Middle School Student Newsletter, 5/10/19

Hello Readers,

In science we are studying energy and how it is made. As part of this study, last Thursday and Friday the class visited a historic windmill and a modern wind turbine. The experience of going to the windmills will be remembered for a long time. There were many things to remember about the windmills, including similarities and differences. For example, the top parts of both the windmill and the turbine can turn 360 degrees to catch the wind. Unlike the modern turbine, the windmill has giant gears and uses a repurposed sailboat mast as a drive shaft to turn the grindstones. The modern turbine is operated by magnets and creates kilowatt hours of electricity. It powers homes while the Jamestown windmill was designed to grind corn. As for how the turbines catch the wind, it is relatively the same but also different. The modern turbine catches the wind by changing blade angles to get the best amount of wind, but the historical windmill catches wind by having pieces of cloth hung onto the sails. Overall the field trips were a huge success and a great learning opportunity.

Recently the middle school started planning Field Day, which happens the last week of school. Though I cannot say ahead of time what the activities will be, I can vouch for how hard the middle school is working to make field day the best it can be for all of the Quest students. From the groups to the activities, we want to make everything enjoyable to all.

The middle school is sad to say that last Saturday was the last time the Narrow River Naturals would make an appearance at the Coastal Growers Market. Over the course of the year the middle school micro-businesses have made a good profit. All the new products have really changed the middle school businesses and will hopefully make an impact on the next generation of middle schoolers. Although we have stopped selling at the farmers market, products will be available in the classroom until the end of the year.

This Track and Field season has gone by in the blink of an eye. The entire track team, consisting of sixth years and middle schoolers, has been training hard and having fun at the same time. We wish to thank our coach Tim for the great job he is doing training us.