Summer Programs for Atlanta Students

Now is the time to start applying to those summer programs. Take a look at these local opportunities.

HOT Days @ Georgia Tech

The H.O.T. Days @ Georgia Tech camp is a one-week-long summer program designed to introduce students attending high schools in Georgia to electrical and computer engineering (ECE) concepts. The goal of the program is to instill an interest in ECE and increase the number of high school graduates majoring in this field. Financial Aid Available. Due April 8th.

Girls Who Code
Girls Who Code is a national non-profit organization dedicated to closing the gender gap in technology. Their programs educate, inspire, and equip girls to pursue opportunities in computing. The Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program is a FREE seven-week introduction to computer science for girls going into 11th and 12th grade.

CDC Disease Detective Camp
Are you interested in public health, epidemiology, medicine, and environmental issues? Then the CDC (Center for Disease Control)Disease Detective Camp is a good program for you to enroll. Visit their website for an application and to learn more about the program.

Summer Institute for the Gifted @ Emory

SIG offers unique programming for gifted and talented students ages 5-17 during the summer and school year.Three-week summer sessions for gifted students ages 5-12* wanting to participate in captivating courses built to enhance existing talents while remaining in the local community. Financial Aid available.

Summer Science Academy @ Emory
The Summer Science Academy Program is a two-week science enrichment program that offers a series of lectures, labs, and field experiences for high school students.

CDC Detective Camp

The CDC Disease Detective Camp teaches attendees the fundamentals of CDC’s work: the field of public health and the science of epidemiology. Public health is a vast field that covers many aspects of keeping populations of people healthy. It includes, but is not limited to, research, data collection, data analysis, and health education. Epidemiology, the systematic study of diseases in populations, is one of the sciences used at CDC to help improve the public’s health.

Blackout for Human Rights

On Monday, January 18th from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Blackout for Human Rights and the Campaign for Black Male Achievement will host “MLK Now,” a special MLK Day event to celebrate and honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and explore how his message and vision continue to resonate in today's racial, social and political landscape. Taking place at Harlem’s Riverside Church – where Dr. King performed his famous 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence” -- the event will feature historic speeches performed by some of today’s leading actors -- including Chris Rock, Oscar-Winner Octavia Spencer, Michael B. Jordan, Tony Award-Winner Anika Noni Rose, Tessa Thompson, and more. VICE will serve as media partner on the event. “MLK Now” will also feature musical performances by Rose and Grammy-Nominated Artist Bilal and closes off with an interactive panel discussion addressing the most pressing human rights issues of today – including police violence, racial and social injustice, economic inequality, the prison industrial complex and grassroots and political mobilization. Panelists include Filmmaker and Blackout Member Ryan Coogler; Grammy-Nominated Hip Hop Artist J. Cole; Black Lives Matter Co-Founder and Black Alliance for Just Immigration Executive Director Opal Tometi; Arab American Association of New York Executive Director Linda Sarsour; Million Hoodies Movement for Justice Executive Director Dante Barry; and Activist Leon Ford, Jr. Blackout is a network of artists, entertainers, advocates, spiritual leaders, educators and everyday citizens who commit their collective resources towards addressing human rights violations in the U.S. Blackout is comprised of both high visibility and everyday citizens. Members include Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, Charles King, Nate Parker, Donald “Childish Gambino” Glover, Ava DuVernay, Jesse Williams, John Burris, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosa Clemente, Michael McBride, Shaka King, Scott Budnick, David Oyelowo, Pastor Michael McBride and others. DOORS WILL OPEN AT 1:30 p.m., program to begin at 3:00 p.m. Tickets for the event are free and can be found at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mlknow-tickets-20465812797. For real-time updates and announcements, follow @UnitedBlackOut and @BMAchievement using the hashtag #mlkNOW and #CBMA

Senior Research Project

Try to start your research project with a question. Once you've got that you can explore where to go, but you'll need lots of sources to get a good idea of your issue and possible solutions. Shoot for:

• 2 articles
• 2 websites
• 2 newspaper articles
• 2 books/ebooks
• 1 video/podcast

Begin with these resources:

Articles:
Opposing Viewpoints
GALILEO
Google Scholar

Books:
School Catalog
Google Books

Join the 2016 Reading Challenge

2016 is your year to set goals achieve them and surpass them. We're hoping that one of those goals is to read more and to motivate you we're joining Goodreads in their 2016 reading challenge. You can set a goal of however many books you'd like, but if you reach the golden 25 you'll be entered into a raffle to win a Kindle FIRE HD with keyboard and cover.

The deadline to reach 25 will be right before the milestones so you'll have all of Spring Break to do nothing but hide out in your reading cave.

Register Here

Remember, I can only track your books if you're checking out from the library.

Stand with Malala

The YES! Student Writing Competition is an opportunity for middle school through university students to write for a real audience - not just you, the teacher - and the chance to be published by an award-winning magazine. This quarter's theme is Every Girl's Right.

Each quarter, students are invited to read and write an essay on a selected YES! Magazine article. YES! Magazine divides contestants into four categories: middle school, high school, university, and Powerful Voice (for authors whose essays are powerful and passionate). Winning essays in each category are published on YES! Magazine website and in the online education newsletter. Register by January 14th!

This winter, students will read and respond to the YES! Magazine article,"Stand With Malala: Meet the Teenagers Who Survived the Taliban and Kept Going to School." From 2009-2012 the Taliban forcefully banned girls in the Swat Valley of Pakistan from going to school. In an interview with Shazia Ramzan and Kainat Riaz, the two friends of Malala who were also shot on the bus tell the story of the traumatic experience that emboldened them to stand up for the right of every girl to an education.

Girls Who Code

Girls Who Code

Girls Who Code is a national non-profit organization dedicated to closing the gender gap in technology. Their programs educate, inspire, and equip girls to pursue opportunities in computing. The Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program is a FREE seven-week introduction to computer science for girls going into 11th and 12th grade.

http://girlswhocode.com/programs/

Hour of Code at South Atlanta High

Thursday, December 19th was our #hourofcode event at the South Atlanta High School Media Center. Students gathered in the lab to learn a bit of Javascript as they programmed a StarWars droid to pick up scrap metal. You can learn a bit of code yourself at www.code.org. Getting started is easy and there are a number of tutorials on the site to give you a working knowledge of the most popular coding language today. 

We were especially excited to have Black Men Code founder, Michael Street on hand to give a few pointers on how the language works. Look out for more coding introductions in the media center in 2016.