Elementary school dedications
Riverview Elementary
, 250 Knightsbridge Drive, Hamilton, 7 p.m. Thursday
Brookwood Elementary, 1325 Stahlheber Road, Hamilton, 7 p.m. Nov. 15
Crawford Woods Elementary, 2200 Hensley Ave., Hamilton, 7 p.m. Nov. 17
HAMILTON — “Everybody — teachers, students, parents — has stepped up their game” since the new Riverview Elementary opened this school year, according to Principal Mary Anne Hughes.
“Reactions to the new building have been extremely positive,” she said. “The teachers have been using their new technology for a few months and have gotten excellent results.”
Monday afternoon found fourth-graders in Julie Rogers’ class listening to a song with an animated video about photosynthesis that had been posted on
as part of an ongoing science project to learn about plants and life cycles. Rogers projected the website on an overhead screen, a feat of technology that would have been impossible in Harrison Elementary, the school that Riverview replaced.
The students have been raising Wisconsin fast plants (Brassica rapa) in countertop light boxes and on their desks to compare how many seeds are produced by pollinated plants versus nonpollinated.
Twenty-eight days ago, they planted the seeds and fertilized them, and then when they flowered, the students used “bee sticks” — literally, dead bees glued to sticks — to pollinate the plants themselves. In a couple of weeks, they will harvest the plants and count the seeds, making it a “seed-to-seed” project, Rogers said.
“The students come to school every day with a renewed sense of purpose,” Hughes said. “They have a new level of pride and responsibility for the building and for each other.
“The Riverview parents have been very supportive of every aspect of our new school, the new procedures and guidelines,” Hughes said, noting that many parents are alumni of Harrison Elementary.
“Riverview might be in the same location with the same address, but we are a different school all around,” she said.
The public is invited to take a look at the new school on Thursday as Riverview becomes the second of four new elementary schools to be dedicated.
Fourth-grade students will sing two songs, “My School” and “Mi Escuela,” the latter in Spanish, to celebrate the school’s multicultural population.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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