Developmental Cell Biologist Dr. Brian Mitchell from Northwestern University taught the Whittier 4th/5th grade class all about frog development during his Science Alliance classroom visits.

After one of his visits, Ms. Darley wrote: "Great visit today from our Science Alliance Scientist, Dr. Brian Mitchell. He shared slides and videos of microscopic cell divisions and the kids set up experiments with tadpole embryos in various conditions. The kids were really excited about his work, made relevant comments, and asked great questions related to the set-up of the experiment and tadpole development. Thank you Brian - you're officially in the Whittier Scientist Hall of Fame!"

See the photos here.

The 18th annual William C. Staszak Award Dinner & Benefit was a beautiful evening celebrating Children's Clinic Executive Director Elizabeth Lippitt, who gave a moving speech demonstrating her passion for children's health and education. The event also featured a dramatic Bulls-style introduction of many of the Vex Robotics students and coaches who took their bots all the way to the National Championship in Omaha and emerged with a 2nd place finish.

The Staszak Benefit had another banner year in ticket and auction sales as well, raising big bucks for OPEF's exciting enrichment programs for District 97 students. Thank you to all who organized, donated, attended, bid and won!

You can see photos from the evening by Angela Farnham here.

Second graders at Irving created felt pillows with Harrison Street artists Pam Penney and Jeanette Durand. They dyed wool, felted the wool, did sun-printing onto cotton fabric, sewed and stuffed their nature-themed pillows. The students' creations will be displayed at What's Blooming on Harrison, May 25-26.

Make sure to check out our slideshow of photos by Pam Penney.

The Wednesday Journal and Oak Leaves both featured articles on Elizabeth Lippitt, her impressive accomplishments, and the Oak Park Education Foundation's Staszak Award Dinner & Benefit.

Kindergarten classes at Lincoln and Longfellow Elementary had a great time comparing the parts of the body to the elements of a buildings. These layered books, made in Ms. Casey Klemp's art classes as part of their Architecture Adventure project, were developed to show the steps in building a home. Playful watercolor crayon resist paintings serve as the cover for these layered works of art.

Be sure to checkout our video and slideshow from this project.

What a wonderful project! Oak Park artist and dancer Vickie Casanova taught Ms. Schweigert's Beye 2nd graders about the Underground Railroad. Together they read the award-winning children's book, "Show Way," by Jacqueline Woodson. They created their own art book, learned how to make quilts with secret meanings that are maps to freedom, and presented them to parents and friends.

Check out our slideshow of photos by Vickie Casanova and Amber Schweigert.

Artist Jonathan Franklin and Megan Leahy's Longfellow 2nd graders do an Art Start project with an 'art and earth' theme. Together they made cave paintings and fossils, created some two-page cave animal flip-book animations, and finished with a cave-animal parade. An awesome project!

Make sure you check out out slideshow of photos here.

Here's the story in Ms. Wennerberg's own words:

Dr. Ross teaches anatomy to students studying to be doctors. He offered to bring in human organs that were donated to science in order to help others learn. When I first shared this idea with my class, some were a bit hesitant, wondering if things would be gooey or gross.

After the first session seeing the entire human skeleton, the students were hooked. They became excited to have the opportunity each week to exam different parts of the human body up close. We were not only be able to see them up close, but we were be able to touch them and pick them up as we examined them.

Before distributing the organs, Dr. Ross gave us a description and function of each organ and the system it belonged to in our bodies. After examining the organs, we drew and labeled diagrams in our journal. Dr. Ross brought in examples of healthy as well as diseased organs. We helped the students see how the choices we make on a daily basis can impact the health of our bodies.

This was a once in a life time opportunity for us. We would like to thank Dr. Ross for his time, Science Alliance and the Oak Park Education Foundation for making this possible.

Ms. Wennerberg and her students

Make sure to check out our slideshow of photos here.

This past weekend, three teams from Brooks and Julian traveled to Omaha, Nebraska to compete in the Vex Robotics National Championship. There were 40 middle school robotic teams (the best in the country) coming from places as far away as Maine and Hawaii to compete.

Team members Diego Firpo, Mardi Hillengas, Daniel Jenks, Mimi Labruyere, Simon Lee, Ethan Mertz, Jonah Meshenberg, Matthew Mitrovich, Abe Sell, Matthew Testore, Matthew Wallace, and Chris Webb rocked the house with their performance.

During the qualifying rounds on Friday and Saturday, Julian's Yellow Team had a perfect qualifying round with a 7 - 0 match record, and entered the finals as the top seed. The Brooks "Loose Bolts" Team finished 2nd place overall in the championship rounds! All three teams made the select group that competed in the finals.

The teams were accompanied by coaches Tim Walsh, Don Robinson, Mark Pickus and Jessica Moncatch, along with volunteer mentors Ed Sell, Sergio Firpo, and Bob Parks.

Both teachers and mentors expressed their pride and admiration in this amazing performance at a national level. All agreed these students, who had worked on perfecting their designs since October, displayed the engineering skill, teamwork, dedication and ability to recover from failure that led to this great success. Congratulations to all three Oak Park teams! Thanks to the many, many contributors from the community who helped send the teams to Omaha. And thanks to the all the mentors, parents (and grandparents) for all of their support.

Make sure to check out this blog from the event and this video by the Wednesday Journal of our teams preparing for the National Championship. You can also see a short slideshow of photos here.

Art teacher Chris Worley, visiting artist and graphic designer Marc Linne, and after school art club students have designed a dynamic mural about the earth and its environment in the main "spine" hallway at Julian. The first floor theme is "Underwater" and the second floor is "On Land." Future art classes will create murals on the third floor with the theme "In the Air," and on the fourth floor: "In Outer Space!"

We are so grateful to the hundreds of supporters who responded to this letter that Mom Mail founder Annette Coffee posted on her popular Oak Park listserv on March 1:

Years ago, when I moved to Oak Park from Denver, Robin S. took time out of her day to sit down with me and give a new mom in between jobs information on what kinds of things I could do with my son around town. I will forever be grateful for that small gesture. Inspired, I have taken time out of every day for 6+ years to send out Mom Mail in the hopes that it's helpful to others. Now I'm asking you to take time out for a small gesture of kindness that will make a dream come true for area middle school kids.

Please help in sending Oak Park middle school Vex Robotics champions to Nationals! Can you give $2 to help make the dreams of 12 middle school aspiring engineers come true?

On February 11, an alliance of three Oak Park District 97 Julian and Brooks Middle School teams WON the Great Lakes - Midwest - Illinois Vex Robotics Championship, sweeping a field of 36 mostly high school area teams. Our local kids qualified to compete in the 2012 U.S. National Vex Robotics Championship in Omaha, Nebraska, March 15-17.

To get to Omaha, the non-profit Oak Park Education Foundation (which runs Oak Park's Vex Robotics program) needs to raise $3,500. If you and other Mom Mail subscribers each give a $2, tax-deductible donation to the Oak Park Education Foundation, the students would be well on their way. Even $1 would make a big difference if we ALL gave $1.

To make a contribution go to www.opef.org/donatenow. Or mail a check payable to "OPEF" to the Oak Park Education Foundation, 970 Madison Street, Oak Park IL 60302 (write "Vex Robotics" in the memo line). For more information on the big win, photos of Vex Robotics in action, and the Oak Park Education Foundation, go to www.opef.org.

The Oak Park Education Foundation (OPEF) is a privately funded, non-profit organization bringing experts into K-8th grade classrooms to work hands-on with District 97 students and teachers. In addition to Vex Robotics, OPEF runs Architecture Adventure, LEGO-based Geared Up, Science Alliance, Art Start and summer BASE Camp.

Thank you!
Annette Coffee

Read more about our middle school Vex Robotics teams, who head to the Vex National Championship in Omaha, Nebraska on March 15!

The classes of Mr. Sakellaris, Ms. Homann and Mr. Gray are taking on the engineering, physical science, math and technology challenges of OPEF's Geared Up program, using LEGO motorized Mechanisms to test ideas and work in teams of two.

Thanks to Gretchen Junker and Patti Quilling for these photos.