Columbus Signature Academy - New Tech

CSA Blog

Family Night/Chili Cookoff

Posted by Tristan Burkholder at 9/7/2012 12:00:00 PM

Last night was the CSA New Tech chili cook-off! The reigning champion Mr. Reed, took home the win again (whether that win was legitimate, we will never know). But what we do know is that it was a fun, informative night. Parents, students, and teachers alike, learned something new. Moms and dads now know how to log in and use Echo, which is the program where we get our grades and assignments. It’s a bit tricky to use at first, but I’m sure after last night all the parents have it down. Students were given a grade on how good they were able to present the rubric, and how well you were able to answer their questions. But, what I know for sure is that there was some good chili last night! Congrats to Mr. Reid and to all the other good sports. It wasn’t just chili cook-off, it was also a fundraiser. The point of this was to raise money for our school, to be used for things like field trips and such.

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Family Night/Chili Cookoff

Posted by Tonya Reich at 9/7/2012 11:00:00 AM

Yesterday (September 6, from 4 till 6:30) was the Family Night and the Chili Cook-Off at CSA. Students and their families were primarily invited, to talk to the facilitators, get grade level information and school and technology policies. The parents got Echo instructions to help them understand the program their children work with everyday. Besides that, there were Junior and Senior Meetings about future education and careers. Many CSA students joined the meeting that was interesting, and also an important event. Everyone enjoyed the highlight of the evening: The Chili- Cook- Off. For $5 you had the chance to try 8 different Chilis (all homemade by a few facilatators), and decide afterwards, which one was the best. Beforehand, students were already guessing, who would win. Most of them said Mr. Reed would win. They were right. Mr. Reed's Chili was the best. Although Mrs. Litten's Cookies were like super delicious, as well.

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Family Night/Chili Cookoff

Posted by Tyler Hobbs at 9/7/2012 10:00:00 AM

The chili cook off was last night during the open house. Students went and followed the rubric, showing parents how to access Echo, check grades and homework, and introduce parents to the facilitators. The chili cook-off was successful in raising funds for PBIS. Mr. Reed was the winner of the chili cook off. It was a fun time for parents to meet the facilitators and try their chili and raise money for the school.

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Ciudad CSA

Posted by Kinsey Allen, Kristian Linville at 4/12/2012

Ciudad CSA

The day of the Ciudad CSA project was the kind of day when you are happy to be a CSA student. It was the type of event that we work hard to take part in weeks before. After the pancake breakfast all of us Spanish students made their way down to the C wing to begin their set of their store. Within an hour the hallway was turned into a Spanish speaking city.

Soon after we were all done people from Scottsburg and New Tech came flooding into the stores and began doing activities to help them learn the basics of Spanish. It was great to have the other New Tech school come and see our work as well as the rest of ours. We would say that Ciudad CSA was a very successful project and we would love to do more projects like this in the future.

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Engineering Immersion?

Posted by Nicole OTTE at 2/9/2012

Exciting things are happening!! All the key components are coming together to create a very promising engineering pathway and partnership between CSA and Ivy Tech, Purdue College of Techology, IUPUC, and area employers through a potential grant opportunity. Stay tuned for more updates as they become available.

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Lock Tight Night

Posted by Nicole OTTE at 12/5/2011

The Lock Tight Night was wonderful. Our students demonstrated collaboration and definitely persisted throughout the night. I have attached a copy of the Republic Article from today's paper, and will post pics on the website soon. CSA students included: Elliot Blackburn, Isaac Brown, Bryce Christian, Jeremiah Chandler, Suraj Ettireddy, Josh Gray, Derek Gregory, Zayne Jackson, Aaron Kline, Uriel Lopez, & Mason Nowels. The CSA Team won 2nd Place Alliance with Cummins !!! Be sure to check out the trophy. There were 18 teams and over 100 students participating from around the state from Muncie to Sellersburg. All were very impressed with our school, and our hospitality.

None of this would have been possible without all of the help from volunteers: Mrs. Contreras brought in items for the Hospitality room, Mrs. Sharick, Mr. Reed, and students helped in getting the rooms set up, Mr. Campbell, Mrs. Orr, and Mr. Martinez, all volunteered to watch exits throuhout the event, Mrs. Litten did as well, but also made runs to get change, and more importantly a run for caffiene in the form of Starbucks and Mt. Dew. Mrs. Nowels (wow! up all night!!) and her wonderful Physics students worked through the the wee hours of the morning on the concessions (we raised $800 - half will go to the Holiday World trip, and the other half will go the Robotics Club), Ema & Amanda from yearbook took lots of fun pictures, Haley Newland and Jeni Palmer worked with Mrs. Piehl in the cafeteria throughout breakfast and lunch (big Thanks to Mrs. Piehl for organizing/ordering/cooking food), Mrs. Sheila Renner came in to clean up after I called her at home because a student had been sick (Next time, I will be sure to ask for a key to the custodian's closet), Mrs. Sharick came back in the morning, and several CSA students and their parents helped with cleanup in the MPR after the contest was over. There were also several engineers that volunteered and mentored students (some even stayed until 4:00 in the morning). A rep. from Loctite gave a very informative and interesting seminar on adhesives (I am serious about it being interesting). Several students and staff from Indian Creek also volunteered their time to help students. Again, it was a wonderful event, and I just wanted to share our excitement and lots of THANKS!!!!

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Bloomington Robotics

Posted by Nicole Otte at 11/7/2011

What a great weekend!! Our CSA students represented themselves wonderfully! I saw great attributes in our students: persistence, determintation, hard work, and most importantly magnificent teamwork and camaraderie. CSA teams helped East teams, and vice versa. Students worked together through frustrations. The students learned so much about the format of a robotics contest, plus they gained a wealth of information on different types of designs that they could utilize in future robots. I look forward to working more with this wonderful group of students in the future. They are ready for Lock Tight Night (coming soon 12/2-12/3) and more contests in the Spring!!

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Dia de los Muertos

Posted by Lindsey Taylor at 11/4/2011

The night we celebrated El Dia de Los Muertos here at CSA New Tech, everything came together very well. I was pleasantly surprised with the turn-out, and I'm very sure a professional museum couldn't have had a better Day of the Dead. It was all very expertly planned, from the freshly rolled tacos and hot tamales with fruity Spanish drinks offered, to the professional Spanish dancing. And to top it all off we got to see past Spanish teachers we'd had previous years, and it was an awesome night full of reunion, food, and entertainment.

The educational part was also very enjoyable; I could tell that the creators of the tables full of papel picado, pan de muerto, and altars (bread of the dead, paper decorations, and altars) had just as much fun as the curious visitors. The decorations of the C-wing also made the night feel extra real and intricate. The experience was overall very cultural and amazing compared to the educational bore I was expecting to have to watch. I think CSA definitely caught the understanding of making a project cool but also get us learning, and I look forward to more projects similar to this event, as I think others do also.

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Halloween @ CSA

Posted by Nicole OTTE at 10/31/2011

What a wonderful day at CSA New Tech today. It was such fun to see all the students and staff in the spirit of Halloween. Costumes ranged from Teletubbies to Police Officers to Mario/Luigi, and many many more!! I can't wait until next year. This concludes my second test of the CSA Blog capabilities.

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