Tag Archives: Walnut Valley Unified

Walnut Valley students compete in Robot Expo at Fairplex

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Collegewood Elementary students cheer on their robot at Robot Expo.

Collegewood Elementary students cheer on their robot at Robot Expo.

The Walnut students were real fireballs and the Pomona kids weren’t far behind in the Robot Expo at the Fairplex on Monday morning. The fun competition is part of Cal Poly Pomona’s School Robotics Initiative.

In fact, Team Fireball from Suzanne Middle School won the gold medal in the Gate Crasher contest with an amazing time of 6.967. In the close competition, students have to program their robots to pass through a gate in 7 seconds.

Easier said then done, when the students have to calculate the circumference of their robot’s wheels, estimate the gear ratio they should use and program the power running through the little electric motors.

But the Fireball team seemed to have mastered the engineering challenge. Team captain Augustus Rodriguez worked with classmates Adel Nasir and Abdul Rahman Ali to build the winning robot.

“I built our robot, while Adel programmed it,” said 12-year-old Abdul. “It was interesting to work with robots in school.”

The little machines force the students to focus on science and math.

“The students have to apply their math and science skills to build their robots, which motivates them to do better in school,” explained Nicole Forrest Boggs, director of development for the College of Education at Cal Poly Pomona.

Since 2006, the university has worked with elementary and middle school students in the two districts to develop an innovative robotics curriculum.

Read more in Rich Irwin’s story ROBOTS

Walnut Valley students win at State Leadership Conference

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Diamond Bar and Walnut High School business students competed in the State Leadership Conference in Santa Clarita on April 18-21. They’re members of Future Leaders of America (FBLA). They qualified for the competition during regional Inland Section contest in February.

Both high schools brought home many awards. Seven students also qualified for the national competition: Crystal Chang and Sachin Vernin from Diamond Bar High; Jefferey Huang, Hana Haideri, Annie Liu, Howard Chen, and Vivian Huang from Walnut High.

Read more in BIZ. 

‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ comes to stage at Diamond Bar High

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“Thoroughly Modern Millie” offers lots of singing and tap dancing at Diamond Bar High School this weekend and next.

“Thoroughly Modern Millie” is a really big production at Diamond Bar High. It has three different casts with more than 50 actors and actresses, plus twin directors.

No wonder, the drama department is adding two more shows, offering a total of six different performances this weekend and next.

While the students may be thoroughly modern with their iPhones and iPods, the play takes us back to 1922, when these gadgets were the stuff of science fiction.

Some would say a simpler time, but whenever it comes to love and life, do things ever really change? The zany musical opens with our ingenue from Kansas moving to the Big Apple to take a bite out of life.

Read more in Rich Irwin’s story MILLIE. 

Castle Rock Elementary unveils colorful murals in Diamond Bar

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Castle Rock Elementary School in Diamond Bar school uncovered 240 colorful tiles under a sunny, blue sky on Thursday.

“One of our volunteers, Cindy Yee, thought it would be a great way to beautify our campus and raise money for our programs,” said Principal Carol Sullivan.

The International Baccalaureate school gathered in the amphitheater to get their first glimpse of the four large murals. Until then, the students had only seen the 6 inch by 6 inch tiles that they had designed themselves. Many parents made it a family project, buying a separate tile for each child.

Read more in Rich Irwin’s story MURALS.

Chen becomes newest Walnut Valley board member

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Phillip Chen, elected to the Walnut Valley Unified School District board in November, officially took his seat Monday.

Chen, a health deputy for Supervisor Mike Antonovich and a reserve sheriff’s officer, was sworn into office along with veteran board member Larry Redinger, who was re-elected to a sixth term.

In the election on Nov. 8, Chen came in first, taking the seat vacated by incumbent Carolyn Elfelt, who moved out of the district and was not eligible to run. Redinger kept his seat on the board.

“Quite frankly, it feels rather humbling,” said Chen on Tuesday. He was impressed with a Walnut Valley parent who spoke about bettering communications between parents and the district.

“It is helpful to know parents who have issues will come to the school board meetings to resolve them,” he said.

Chen said he hopes to learn the ropes from veteran board members Redinger, Cindy Ruiz, Nancy Lyons and Helen Hall.

Walnut Mayor Pro Tem Mary Su administered the oath of office to Chen. Mt. SAC board Trustee David Hall swore in Redinger, who was named board president.

-steve scauzillo