Hot Springs School District

Geography Bees, hosted for HSSD 4th-8th grade students this week at the Park Magnet/Intermediate School and Hot Springs Junior Academy campuses, are the first round in the annual National Geographic GeoBee. This national geography competition is designed to inspire and reward students' curiosity about the world. Questions cover not only geography, but also cultures, physical features, history and earth science. Winners from each HSSD Geography Bee (Milo Moore, Andrew Steven-Assheuer, and AJ Orellana) will take an online qualifying test. The top 100 scorers in the state of Arkansas will advance to the Arkansas GeoBee. The winner of the Arkansas Geo Bee will receive an all-expense-paid trip to the National Geographic Bee, which will be held in Washington D.C. next May.

This week’s shout out goes to our #HSSD maintenance staff. While we all enjoyed two weeks of a winter break to recuperate, our maintenance personnel were busy taking care of our facilities and trying to accomplish as much as possible while we were out of their way! To all of our custodians, technicians, mechanics, and all maintenance support staff and leadership in between - THANK YOU for all you do to keep our campus and classrooms running smoothly. Also see an anonymous shout out here for the great work by Ms. Christie Spriggs at our #HSSD Gardner STEM Magnet School.

HSWCHS Librarian Mrs. Shipman has been selected to serve on the Arkansas Teen Book Award Steering Committee by the Arkansas State Library. An honor for Mrs. Shipman and the HSSD, this four-year position allows her to contribute input and call attention to leading books for 7th-12th grade students across the state. She will also gain valuable insight about books, authors, opportunities, and more for the HSWCHS Library offerings and book collection. Begun in 2009, the Arkansas Teen Book Award is a cooperative effort between public and school libraries across the state that encourages reading by all students and targets young adult grade readers.

6th grade students at HSSD Intermediate School had a once-in-a-lifetime experience just before winter break as they wrapped up a unit on cells and systems by dissecting sheep hearts and brains in Ms. Casey Wylie’s science class. Students had to apply to be part of the exercise, and were selected based (mostly) on a record of good behavior, and interest. Students who dissected the brains were looking at nerves and nerve chords. Those dissecting hearts learned about the circulatory system, including the atrium and ventricles. This experience was their first at HSSD with using scissors and exploring actual animal tissue.