Sierra Canyon Gets Council Nod After Mock Trial Win

It was “L.A. Law,” middle-school style.

Sixteen seventh- and eighth-graders from Sierra Canyon Middle School in Chatsworth were commended earlier this month by the Los Angeles City Council for their first-place finish in the 22nd annual Los Angeles Mock Trial competition.

It was their second consecutive first-place win in the competition, sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation.

The tournament, held at the Los Angeles County Courthouse downtown, required student teams to prepare both sides of a case, which they presented against competing teams from other public and private schools throughout Los Angeles County.

“I love learning about the [court system] and how the law works,” said Chelsea Norell, an eighth-grader from Woodland Hills.

The students worked for about eight weeks strategizing, preparing witnesses and writing opening and closing arguments, Chelsea said.

Other award-winning students were Josh Bernstein, Rajpal Brar, Ashim Chopra, John Choi, Matt Cohen, Pascal De Maria, Erica Deutsch, David Garfinkle, Jeff Kiok, Kevyn Klein, Michael Larner, Kevin Perkins, Daniel Selarz, Robyn Strumpf and Laura Vig. Teacher Susan Strumpf received honorable mention for outstanding mock trial teacher.

KUDOS

21st Century Library: Cleveland High School has unveiled its new media library, complete with 26 online catalog stations.

Students can now access books, maps, photos and text from current and archived newspaper and magazine articles. The library’s collection, which received $50,000 in new books, can be accessed by students on the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“We gutted our old library and started from fresh,” said Principal Al Weiner. “We want to provide a facility that will allow our students to transition to college.”

The $250,000 renovation was made possible, Weiner said, from a California Digital High School grant of $968,000. The Digital High School grant is a state grant that all high schools eventually will receive.

The balance of the funds will go toward new computers and computer teacher training. Eventually, Weiner said, students will be able to get assignments from their teacher’s Web pages.

PROGRAM NOTES

Artist’s Perspective: Internationally renowned muralist Barry McGee recently conducted an art workshop at Indian Hills High School in Calabasas. McGee helped students paint a mural and critiqued students’ work.

The artist’s visit was part of a program to introduce professional artists to the high school students. Local actors, sculptors, filmmakers and painters have previously participated.

McGee’s work has been shown in museums in Japan, Brazil and the United States.

New Teachers: Thanks to a $1.48-million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education, 300 LAUSD teachers entering the profession over the next three years will be trained using a new software program.

Interactive Multimedia Exercises, or IMMEX, was developed 12 years ago for UCLA’s School of Medicine and enables teachers to test complex problem-solving in science, chemistry, mathematics, genetics and language arts.

“It was crazy to keep an amazing tool like this just for medical students,” said Ron Stevens, the project director and UCLA professor who developed the software.

Training and software are free. Workshops are available to current teachers during the summer at Sun Valley’s Polytechnic High School, among other Los Angeles area schools. Other teachers working on their credentials should consult their individual schools for more information.

EVENTS

Life on Mars?: “Three Extraterrestrial Debates in Geology” will be discussed at Glendale Community College on Tuesday at noon. Geology professor Poorna Pal will speak on the idea that the earth’s water may be of extraterrestrial origin and that extremely primitive life forms may have once existed on Mars.

The discussion will be held in Room 225 of the Chemistry-Math Building at the college, 1500 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale. Admission is free. Call (818) 240-1000 for more information.

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Class Notes appears every Wednesday. Send news about schools to the Valley Edition, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax it to (818) 772-3338.