Thursday, December 17th, 2020—Welcome to Syracuse Academy of Science’s first-ever Teacher Spotlight! Each month we will be highlighting and shining a spotlight on one of our esteemed faculty members. For the month of December, we are pleased to announce the interview with the one, the only, Dr. Ay! Dr. Ay teachers high school science.

"Dr. Ay has been a wonderful addition to our team. Her positivity radiates through the halls. Aside from her high-quality chemistry instruction, she is the facilitator for diversity club and a mentor to our students for congressional awards" - Dean of high school

Interview with Dr. Ay

• What three traits define you? Optimistic, dedicated, polite, I start everything with great enthusiasm but it is hard for me to stay motivated for a long time. I need motivated friends like me to keep the energy alive. (is there a one word for this trait)
• What is your greatest accomplishment? Once I was a charity event organizer when I was in Michigan and Hamilton, NY. I brought the whole Hamilton community together to organize a bake sale. I was in the news. :)
• Best book you have ever read? Blindness  by Jose Saramago
• What is one thing you cannot resist?(food/dessert/candy/etc.) Lahmacun
• If you could have dinner with one person living or dead who would they be and why? My Grandma, I have never met her. She died before I was born. I am curious about our similarities and differences.
• What advice would you give to kids who are struggling at school? You need to be patient and practice it many times. Before studying anything learn about your learning style. When is your brain functioning well. Find out. Just reading is not enough for learning. you will read it, and write it down in order to keep the knowledge. And to make it yours you need to explain it to someone else. I used to explain the history topics to my bird before every exam, and they were great listeners.
• Tell us, what is something that might surprise us about you? Now we are publishing a children magazine with my friends. My role is small but I am glad I am part of it.

Friday, December 11th, 2020—It was pawsitivly a great virtual story time with News Channel 9’s news anchor, Christie Casciano, Sunny 102.1 radio personality Rick Gary, and their furry friend Ringo. 

This dynamic trio read to the first grade students one of their favorite books, Ringo is his Name-o, which is about their four legged friend who helps bring smiles, laughter and joy to everyone he meets. Ringo is a certified therapy dog who is active in the Syracuse community visiting schools, nursing homes and any place where therapy is needed. This virtual story time is one that you certainly don't want to miss, and did we mention there is audience participation needed? Listen, follow along and watch as we get ready to learn about Ringo and his many adventures throughout the community. Please click here to watch as Christie, Rick and Ringo read the book, ‘Ringo is his Name-o.’

Thank you Christie, Rick, and Ringo for taking the time to share this story with us, and for all that Ringo has done to help those in need throughout the community.

Monday, December 21st, 2020—Earlier this week, Syracuse Academy of Science elementary school recognized its students and staff at the December virtual Student of the Month ceremony for demonstrating the character traits of caring and compassion. Each month, students are recognized for their hard work and for demonstrating the month’s character trait. Congratulations to all of our students and nominees! Please click here to view the Student of the Month ceremony.

Thursday, December 17th, 2020—With the snow falling all around us overnight by the inches it led to Syracuse Academy of Science’s first snow day. As like much of 2020, this snow day looked a bit different. For the students of Ms. Peryea’s 2^nd grade class they took full advantage of their ‘SNOWnline Learning Day.’ Students woke up extra early in anticipation of a snow day. With the jump start of the morning, Atoms were able to complete their daily assignments. Their reward, an afternoon of snow much fun! Keep up the great work, Atoms.

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2020—On the cusp of winter recess, and all through the halls not a creature was stirring not even an Atom! The Syracuse Academy of Science elementary school teachers were busy at work creating a very special holiday message to all of their wonderful Atoms. Please click here to watch and listen to the holiday greetings from Syracuse Academy of Science elementary school teachers. We wish all of our students and their families a happy, healthy and safe winter recess.

Tuesday, December 8th, 2020—Earlier this month, Syracuse Academy of Science collaborated with Onondaga Community College and OCM BOCES and provided a virtual adult education information session that provide an opportunity and resources for those who were looking to continue their education or looking to take classes that could help them in their career or future endeavors. We are excited to share that we had an incredible turnout with over 100 participants, which was much higher than what we had last year. At this time, we would like to thank all of you for making this virtual event possible!

If you were unable to attend the virtual adult education information sessions that were offered, that's okay! The sessions were recorded and you can watch and listen at your viewing pleasure. Please click here to watch the Onondaga Community College presentation. Please click here to watch the OCM BOCES presentation.

Monday, December 14th, 2020—Earlier this month the Syracuse Academy of Science elementary school welcomed back its Monday/Tuesday hybrid students. To commemorate the moment, the Atoms flexed their creativity and muscles, socially distant of course, in their PE and Art classes. Way to go Atoms!

Wednesday, December 9th, 2020—It seems like yesterday, that Syracuse Academy of Science Middle School held its science fair event. The Atoms eagerly conducted impressive experiments ranging from vaccines all the way to water filtrations (and everything in between). Little did we know at the time what 2020 would be like, and the awards and medals the students would receive for placing in the science fair were delayed. On Wednesday, December 9^th teachers Ms. Smith and Ms. Burke delivered the medals to the current middle school 2019 science fair participants. To refresh everyone's memories, below are the 2019 science fair winners. Congratulations to all of our students who participated. To view more pictures of the delivering of the medals, please visit our Facebook page.

Current 6th Grade Atoms

• 1st Place: Airplanes vs. Humans | Lydia Masinde & Isabella Destito
• 2nd Place: Think Before You Flush | Elda Goodyear
• 2nd Place: A Different Tide Pod Challenge | Cece Goodyear
• 3rd Place: Soda Wars | Ellery Beck & Harmony West

Current 7th Grade Atoms

• 2nd Place: Cool Liquids | Evan Shelley

Current 8th Grade Atoms

• 1st Place: Vaccinations | Arden Goodyear
• 3rd Place: Water Filtration | Natalie Shelley

Friday, December 11th, 2020—A virtual field trip to a bee farm was all the buzz for the Syracuse Academy of Science kindergarten Atoms. Students watched the lead beekeeper demonstrate how to harvest honeycomb and learned interesting bee facts. Did you know that bees have two stomachs? During this virtual field trip, the students were able to apply their knowledge from learning about plants, pollination and bees by asking questions and listening to the presentation. This virtual field trip certainly was the bees-knees! Head to our Facebook page to view more pictures from this virtual field trip. Please note, this field trip was 100% virtual and the students assisting the beekeeper are not Atoms from Syracuse Academy of Science.

Monday, December 14th, 2020—As seen on the Food Network, Syracuse Academy of Science alumna, Tykemia Carman, the proud owner of Crave Dessert Studio, recently competed on the Christmas Cookie Challenge. This Food Network competition aired on Monday, December 14th at 10:00 PM. The details are so sweet, we just had to share with you. But if you haven’t seen the episode just yet, this is your spoiler alert warning.

Contestants were tasked with coming up with cookies for a Christmas wedding. Each of the five contestants made two types of cookies while keeping the theme of wedding and Christmas in mind. Tye made one cookie that was a wedding cake with the ever popular fault line. She received rave reviews from the judges. Her second cookie, she used isomalt to allow for the judges to see the hand written vows in the middle of the cookie key ornament. Of course, this was left a sweet note and impressed the judges. With the rave reviews, Tye moved on to round 2.

In round 2 there were three contestants. Each contestant was tasked with making a 3D cookie cake. Sounds challenging, right?! Well there of course, was a twist. Contestants had to use the secret ingredient of prunes somewhere in their cookies. Oh and the cookie had to be desert flora like a cactus, succulents, etc. Tye created a beautiful succulent cookie cake. Each of the succulent cookies that made up the layers of the cake were hand piped in a variety of desert colors. While the cookies looked amazing, and she did fantastic in the second round, she did not win the competition.

Tye did a fantastic job, her desserts certainly made the viewers at home's stomach grumble and crave a sweet treat. We are proud of you, Tye!