Rachel Carson Middle School
| Rachel Carson Middle School | |
|---|---|
Rediscovering Our Sense of Wonder: 17 Years of Rachel Carson Middle School
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| Address | |
| 13618 McLearen Road Herndon, Virginia 20171 |
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| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Information | |
| School type | Public, middle school |
| Founded | 1998 |
| School district | Fairfax County Public Schools |
| Principal | Gordon Stokes |
| Grades | 7-8 |
| Enrollment | 1426[1] (May 2015) |
| Color(s) | Teal and Black |
| Mascot | Panther |
| Newspaper | The Carson Chronicle |
| Feeds into | Westfield High School, Oakton High School, Chantilly High School, and South Lakes High School |
| Website | www |
Rachel Carson Middle School is a middle school in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, southwest of Herndon. The school is part of Fairfax County Public Schools. Its new principal is Gordon Stokes, after the June retirement of long-standing principal August Frattali. Opened in the 1998-1999 school year, it is named after the biologist Rachel Carson and was a School To Watch in Virginia in 2004, 2007, and 2010.[2][3]
Due to its location and the fact that it has an AAP (Advanced Academics Program) program,[4] students come from an assortment of elementary schools, and graduate to a variety of high schools. Students attend either Westfield High School, Chantilly High School, Oakton High School, South Lakes High School, or other private schools as their high school. For students who qualify, Carson also consistently sends more students to TJHSST than any other school.[5] Elementary school feeders include Floris, Crossfield, McNair, Fox Mill, Hunters Woods, Coates,[6] Poplar Tree, and also Lee's Corner, Oak Hill, Waples Mill, Navy, and Dogwood as part of its AAP program.
In November 2008, volunteers helped plant more than one thousand trees around the school.[7] Carson also has an array of 11 solar panels which help provide the school with electricity, installed in 2010 by its Going Green club.[8]
Contents
Electives and extracurriculars
There are a handful of electives offered at Rachel Carson, with most varying slightly by grade. Current electives include technology exploration, drama, men and women's chorus, career search, creative writing, orchestra, band, art, a computer solutions class and home economics classes. For 8th graders, Spanish, French, and Japanese are available as high school-level electives. Introductory electives to both Spanish and French were introduced in 2011, and are open to both grades. However, these are very basic courses with students learning little more than basic language use and culture. There is also a Media Communications course that allows students to participate in the school's newspaper and morning announcements.[9]
The school features the AAP program and also offers a Japanese language immersion program, with students participating in the latter coming from many elementary schools.
Rachel Carson offers an assortment of extracurricular activities, including Astronomy Club, Advertising Club, Debate Team, MATHCOUNTS, Friday Fitness Club, and Jazz Band.[10] In addition, two school plays are held each year: one for advanced drama students only, the other open to all students.
With the exception of an annual Students vs. Faculty volleyball game at the end of every year, Rachel Carson Middle School has no organized sports leagues or events.
The school has partnerships with HP Enterprise Services, Scitor Corporation, and Northwest Federal Credit Union.[4]
Team organization
Like many other Fairfax County middle schools, Rachel Carson is divided into eleven "teams", similar to high school sub-schools. The teams are as follows:[11]
- 7th grade
- A - All-Stars (AAP)
- B - Trailblazers (AAP)
- C - Champions (AAP)
- D - Dream Team
- E - Legacy
- F - Majestic (AAP)
- 8th grade
- V - Voyagers
- W - Wolves
- X - X-Treme (AAP)
- Y - Yellow Jackets (AAP)
- Z - Dolphins (AAP)
Each team has its own set of locker pods and core classrooms (Science, English, History/Civics, and Mathematics), and students usually attend classes within their team. However, in many cases, students are assigned teachers in other pods, especially in the case of math, where the courses taken by students vary widely.
Competitions
Rachel Carson Middle School actively participates in many academic competitions, including Model United Nations, Odyssey of the Mind, Technology Student Association, First Lego League, the American Mathematics Competitions, and Team America Rocketry Challenge, although the involvement of the school itself varies widely between activities. Carson is involved in the District of Columbia Urban Debate League and has sent teams to the National Championships at Claremont McKenna College in California. Carson also participates in MATHCOUNTS and has previously sent representatives to the state and national-level competitions.[12][13] In past years, Carson has also participated in the American Computer Science League and Science Olympiad competitions.
Slogans
Every year, the school's motto changes to represent the number of years Carson has been around. A list of the mottos each year is provided below.
- 2003-2004—Keeping the Dream Alive
- 2004-2005—Many Languages, Many Cultures, Many Gifts...One Rachel Carson
- 2005-2006—Infinite Possibilities
- 2006-2007—Go the Whole Nine Yards
- 2007-2008—Decade of Dreams
- 2008-2009—Ocean's Eleven: A Sea Of Success
- 2009-2010—Greater by the Dozen
- 2010-2011—Lucky 13
- 2011-2012—All For One and 1-4 All[14]
- 2012-2013—15 Years of Fame
- 2013-2014—16 Years of Swimming in Success
- 2014-2015—Rediscovering Our Sense of Wonder: 17 Years of Rachel Carson Middle School
- 2015-2016—Crossing Over: Proud Tradition, Bright Future
External links
References
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