A selfie on the voyageur trail: Murray Middle School teacher Tim Chase snapped a photo of the voyageur class at Wolf Ridge environmental learning center on Nov. 6. More than 70 students trekked to the camp in northern Minnesota for a five-day science lesson. Murray has been taking students to Wolf Ridge since the 1970s, when the school was a high school. Students who go are chosen through a lottery system.
Save the date
Murray’s annual Barnes & Noble book fair will be held Thursday, Dec. 4, at HarMar Mall in Roseville. A percentage of all sales—books, food, games, toys and more—will go to Murray Middle School.
Friends and relatives can visit bn.com/bookfairs between Dec. 4 and Dec. 9 to support the school online. Enter Bookfair ID 11461589 at checkout. The Murray Parent Association sponsors this event.
Real science
Murray’s magnet science students met with Dr. John Ward from the University of Minnesota and several of his graduate students on Oct. 22 to discuss science fair topics, ranging from measuring chlorophyll in plant leaves to extracting DNA. Ward has been reaching out to Murray Middle School students for more than a decade. Students can ask questions via email regarding their literature search, the development of their procedure, as well as getting help in analyzing their data. Science teacher Tim Chase says, “It’s an opportunity for seventh- or eighth-graders to meet a real scientist, discuss real science and develop a good experiment that builds the deep understanding of the scientific process that Murray has had such a rich success in for decades.”
An eclipse party
Oct. 23’s partial solar eclipse brought more than 50 Murray Middle School students, parents, staff and some neighbors to College Park in St. Anthony Park to observe the event. Murray’s Magnet Science II students had been studying astronomy before the eclipse. Murray science teacher Tim Chase had Sunspotter telescopes on loan from the Science Museum of Minnesota to allow safe viewing of the partial eclipse and help magnify the image so students could see the sun spots as well. Here, students are having fun making shadows along with making eclipse images.
