and Carol Taylor, Ben’s parents and some work before regional competition by Amit Shah.

Fifth Place in the state in Bio-Process Lab was captured by Michael Green and Drew Hutson. Their success was due almost exclusively to the lab experiences in biology classes offered by Coach Taylor and Dr. Schwartz. This award is a great external reflection of the quality of their lab experiences.

Fifth Place in the state in Dynamic Planet was awarded to Andrew Renshaw and Srujan Jampana. Their experiences in 7^th grade Earth Science and several after-school meetings with Coach Beck were the source of their success.

Fifth Place in the state in Bridge Building was awarded to Jake Eissler and Ben Taylor. Mrs. Lawrence spent several Saturdays on campus with Jake while Ben was over in the gym calibrating trajectory and scrambler devices. Jake’s father discovered at the beginning of Lacrosse season how much he could help with several events. He did show Jake how to bend wood into arches with steam and promised to be more involved with multiple events next year.

Sixth Place in the state in Road Scholar was awarded to Andrew Renshaw and Thornton Brooksbank. Their success at reading and geometrical analysis of maps was based on experiences in 7^th grade Earth Science and meetings with Coach Beck after school.

The overall success on Saturday could not have been accomplished without the hard work throughout the entire day by Harold and Carol Taylor and Cheri Hutson. They brought their own vehicles, paid for their own gas, food and hotel accommodations while carrying luggage and equipment from Memphis to Knoxville and back.

I knew the potential for success was great at MUS. I had no idea we could have a beginning that would turn out to be this strong. Many schools are now looking over their shoulders with concern about MUS and Science Olympiad.

 

We are with whom we run

Patrick Kuhse changed his group of friends a while back. He's a business-ethics consultant, and MUS Director of Communications Vicki Tyler sent me one of Kuhse's articles with the thought that students may be interested in some of his ideas.

One segment particularly caught my eye, and it is for parents as much as it could be for our boys. He writes:

"I read this statement the other day and it got my full attention: "We are the sum average of the five people we spend the most time with on a regular basis." In my talks, I often comment on how careful I am about who I spend time with and call a close friend. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way. In looking back, I realize that I was the average of five people who were probably not the best role models. No more. Be careful about who is in your inner circle of trusted advisors."

That's great advice for all of us, particularly young people. We at school hope to foster a community mojo whereby each class is a faithful representation of the school's mission, but that doesn't mean that all individuals are best suited to be cobbled into an intimate group of friends. Parents see this early on, but kids don't always recognize the direct influences that they individually both give and receive in a group. Iron should sharpen iron.

Small groups become complex because they're comprised of people who are complex themselves. Certain formulas of groupings encourage particular results, and the addition or subtraction of a few players makes a significant difference in the group's character. In the early teenage years, boys will experiment with various formulas of friend groups, and I think the exercise is both natural and necessary and sometimes can be unpredictable. While it may pain adults to see the process, I think that they understand the importance of the dynamic interplay. For one, our children are not us. Therefore, they may be attracted to a different circle of friends than what we expected. In my experience, the large majority of parents know this and act appropriately on the unique stage their children set, so to speak. It can be encouraging to witness. That said, families are unique, and multiple factors play into what group of friends kids choose. Our own adult lives reveal changing seasons of differing running groups throughout the years.

Our boys have to experience for themselves what good friends are, and I am of the mind that parents should seek the necessary watchfulness over their children allowing for constructive intervention where necessary. This is balanced with the wisdom of butting out of the details, encouraging the process of their children making suitable friends so that the players of the group find healthful, moral chemistry in their midst. Easy to say, hard to do. However, at MUS, I find the diversity and quality of boys and their families to be exceptional... good hunting grounds for friend finding.

Third Quarter Faculty Honor Roll

Download 3rdQFHR2009

Get it while it's hot!

Chess Team: Third in State

From Evan Mah: This past weekend the Jr. High and High School chess teams traveled to Cookeville, TN to compete in the 2009 State Team Chess Finals. Each section consisted of 16 total teams from various schools, public and private, in the Tennessee area. I will say that both sections were considerably more difficult than last year. Nevertheless, both MUS teams performed very well.

The Jr. High team, consisting of Andy Sorensen, Corey Clay, Amit Shah, Ashish Nathani, and William Lamb tied for 2^nd place and ended up coming in 3^rd on tiebreaks.

The High School team came very close to winning the tournament but alas we came in 2^nd. And as with last year when the team tied for 2^nd, we had to engage in a speed chess playoff (since scholarship money was at stake to attend Tennessee Tech University) where we eventually beat Hume Fogg. The HS team consisted of 8^th Graders Nathan Vogt and Andy Sorensen, Parker Wilson, Shiven Samant, and myself. Oak Ridge, MLK Magnet School, Page, Alcoa, Webb, and McCallie were some teams which we beat out.

Grades available online

Third quarter grades are now available to parents on NetMUS.

Our boys should dance

St. Mary's Middle School principal Todd Love invites our seventh and eighth-graders to join his girls (represented by the clever clip-art image above) for a dance Friday, March 27.  Please see the attached: Download SMS Dance Flyer.  

The evening’s festivities will be held from 7-10:00 p.m. in their Lower School gym, which is located on the North Campus at 41 N Perkins.  All proceeds will go toward the St. Mary’s Community Fund, a school-wide student run philanthropic organization which funds grants from Mid-South agencies who work with children in our area.

Fourth quarter reminders

We announced much of this during assembly, but it merits repeating here. One, beginning immediately, the After School Academic Program continues to meet from 3:40-5:30 p.m., and we do not require all Lower School students to be off campus by 3:40 p.m. or assemble for ASAP. Rather, all students are allowed to remain on campus after 3:40 p.m. in either the library (which closes at 4:00 p.m.) or on the general grounds if not in ASAP. 

With the amount of activity on campus during the spring, we encourage students to witness the plethora of athletic events which MUS hosts in support of our teams. Obviously, the practical assistance of the ASAP program continues so that students are offered a monitored time and place to use their time wisely in securing their homework assignments. We suggest that students continue to use ASAP for the completion of at least one homework assignment before running amok, but we choose to loosen the strings during fourth quarter instead of attempting to police boys for completed homework. That job's on parents :)

Two, once grades are released, we allow a free period instead of a monitored study hall to all eighth-graders with a cumulative average of 85 or greater. Yea. Obviously, unacceptable conduct grades and poor choices by our boys can be grounds for us to extend study hall assignments in exchange.

Three, there is a lot going on the MUS campus this summer. If you have not already, please consider some of our offerings, and feel the zeal to extend the opportunity to friends outside MUS. We love people on campus in June and July, and our faculty is teaching the large majority of the courses/camps. Click here for the summer brochure and application.

Four, eighth-graders are meeting with me in groups during lunch for a series of exit interviews as we gain feedback from the year. Please encourage your son to use this time to his advantage as he has the opportunity to offer constructive criticism about life and how to improve it in the Hull Lower School. We respect our students, and as a result, we value their perspectives. Maybe you can have some family discussion in preparation.

Last, we want these boys to complete their year with the necessary kick that the last lap requires. Some boys can lose their stamina during fourth quarter, and poor decisions and/or lack of effort could have serious consequences for some. From one extreme, we don't want a boy's poor choices to eliminate him from awards consideration. For the other extreme, we want all of these boys to be successful amidst the numerous understandable distraction that the fourth quarter brings. I teach a class of seniors second semester, so I feel their lethargy/zeal for new pastures as it is. I hope that their potential "senioritis" is not transferable... at least not air-born.    

Baseball game canceled

Today's baseball game scheduled against Brighton at Game Day is canceled.

Coach Pearl wears shirt, challenges Lower School

Tennessee Volunteers basketball coach Bruce Pearl joins MUS seventh-grader Andrew Counce for a photo-op following Andrew's successful March Madness meeting for the annual Lower School NCAA Tournament bracket competition. Students have been instructed how to register online soon as the tournament begins Thursday.

Andrew negotiated with the high-profile coach that our bracket winner gets to stand in as a Tennessee basketball coach (volunteer position) in the event that the entire UT athletic staff gets abducted by aliens. Commented Andrew following Tennessee's weekend loss in the SEC Tournament Finals, "Yeah, I could tell that Coach (Pearl) was distracted by the details of some of my suggestions... but, hey, I'm a gym rat. I can't help it that I feel the game, you know?"

Catherine and baby Will doing fine

The day finally came, gladly with mom and baby doing fine. Catherine and Blake Schuhmacher welcomed their second son into the world at a convenient 8:30 a.m. March 3, at Germantown Methodist Hospital. William Blake Schuhmacher weighed six pounds, thirteen ounces.

Catherine will continue to consult with me from time to time, but in preperation for her absence, she prepared me for the fourth quarter as we've cobbled together a counseling program as best as we can. With Ethan Langston on board as our trusty (and able) intern, I'm confident that we'll manage for a season. If I can help, please call 260.1364 or email me. If you do, I'll probably call Catherine, and then report back!