News & Features

by Zoe Ginsberg ’17, Anjali Gupta ’18, and Talia Rosenberg ’17 Anjali Gupta of The Phoenix Inquirer recently embarked on a mission with FOCUS staff members Talia Rosenberg and Zoe Ginsberg to form a playlist that represents life at Friends’ Central. This soundtrack includes favorite classic songs like Swimming to the Other Side along with new pop songs such as Same Love or Happy. The main theme of these songs is love and acceptance of yourself and others. Each of these songs carries an important message with them that connects back to the values instilled at Friends’ Central every single day. At FCS, everyone’s love holds the same meaning, no matter if it is a boy who loves a guy, a girl who loves a girl, or any relationship in between. At our school, the goal is to maintain a safe and healthy environment through acceptance and love, and we believe that the…

by Jream Barnett-Matthews ’19, Natasha Guy ’16, Pierce Hayton ’20, Elizabeth Raphaely ’16, and Gordon Wilcox ’20 Friends’ Central proudly maintains many traditions in the Middle School on which even upper schoolers can still look back fondly. One of these is the always-fun Phoenix Game Day, the final hoorah to a successful school year. Always balancing competitive spirit with good-natured fun, this day is still significant in the lives of current middle schoolers at Friends’ Central, providing some of the most treasured memories of middle school. Collecting pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald house is not only fun because it contributes to the points of a team, but it also emphasizes the service component that is essential to the Friends’ Central experience. Another tradition essential to the Friends’ Central Middle School experience is the week-long 7th grade trip to the overnight camp Echo Hill, located on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Echo…

In an attempt to learn more about the upcoming 1:1 iPad program, The Phoenix Inquirer interviewed Middle School Principal Alexa Quinn. She provided information about the 1:1 iPad program, including why the school decided to provide Chromebooks to the 7th grade last year as a pilot program. Mrs. Quinn shared that the administration wanted to see what the 7th graders would have to show for their exposure to technology by 8th grade. They did not give the Chromebooks to 5th graders last year because they felt 5th graders were not ready to care for them. They also did want to give it to last year’s 8th graders because they are in Upper School this year and the administration would not have an easy way of knowing whether the 1:1 Chromebook program worked. We also asked Mrs. Quinn whether she could provide insight into the iPad program. She responded that Dr. Schuster, the…

In Dr. Zaradic’s eighth grade science classes, students have been writing weekly blog posts on topics that interest them. The Phoenix Inquirer, in collaboration with Dr. Z., selects a handful of these to feature on our website. We will continue this regular feature as more exceptional blog entries are written so that student learning can benefit, and be enjoyed by, the entire community.   “Need A Limb? Here’s A New One” by Evan Paszamant Imagine if you could replace old limbs and other body parts in your body with new ones? While the thought of that might seem fake, scientists have found a way to do it. In a hospital in north London, scientists are growing limbs and not from the ground! They are growing them using stem cells and a cake-like material. So far they have been able to create tear ducts, blood vessels and windpipes. Currently, they are beginning to create customized…

In Dr. Zaradic’s eighth grade science classes, students have been writing weekly blog posts on topics that interest them. The Phoenix Inquirer, in collaboration with Dr. Z., selected a handful of these to feature on our website. We hope to continue this practice as more exceptional blog entries are written so that student learning can benefit, and be enjoyed by, the entire community.   Chimps And Medicine by James Meyers I read about how some chimpanzees have been using plants to treat parasetic infections. Michael Huffman was watching some chimps in East Africa. He saw a mother chimp on a bed of leaves and sticks while the son climbed dangerously high. She was too sick to call him, so she ignored him. Later, she was able to get up and went over to a bush and removed some branches. Huffman was watching and saw that the chimp chewed on the…