Author: Donnie Sewell

A team of students from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts earned recognition at the recent National Ocean Sciences Bowl.

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is a nationwide, high school science competition focused on marine issues and knowledge. Students demonstrate their knowledge of marine and coastal science by answering questions from biology, physics, chemistry, geology, geography, mathematics and the social sciences. Each team consists of four students plus an alternate and a coach.

Catherine Kwon, a junior at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, recently earned a 36 on the ACT — a perfect score.

Kwon took the universal ACT test, which every junior in Arkansas took for free, in February. It was the second time the student from Little Rock had taken the college-readiness assessment test. She scored a 35 on her previous attempt in 2019.

Interdisciplinary learning offers students opportunities to gain a broader perspective of a general topic leading to a deeper understanding of a specific course of study. The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts offers its students several courses that combine various disciplines, allowing faculty members from various departments to combine their areas of expertise in one class.

Infectious Diseases brings together biology and history instructors to explore both the life and social sciences aspects of diseases throughout humanity’s existence. ASMSA offers the course each spring semester.

Editor's Note: Sean Gray, a computer science secondary teacher at Marion high School, was named the 2020 Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year Award.

Two of the five finalists for the Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year are alumni of Coding Arkansas’ Future’s first cohort of educators.

Coding Arkansas’ Future initiative was created by the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in 2015 after Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson required every public and charter high school in the state offer at least one computer science course.

Two Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts alumnae have been selected as 2020 Goldwater Scholars.

Rebecca Parham of the Class of 2017 and Sabrina Jones of the Class of 2018 were recognized by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation as a recipient of this year’s scholarships.

One of the largest struggles medical personnel nationwide are facing as they battle the COVID-19 pandemic is shortages of personal protection equipment, or PPE. To help meet those needs, the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts is using its expertise and resources in 3D printing to produce face shields for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

ASMSA is using multiple 3D printers located on campus and several others printers among current students, alumni and other colleagues working remotely to print the basic hardware for the headgear. The effort is being led by Nicholas Seward, a computer science instructor at the school and an 3D-printing advocate with a national reputation for innovation in the field.

Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts senior Victoria Hwang of Maumelle won first place in the Arkansas Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.

Arkansas JSHS is a competition which promotes original research and experimentation in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics at the high school level. The competition is sponsored by the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force.

Many educators and parents across Arkansas are experiencing a new way of teaching students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For many parents, hearing the word Zoom likely brought to mind speed rather than a place to have an interactive video meeting. AMI, short for alternative methods of instruction, were for snow days. Few probably ever thought they would become essential classroom assistants for their children as remote instruction became the norm.

Remote instruction offers its own challenges for educators. How do you conduct classroom discussions on topics when contact may be limited? What’s the best way to develop a curriculum that will provide the desired results? How do you share work examples that will guide students in the right direction? How do you keep that personal connection that is often vital to students thriving?

Sixteen Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students earned recognition at the Future Business Leaders of America District IV Spring Conference.

The district conference was held at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope in February. Students competed in various business-related events that included either an objective subject test, performance/presentation, or a combination of an objective test and a performance component.

Fifteen students won awards in their respective competitions and qualified to compete in the state competitions, which will be held virtually sometime this spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They included:

• Jacob Holmes, a junior from Rector, first place, Business Calculations;
• Carson Hardin, a senior from East End, first place, Business Communication;
• Kaletra Arnold, a junior from Searcy, first place, Business Law ;
• Dawson Jones, a senior from Hot Springs, second place, CyberSecurity;
• Lilli Hickman, a junior of Omaha, first place, Economics;
• Team of juniors Peyton Manry of Melbourne, HarLeigh Smith of Altus, and Amanda Smothers of Pottsville, second place, Entrepreneurship;
• Team of juniors Eli Fisher of North Little Rock and Jayden Hutchison of Midway, fourth place, Emerging Business Issues;
• Alec Gatewood a junior from Smackover, first place, Global Business;
• Isabel Han, a senior from Maumelle, sixth place, Healthcare Administration;
• Sydney Crabtree, a junior from Altus, second place, Job Interview; and
• Team of seniors Hadley Medlock of Alma and Benjamin Oliver of Jonesboro, first place, Marketing.

Senior Rebecca Edwards of Piggot will compete in the Broadcast Journalism event at the state competition. Broadcast Journalism is not conducted in the district competition, so Edwards automatically qualified for the state competition.

HarLeigh Smith and Jacob Holmes also were selected to district-level offices at the conference. Smith was elected to serve as District IV FBLA vice president for the 2020-21 Spring Conference. Jacob Holmes was elected to serve as District IV FBLA parliamentarian for the 2020-21 Spring Conference.

Two ASMSA seniors served as officers for this year’s Spring Conference. Solomon Ni of Jonesboro served as vice president, and Carson Hardin of East End was secretary for the conference.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts will continue remote instruction throughout the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester.

The decision in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was made with input from the University of Arkansas System leadership, campus administrators, department chairs, and the ASMSA Governing Council of faculty and staff. The student residential experience will resume in August 2020.

“This is an incredibly difficult decision for us as a campus because the residential experience is so ingrained in both our mission and identity,” Director Corey Alderdice said in an email to the campus community announcing the decision on March 27. “We exist as a school in order to bring exceptional young people together for the purpose of learning. While this shift is temporary, it is no less painful to make.”

Coursework will include a continuation of asynchronous instruction with opportunities to conduct video sessions for each class at least once a week. The live sessions will be recorded and uploaded to a location for viewing by students who were unable to attend the initial meeting.

Students enrolled in concurrent credit courses provided by ASMSA in cooperation with the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith are still eligible to complete the classes for college credit. Based on guidance from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, students — including seniors — must still complete assessments that demonstrate their knowledge of the subject matter to earn concurrent credit.

All non-concurrent elective coursework will adopt a “credit/no credit” grading system. Faculty will develop asynchronous content for students to engage with the subject matter while also providing opportunities for live discussions that provide engagement and socialization. The change to credit/no credit will allow students to stay connected to topics of personal interest while staying engaged in the ASMSA experience.

Seniors will still be expected to satisfy both the Arkansas Department of Education SMART Core as well as ASMSA graduation requirements—which include a minimum of 30 concurrent credit hours, two years of language study, and exploration of the various STEM disciplines—in order to earn an ASMSA diploma. To help students meet these expectations, seniors are encouraged to focus on those classes while having the option to drop elective courses that are not required for the ASMSA diploma.

“As part of ASMSA’s graduation requirements—and in alignment with the state’s investment in ASMSA and our students—we believe that full effort should be made to ensure seniors satisfy the additional institutional requirements,” Alderdice said in the March 27 email.

For more information on this topic as well as others announcements regarding ASMSA’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, visit https://www.asmsa.org/asmsa-covid-19-updates/.