Geography Club

Coach: Mrs. Hanson

Do you like to look at maps? Do you enjoy learning about other people and places? Do you ever daydream about traveling around the world? Do you just love geography? Then join us on Mondays after school from 3:15 to 4:15 for the geography club where we will test our knowledge and have fun preparing for the National Geography Bee. This club meets all year and is for Middle School students only. Limit 10 students.

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Mr. Aybar

Photography Club

Teacher: Mr. Aybar, Computer Science Teacher

Brief description: The Sonoran Photography Club explores the connection between the eye, the camera, and the spirit, by fostering and encouraging growth of artistic vision and technical knowledge. The Club provides a supportive environment for beginner photographers at all levels of ability and with interests in all types of photographic imagery. Club activities offer a means for members to share ideas and knowledge with each other and to promote an interest in photography throughout the community. Field trips are scheduled throughout the year to provide interesting photo opportunities for participants.

Grade Level: Both middle and high school students can participate in Photography Club.

Field Trips: we will have several field trips. We will take pictures of winter scenes, desert plants, ocean pictures, animals in the desert, and mountain peaks in different places.

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Mr.Beech

The Eagle Book Club:

- instill a continuing love of literature of non-academic genres, such as science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and etcetera

- promote reading for enjoyment

- encourage group dynamic discussion on literature

- model good reading and focused social behaviors

This is a full-year high school club only and will meet on non-half day Fridays from 3:15 to 4:00 pm. It is limited to twenty students, but will meet with as few as three or four.

The club is designed around the typical book club. The club will collectively choose a book to read. Each meeting the club will select the reading amount for the next meeting and discuss the reading due that day. The club can discuss such as snacks, movies based on (or inspired by) the book, and etc.

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Ms.Norris

The objective will be mainly to continue to publish the student newspaper, “That's The Way The Cookie Crumbles”, every Friday, until school is out in May. The students loved this last year. 

The club is for HIGH SCHOOL students ONLY!

The newspaper club will meet immediately after school on THURSDAYS (so we can get the paper ready for delivery on Friday) until approximately 4:05. Our first meeting will be THIS THURSDAY (August 14th).

The club will give the students a chance to enhance their writing schools and give perspective journalists the opportunity to practice their chosen craft. We have openings for feature writers, sports writers, editorial writers, copy "boys", copy editors, advice columnists, food critics and cartoonists just to name a few. 

This is guaranteed to be the coolest club on campus.

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Ms.McQuiad

SCRABBLE is a fun and innovative way for kids to develop vocabulary, spelling, math and spatial relation skills. The club is open to MS and HS students; however, only middle school students are eligible to compete in the National School Scrabble Competition. This club will meet both semesters on Fridays as a fun way to wrap up the school week. 

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1. Club Objectives: To implement a recycling program on campus and to promote energy conservation in students' daily lives. (We will see if we only collect aluminum cans on campus or if the school or Parent Association can obtain a bin from the waste disposal company for newspaper and waste paper.)

2. Middle school

3. Limit approx. 6

4. Club meeting days; Tuesdays, full year

5. Students will distribute collection containers at the beginning of the year, advertise the recycling effort, empty the containers once a week, and bring the cans back to my room (and/or take the contents to the recycling bin if we can arrange for one). We will also distribute, post, and announce energy conservation tips for school, at home, and in the community.

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Mr. Coltrin

Literary Magazine

The objective of this club is to compile a magazine showcasing student writing and visual arts. Students will be involved in all aspects of creating the magazine, including seeking submissions, editing content, designing the magazine, and other aspects of creating a publication. 

Participation is open to both Middle and High School students. All interested students are welcome. The Literary Magazine club will meet Thursday afternoons in Mr. Coltrin's room (106) from 3:30 to 4:15.

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Ms. Votroubek

International Thespian Society (meets at lunch two times in a month) is an honor society that recognizes excellent student work in theatre and celebrates drama in our school and community. We participate in acting festivals, attend Broadway plays, perform at a local coffee-house, hold lock-ins and parties, support drama productions at our school, and more! All high-school students are welcome to participate in Thespian events and members must earn status though theatre activity. We hold regular meetings at lunch time and events take place throughout the school year! See Ms. Votroubek or Thespian officers for more information. 

Spring Musical (Jan.-April) is an after-school activity that runs January-April and is open to all student grades 8-12. This is the staging of a full-length Broadway musical to be performed in a theatre at a neighboring high school. Students may participate as a part of the technical crew or audition to be a part of the cast. Rehearsal generally takes place 1-3 days a week, from 3:25pm-5:00pm. This is a fun and exciting extra-curricular activity involving many SSA students. Our previous productions of Grease and Footloose involved 60-75 students each!

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Mr. Perman

Objective: Beginner level Russian Language

Grade level: Both Middle and High School

Limitations: 8 students.

Will be a full year activity, meeting times will be Mondays after school.

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Mr. Cole

Grade level: Middle school

Meeting Days: Tuesdays (3:30-4:15) (one semester at a time)

Fees: Just how ever it cost to go on a possible field trip.

Theory Behind the club:

Give students a chance to be able to play a pick up game of a sport with all there friends there. This gives student to have a good time and socialize while being active at the same time. Anyone can join. My only requirements for this club are that students want to be there and have fun time along with a positive attitude. Absolutely no bad attitudes. We also might go field trips. For those we I will let students know when, where, and the times that we will be doing the activity. (for example, going to a golf driving range). Not only do we just focus on sports, but also fitness, and lifelong activities.

~Scott Cole

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I am willing to do a 6-8th music ensemble on Mondays after school starting the second week of September. Students must know how to already play an instrument and of course, own their own. They must also have a stand. I will only be able to accommodate 12-15 students. The cost will be $30. Our goal will be to compose a school song and possibly a school fight song.

Mrs. Campbell

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Robotics (FRC, FTC, FLL)
Mr. Bennett (FRC grades 10-12)
Mr. Hobbins (FTC grades 8-9)
Mr. Ali (First Lego League 6-8)

Our CRUSH (Creating Robots Under Severs Heat) robotics team enters the 7th season this year. In the fall students develop skills in a wide variety of areas related to robotics including design, metal machining and welding, electrical systems and control, pneumatics, sensors, computer programming, computer animation, web site programming and photography, and more. In the spring we use these skills to build a competition robot and compete with it in FIRST Robotics regional tournaments. Our main objective is to help students make the connection between their skills in science, math, and technology to the application of these skills in real projects. Students get a preview of what it will be like to pursue a career in science or engineering. Detailed information about the FRC competition is available at www.usfirst.org. The FRC team is open to students in grades 10-12 with a limit of 25 students. Our new FTC team competes late in the fall semester and is open to grades 8-9 with a limit of 10 students. 

Meetings
In the fall we meet Tuesday and Thursday 3:15-5:15 (and occasionally on Saturday) starting next week on August 26. During the competition build period (January and February) the FRC team meets every day and often work quite late.

Costs
Students pay a part of competition trip costs that depends on their hours of participation in team activities. These costs range from $50 to $200 per trip. There are usually two trips. robotics.

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FTC

This will be the pilot year for FTC at Sonoran Science Academy. We would like to have our students start Lego in 6th and 7th grade and then transition to FRC in 10th-12th grade by participating in FTC during 8th and 9th grade.

Objective:

Every year there is different game and we are required to build a robot; which can be remotely controlled and made up of only VEX products, to play the game. The robot will be built according to the rules and regulations of the game.

Club Structure:

The SSA FTC robotics club is open for 8th and 9th graders. The size limit of the team is 10 students.

Requirements:

v Only students with grades of C- or above can join the club. Any failure to this requirement in any academic quarter will cause losing the privilege of being part of the team.

v $50 fee per student is required for kit costs and t-shirt. There might be other costs depending on the tournament participation.

Meeting Schedule:

This is a demanding club! It is going to require a team effort and everyone will need to be committed to our team's success. If this is going to be an issue, then please consider a different club. There will be a 2-hour meeting twice a week. The duration of meetings may be increased when we get closer to the tournament date. Occasionally, we may also meet on Saturdays near the competition time. Also, FTC will need to meet during Thanksgiving weekend to finish practicing with the robot just before the competition. Thursday will be free for all students, but we may meet on the other off days Fri, Sat, and Sun to practice with the robot.

                1st Meeting: Tuesday August 26th, 2008

Tournaments:

We will participate in the Arizona regional tournament which the location has not been announced yet. If we are successful, we will continue to the national tournament in Atlanta.

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History through Film

This club will consist of watching Hollywood movies that are history based and approved by me, the teacher. I will send home permission slips if the movie is rated PG13 or higher which in many cases it will be. The students will be required to answer questions about the movie during and/or afterwards to ensure that they understand the accuracy of the movie as it relates to history. This club is offered to students because as history teacher I realize that there is an interest in watching these movies during the year but we do not have enough time throughout the year to do this. I will have a list of the movies and historical events that we will cover when the club begins. 

We will meet from 3:30-whenever the movie ends on Fridays only. 

Grade Level: middle school

Future City ( SimCity)

• Fostering engineering skills, such as teamwork, communication and problem solving skills;

• Providing interaction among students, teachers, and engineer mentors;

• Informing the community about the multi-disciplines within the engineering profession;

• Inspiring students to explore futuristic concepts and careers in engineering.

Ebru (Turkish Water Marbling)

One of the most unique and beautiful forms of Turkish art is Ebru, or water marbling. Ebru is formed by drawing designs with dye on top of water and then carefully placing paper on the surface of the water in order to absorb the dye.

Club will meet on Thursday in Art Room (Room 101). Space is limited. (5- 6 students only.)

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Ms.Barnett

Science Olympiad

Room: 112

Meets: Friday

Middle School only

1.     To bring science to life, to show how science works, to emphasize problem solving aspects of science and the understanding of science concepts.

2.    To develop teamwork and cooperative learning strategies among students.

To promote high levels of achievement and a commitment to excellence, to demonstrate that American students can perform at levels that surpasses expectations of even practicing scientists and engineers.