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Clearwater Academy Brings Quality Education Amid Florida’s Dwindling School Grades

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Helping in the community is a long-standing tradition at Clearwater Academy International and this week it has continued with a group of students accompanying the Executive Director, Jim Zwers, to Oklahoma. He said, “Helping in these types of disasters is life changing for our students. They experience the difference one individual can make in a time of need, which creates a person who is willing, able and enthusiastic to help in the future.”

All High School students are required to do community work to qualify for graduation from Clearwater Academy International. Every day students are helping in their local community in many different ways and in their areas of interest. However, when a large scale disaster happens, the students are there to help too. This tradition began in 2005 after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and has continued through the years, including the cleanup in Alabama after the tornadoes.

The team of nine students left for Oklahoma on June 13th for 10 days. Several of them are certified graduates of Clearwater Academy’s CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program; a national program that educates people about disaster preparedness and trains them in basic disaster response skills.

Clearwater Academy International offers the best of both worlds with our summer program. We provide a great summer adventure while keeping students moving on their academics.  We also offer a special Academic Booster program for those students that come just for the summer. Our program runs for 8 weeks; June 3rd through July 26th. Each week is packed with fun indoor and outdoor activities for all our students.

Find out more information about our program on our Summer Adventure 2013 site, just click here. Also view our summer video at the bottom of our home page on the website. Our summer calendars are posted as well, with all the extra activities listed by grade.

Please call 727-446-1722 for more information or to sign up today!

Clearwater Academy was very excited this year as we were able to send 8 of our students to the Pinellas Regional Science Fair.  That excitement continued on awards night when two of our students were honored with specialty awards, and both placed in their divisions.

Ninth grader, Samantha Eck, received a special awards from the Suncoast Chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, which included a $100 cash prize. This award is given to the project that “exemplifies or applies to engineering principles.” Her project, How Do You Build an Underwater Robot?, also placed second in the High School Engineering division.

Zach Odom, ninth grade student, received the Manufacturing Award from the Bay Area Manufacturers Association (BAMA). He also received an invitation to attend BAMA’s Awards Banquet in June to showcase and present his project to their members, and a cash prize of $50. Zach’s project, Parabola Power, also placed first in the High School Computer Science division at the regional fair.

Clearwater Academy is very proud of the work and special acknowledgments that our students have received. It is not only a reflection of their science knowledge but also of their ingenuity. The ability to apply acquired knowledge to the real world and create solutions that can improved our lives is what we strive for in all of our students.

Clearwater Academy students showed their science savvy this year at our 2013 Science Fair. First grade through twelfth grade students applied science to interests in their life with research and experimentation, and then presented their findings at the fair. Presentation boards were created to show their findings and the judges questioned each student about their experiment and knowledge of the subject.

Our students’ wide array of interests were evident; there were projects about collecting water in the wild, hunger’s effect on memory, building an underwater robot, extracting DNA from fruit and the effects of ethanol alcohol on gasoline to name just a few.

Do you want to know how to boost your WiFi signal in your home? Just ask Zach Odom, the Overall School Science Fair Champion, about his project. Zach has a strong interest in computers so he researched a very practical problem of how to increase a WiFi signal.

Ms. Kelly Odom, Group Projects Lead Teacher, was very pleased with the projects this year. She said with the implementation of a new format for the Science Fair, the quality of the students’ projects has reached a new level. This year eight Clearwater Academy students have qualified to participate in the Pinellas Regional Science Fair 2013 being held in February.

Congratulations to all our students who participated in this year’s Science Fair.

Clearwater Academy International students will be exhibiting their Science Fair projects on Thursday, January 17th. Every year our students impress us with their creativity and imaginative application of science to life.

All students from first grade through twelfth are required to enter a project in the annual fair and they will present their work to the judges earlier in the week. Students will be judged not only on their visual and oral presentation but also on their knowledge and understanding of their experiment. Our older students will have the opportunity to qualify for a place at the Pinellas County Science Fair in February.

Projects will be on display in the gym starting at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday and then awards will be announced at the PTA meeting at 6:00 p.m. This is a great time to come and view the students’ work and see the world through the scientific eyes of our students.

The Knights varsity football team have battled their way to the FCAPPS state championship game. FCAPPS is a sports league for private schools in Florida with 7-man football and the Clearwater Academy Knights are going to be going for a second State Champ title.

Having won the championship in 2009, the Knights have always had their sights set on another state title and will play for that title this Saturday, December 1st. The Knights have had a successful season, remaining undefeated through the regular season as well as the playoffs. They will face the Canterbury Cougars from Fort Myers, Florida, who will be defending their state title from last year.

The game will be played in St. Petersburg, Florida at 6333 9th Ave North, St. Petersburg, FL 33710. Kickoff for the championship will be at 7:30 p.m. There will also be a cheerleading competition starting at 5:30 p.m., which our cheer squad will perform.

This will be a great game, with two great teams, don’t miss it. GO KNIGHTS!