Pinnacle Academy

WASHINGTON — Solar panel roofs, wind-powered community centers, cork brick homes and cable trains made from Lego pieces are scattered around Yeshilist, a city created from the imaginations and research of four seventh grade students.

The Pinnacle Academy students presented Yeshilist to a panel of judges on Jan. 23 and won the Washington-area Future City Competition, allowing them to compete in the national finals next week.

 Each year during National Engineers Week, Future City holds a competition in which seventh and eighth graders complete a four-part project that allows them to create their own sustainable communities.

 The four different requirements of the competition are a virtual city created using the game SimCity 4, a research paper, a 3D city model, and a live question-answer session in front of competition judges.

 The goal for this year’s competition was to have students build an affordable community for those who lost their homes in a disaster or financial problems.

 The Pinnacle Academy students didn’t have much trouble finding inspiration for their community. They’re concept came from the heart.

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/390/news.aspx?id=156160

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Pinnacle Academy has been recognized at the Federal and State levels!

Mark R Warner, U. S . Senator from Virginia,  and Chapman Petersen, 34th District Virginia State Senator, recognized Pinnacle Academy's most recent accomplishment with letters of recognition.

Click here to download the Mark R Warner's letter

Click here to download the Chapman Petersen's letter

On January 22nd pinnacle academy hosted the first annual international fair the upper building was turned into a festive fair where more than 25 projects were created and presented by 4th-7th graders.  Students researched information about countries of their choice and prepared posters, travel guides, power points, models, and food. For more than two hours students and faculty enjoyed the festivities while voting on their favorite presentations. Countries from all over the world were represented. After the votes were tallied several students were presented with prizes. The Texas project from fourth grade Meryem Bicak, Seniha Atas, and Begum Uslu took first prize for fourth grade.  Fifth graders: Biloliddin Tulamirza and Esref Polat took the prize for their project on ancient Greece. Sixth graders put on a fantastic show making it difficult for everyone to decide. Sena Konya’s and Esra Demiroz project on France took first place. 7th graders Mehmet Aslan and Emre Karaman won for presenting a project on Chinese immigration.

I am pleased to inform you that our Future City team was awarded first
place at the Washington DC Metropolitan Area Future City Competition
today. Our team will represent our region at the 2010 Future City
Competition National Finals between February 13th and February 17th. I
would like to congratulate the four team members Selin Altintas, Nurbanu
Simsek, Zehra Yilmaz and Madina Khurishanova and faculty advisor Hatice
Evci and also our mentor Mr Emre Ozkan. I would especially like to extend
my thanks to their dedicated parents. I am sure you will join me in
wishing them good luck in the national finals!