Loose Leaf Notes

Project Presentation Night for Springhouse Community School’s (SCS) final semester of the 2015/2016 school year was presented on May 19^th to an enthusiastic crowd.  Family and community members engaged with students in question and answers and applauded individual presentations, which were conducted by the students through demonstrations, oral reports, performances and slide show presentations.

Located at the Floyd EcoVillage, the project based learning high school, served 18 students for the 2015-2016 school.  The school employs three student advisors and regularly enlists the help of young adult interns and community mentors.  Along with developing project proposals, meeting with their school advisors and mentors, researching and preparing to present their projects to the community each semester, students attend classes in language arts, math, Spanish and more.  Every Friday community members visit the school to share their talents, or students engage in activities in the community.  Experience Week happens twice a year and involves field trip immersion into a field of study.

For the final Project Presentation night, the outer aisles of the Floyd Eco-Village’s Celebration Hall were lined with exhibits and tri-fold table displays focused on art, science, literature, agriculture and more. Several students had just returned from a school trip to Florida, where they competed with other high schools in the Horizon Hydrogen Automotive Challenge.  The challenge involved racing the hydrogen fuel-cell powered remote control car that they built, partly from a kit and partly from scratch, which was on display.

Before the presentation program began, a small crowd gathered to learn more about the fuel-cell car project.   Eighth grade student Andrew Finn explained how the exhibited hydrolizer machine extracts hydrogen from water and stores it in hydrogen fuel cells. The fuel cells are attached to the car, like batteries, to power it.  Before demonstrating the car in action, Finn pointed out a portable solar charging station, designed by fellow student Adrian Green and used to charge cell phones, laptops and the hydrolizer, resulting in zero fossil fuel emissions.

Green, a senior whose family moved from Charlottesville so that he could attend SCS, was one of the stage presenters.  During his presentation, he described how he took two college courses on renewable energy and photovoltaics at New River Community College during the school year and worked with mentor, Rick Brown from Solshine Energy Company.   He also designed a photovoltaic system for a student-designed off-grid cottage project.

Yeshe Cooley’s presentation was on how she learned to read and speak Japanese with the help of her mentor Taiki Sawabe, a Japanese native and Japanese Outreach Initiative Coordinator at Ferrum College.  Cooley, a ninth grader, presented a video in which she walked viewers through a day at school, narrating in Japanese. She reported on her progress with plans to study in Japan for her junior year, which includes raising money through an online GoFundMe page.

Alex Hicks and Matthew Dillon presented on building a gaming computer from scratch, using spare and donated parts and taking old computers apart.  They were supported with their project by Oscar Brinson, a computer network engineer who has worked for Google and Apple. When asked what was different about a gaming computer, Dillon responded, “It’s an office computer that’s souped up.”

Milo Duffy presented on his book Beautiful Birds of Floyd that he created using Shutterfly.  He showed slides of his book and gave some background into bird identification and habits. “In two years, I’ve photographed 300 different birds around the country and in Mexico,” said Duffy, who is going to a 12 day birding camp in Arizona this summer.

Camille Terrell’s presentation on “Becoming a Musician” included a performance of Subject to Demolition (first photo), a punk-rock band that features Terrell on guitar, Donovan Saunders on drums and Yeshe Cooley on bass guitar and vocals. Mentored by Luke Thomas of the local band Spoonfight, Terrell spoke about choosing the musical genre of punk as a form of activism and to voice injustices.

Leah Pierce is pursuing photography and unveiled slides of her photography and website during her project presentation. Mentored by local professional photographer Chelsa Yoder, Pierce said she hopes to have a public exhibit of her photography in the future.

Alex Hicks, who was mentored by local book publisher Warren Lapine, presented on writing a science fiction novel.   Isaiah Pickford’s project was on the art techniques of graffiti. With a slide show presentation, he reviewed his process developing stencils, creating a tagline and painting a mural on a family barn.  Presentations and exhibits on Persian Food Cooking, the country of Finland and cloud formations incorporated history, geography and science.

Note: SCS is accepting applications for students from grades 7 – 12 for the upcoming school year.   For more information go to springhousecommunityschool.org or visit them on Facebook.  Watch a video of Subject to Demolition and one of Yeshe’s video of her speaking Japanese below.