Student Experience
Embracing Nostalgia: The Good and The Bad
By Guest Blogger on July 5th, 2017
This post was written by Charissa, a student in the FLVS Creative Writing Club.
Have you ever passed by a place you used to visit when you were young and a nostalgic feeling started to resonate in your chest?
The feeling blew you back in time a bit, and sparked that good memory concealed in your mind to come and revisit. It was probably a joyous occasion, and that feeling of ancient and special happiness surfaces again.
Well, what if something bad happened to you? Would the nostalgic feeling be the same? I highly doubt it would. If I visited a place that held a bad memory, I would feel suffocated by air tainted with unhappiness and regret. I wouldn’t have a happy and elated feeling in my chest. I would feel empty and alone.
Something I have realized in this society is this:
We all have our good places reminding us of the joy and happiness life can bring you, but we also have our bad places that are a reminder of how the world can be messed up sometimes. Some people have one more than the other. Continue reading
FLVS Attends GOES-R Satellite Launch
By Linda Childs on December 7th, 2016
On Saturday, November 19, I had the privilege of watching the GOES-R weather satellite launch from Kennedy Space Center.
Now you may be wondering what GOES-R stands for. It’s the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, a satellite system that orbits the earth and sends data back to National Weather Service computers. The R indicates what number or version the GOES satellite is on, so there have already been versions A-R. GOES-S is slated to launch next year and is the twin to GOES-R.
Of course, weather satellites get launched all the time, so why would this one be any more special than the others?
Well, right now we receive images of satellite scans every 30 minutes or so. The GOES-R satellite will provide data at least every five minutes, and in some circumstances every 30 seconds! So not only will it be five times faster than current weather satellites, but it will also gather three times more data and it will have four times better resolution. Continue reading
To Bennu and Back!
By Linda Childs on September 29th, 2016
Hello FLVS peeps!
I had the distinct honor of representing FLVS at the OSIRIS REx rocket launch a few weeks ago.
Now if you’re wondering what exactly that means, OSIRIS REx stands for NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer. That’s a mouthful, right?
In a nutshell, NASA is sending a spacecraft to an asteroid named Bennu. Once it reaches Bennu (after a trip lasting two years), the spacecraft will orbit the asteroid for about a year, find the perfect place to collect about 80 grams of the rock, and head back home, arriving back to Earth in 2023.
It won’t actually land on the asteroid, but instead hover over it – and with the help of Canada and their amazing knowledge of spacecraft arms – will grab a small sample. (To put this in perspective, 80 grams is about the equivalent of 80 Skittle candies.)
So why are we going to Bennu? Continue reading
FLVS Student Pursues her Passion for Animals
By Guest Blogger on September 13th, 2016
This post was written by tenth grade high school student Madison Toonder. Read about Maddie’s oyster research in a previous blog post here.
In October 2015, I was awarded a scholarship to attend any pre-collegiate program of my choice for winning second place in the nation in STEM mathematics at the Broadcom MASTERS national science fair competition in San Francisco, California.
I chose the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University’s two-week summer intensive in Massachusetts because it is directly related to my career path.
Tufts’ program is designed to give high school students insight into the rigors of veterinary school. During the program, we attended lectures, studied animal anatomy through fascinating dissections and hands-on palpitations, completed hospital rounds with fourth-year veterinary students, and explored the many different possible career paths within veterinary medicine. My daily agenda was varied and included activities such as learning proper techniques for handling animals, observing surgical procedures, and learning how to perform routine check-ups on a variety of different animals. One of my favorite activities was suturing bananas to practice proper technique. Continue reading
The FLVS Minions
By Guest Blogger on May 17th, 2016
Young adolescents require drastically different and unique approaches to education.
Middle school educators have always understood that the biological events of puberty fundamentally disrupt the somewhat smooth development of elementary school years and has a profound impact upon the cognitive, social, and emotional lives of young teens.
In line with this important insight, educators see the need for the delivery of special instructional and administrative changes in the way that education takes place for kids in early adolescence.
Continue reading
Student Gives at Animal Shelter and Gains Much More
By Guest Blogger on November 24th, 2015
This month, we asked students to share ways they give back in their communities using #flvsgiving on social media. This post was written by one of our students who volunteers at her local animal shelter.
Hi, I’m Alexis Lamphere.
I’m a senior at FLVS and I currently volunteer with the Osceola County Animals Services in Saint Cloud.
In addition to volunteering my time, I foster kittens that are underweight or too young to be adopted and don’t have a mother cat to take care of them.
Working at the shelter is honestly a life-changing experience. I’m given the chance to help improve and change many lives every day. It teaches you to be selfless and you start to have an endless love for each animal. You start to care about the animal’s happiness more than your own and he/she becomes more than “just some dog” or “just some cat.” The animal becomes a loved one, a friend, and part of your heart. Continue reading
Student Researches Sunscreen’s Effects on Oysters
By Guest Blogger on October 28th, 2015
Hi! I’m Madison, a student at FLVS.
While attending a Busch Gardens camp in the summer of 2014, I learned that the park utilizes oysters to naturally filter their lakes. I soon became fascinated with oysters, and after some research, I discovered oysters are dying globally due to pollution.
After this discovery, I formulated an experiment focusing on the effect of micronized chemical sunscreen (as used in spray sunscreen) and nanosized zinc oxide sunblock (as found in thicker, clear sunblock) on the ability of a bivalve mollusk (or oyster) to filter bay water. Continue reading
Say No to Car Payments
By Guest Blogger on April 9th, 2015
Did you know that less than half of high school seniors qualify as financially literate?
With student and household debt soaring, it’s time to help change that statistic. High school students can change the way they look at money forever with Dave Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance, now available through Florida Virtual School.
Through this curriculum, nearly 2 million students have been empowered, equipped and entertained while building confidence in their own financial decision-making. Topics covered include saving, budgeting, debt, life after high school, consumer awareness, bargain shopping, investing and retirement, insurance, careers and taxes.
Continue reading
Getting Past the Fear of DBAs
By Guest Blogger on March 19th, 2015
If discussion-based assessments make you nervous, these tips from FLVS students may help!
DBAs are verbal assessments and are often the most dreaded assignments for FLVS students. Instead of comfortably typing essays and worksheets on their laptops, students communicate with an instructor one-on-one over the phone.
But why is this so terrifying? Surely the verbal component of the DBA is not intimidating, especially when the assignments are approached by the instructor as a conversation instead of an oral exam.
TIP: Did you know that DBAs can be completed in a live lesson setting or over a video call? Ask your teacher about this option! Learn more in this post about mastering the DBA.
However, if you compare talking on the phone for twenty minutes to being the only student called on to answer random questions for 20 minutes in a classroom, you can see why students are reluctant to dial their instructors’ numbers. Continue reading
Meet FLVS Students Ellie & Evie
By Guest Blogger on March 4th, 2015
With FLVS Shakespeare Fest just around the corner on April 13-14, it seems all of FLVS is a stage.
Our Student Spotlight this month features Evie and Ellie McPherson, two aspiring actresses who know the importance of learning their lines while keeping up with their academics.
The girls were bitten by the acting bug at an early age—Evie is a second-grade student and her sister Ellie is in third!
Ellie was cast in Seussical the Musical as Cindy Lou Who and Evie was intrigued after seeing her in rehearsals. It didn’t take long for Evie to get cast as the Young Kangaroo. That was all it took!