News Briefs

Conn’s HomePlus partnered with Hewlett Packard (HP) and Dallas Cowboys safety Kavon Frazier to gift 120 laptops to four Dallas ISD schools. Students had the opportunity to meet and engage with Conn’s HomePlus CEO Norm Miller and Frazier as they made surprise visits to all four campuses to personally present the laptops. Miller hopes the donation will help students strive to do better in school, and he encouraged the students to always put their education first. “Hopefully these laptops will assist in your education efforts and you can use them to make it happen,” said Miller. Frazier discussed the importance…

At the recent State Academic Pentathlon Competition, Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School’s eighth-grade team took first place in Region V competition and ranked ninth place overall in Texas out of 86 teams. In the seventh-grade division, Dallas Environmental Science Academy took first place in Region V competition and ranked eighth overall in Texas out of 76 teams. Texas Academic Pentathlon is the middle school competition equivalent to Academic Decathlon and Lone Star Challenge. Nine-member middle school teams complete five exams in different subject areas. Each year’s competition has a different theme. The 1960s was this year’s theme. Here are…

Sixth-grade students from three Dallas ISD middle schools worked alongside professional engineers from Garver to learn about the engineering design process. The students and professionals built whimsical Rube Goldberg-style contraptions as they competed in the Garver Chain Reaction Challenge at the Dallas Museum of Art. The engineering firm is celebrating its 100th year, and in addition to providing hands-on learning, also provided chain reactions STEM kits and a monetary donation to Dallas ISD. Through this interactive activity, students gained a better understanding of STEM concepts, the engineering design process, critical-thinking skills, the importance of perseverance—and had a lot of fun…

More than 1,000 students from 14 Dallas ISD schools saw “Hamilton” at Dallas at the Music Hall at Fair Park thanks to valuable partnerships. Serena Connelly of the Harold Simmons Foundation, Dallas Summer Musicals, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and the Dallas ISD Visual and Performing Arts and Partnership Services departments made the amazing day possible for the students. In addition to a performance of the musical, students participated in a Q&A with stars of the show and saw classmates from Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts perform a Hamilton-inspired piece on the big…