A real magnet: Ortega Elementary has waiting list
During Collection Night students shared their personal collections with their families and friends. Here Coral Day, an Ortega Museum Magnet 3rd grader, shares her medal collection, complete with a museum quality label. This event coincided with the schools' Museum 101 unit taught in grades K-5.
Ortega Elementary School has gotten off to a successful start in 2012 with a full slate of activities – and a full student roster. The museum magnet school has a waiting list and more than 60 new magnet students enrolled in the 2012-2013 school year.
The neighborhood magnet school is making good use of the partnerships it has established during the past two years with area museums and galleries. In mid-October the school hosted a Science Night that exhibited 15 ecology-themed stations from the Museum of Arts & Sciences in Daytona. The school also is hosting arts integration students from the University of North Florida to practice teaching strategies and help students build exhibits. UNF and Ortega students had their first major interaction this year at the Museum of Science and History, where Ortega students evaluated MOSH exhibits. The exercise helped students with designs of their own exhibitions.
The next student exhibition at Ortega Elementary School will be Nov. 8. Additional exhibitions are scheduled for Feb. 21 and May 30. The shows begin at 6 p.m., and are located in the school hallways.
Ortega Elementary School fifth-graders are in the process of raising more than $50,000 to fund a class trip to Washington, D.C. The trip will include a visit to the Smithsonian Museum of American History and Natural History, Ford’s Theater, the Capitol, Mount Vernon, Jamestown Settlement, and Library of Congress. Students have already started a letter writing campaign to local businesses in the hopes of finding
sponsors.
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