Educator of the Year

But when Karl Rupert was soundly booed by Farrell high schoolers because one of his projects didn't live up to expectations, all he could do was laugh.

There was quite a bit of hype building up to the public demonstration of the trebuchet, a catapult-like device that was a piece of medieval heavy artillery.

"This was one of the main weapons for castle warfare," Rupert said.

But if Friday's demonstration was a good indicator, the denizens of any castle he wanted to storm could sip their grog worry-free. The plans for the trebuchet -- which uses a counterweight while acatapult uses a spring -- were pulled from the Inter-net, and Rupert's physics students and Steve Sipos' general technology charges built it.

Farrell's model was supposed to be able to hurl an eight-pound ball300 feet. The projectile of choice: a head of cabbage.

On the first try, the cabbage flew about 50 feet. The second head was thrown straight backward, smashing into a loading dock below where students were standing.

A fragment from the second head was launched and shot straight up into the air, losing leaves as it fell into a crowd of students.

"Cole slaw for lunch, Rupert," shouted teacher James Cardamon.

Softballs flew better, but no farther that the first head of cabbage.

Brian Perfilio, a ninth-grader who helped build the trebuchet, said he was disappointed at the showing.

"When you guys weren't here earlier, it went great," Brian said. "We had one go 216 feet."

Rupert said Brian's estimation was a bit of an exaggeration.

"I don't think we got over 150 feet," he said of a softball. "But that was in the wind."

Dodging flying cabbage isn't your normal classroom endeavor, but that was the point. Farrell Area High School spent the entire month of January studying the Middle Ages, which date roughly from the years 400 to 1500 as European empires emerged from the dissolution of the Roman Empire.

Dragons, damsels and knights abounded as students read Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," and compared it to the movie "10 Things I Hate About You," painted coats of arms, built castles, explored the history of gargoyles and England's legal system, sewed stuffed unicorns, learned medieval musical pieces, figured out how much material it would take to paint a castle, and played a game called The Bubonic Plague that focused on life in Europe.

But Europe was not the sole focus of study, as the time period was explored in different cultures, particularly Japan.

A Medieval Faire Friday offered the students a chance to sample delicacies popular at the time and show off their art projects.

Lisa Oliver, who teaches seventh-grade English, was credited with initiating the idea of medieval study. Former Principal Frank Sincek wanted the study to be school-wide, and funding from the district and Ted Pedas through a Great Idea! grant allowed the purchase of materials.

"We've never done anything like this before, concentrating on one subject and examining it across the whole curriculum," said Ms. Oliver, noting that medieval times is one of her favorite subjects.

"What's good about it is, because all the teachers are doing it, the teachers are talking to each other about it and talking about the kids' reactions to it," said Mary Elizabeth Moroco, whose English students discussed the treatment of women.

Through puppet shows -- students made the puppets and scenery, wrote the show scripts and performed them -- the medieval climate was filtered to the younger grades.

"I think it's a good idea for the little ones to see what they're expected to learn," said first-grade teacher Joan Hunter, adding that younger students readily learn from older ones.

"It's also gives the bigger kids a chance to show off," she said.

Ms. Oliver's puppeteers quizzed first- and second-graders on the puppet shows, and awarded them candy, toys and the puppets theyhad made.

While some students got bored with such an in-depth study of a single subject, many of the students got into it, Ms. Moroco said.

"It's a time so far removed from us that people wonder about it," she said.

Eighth-grader Nick Gargano said that was part of the reason the month-long study appealed to him.

"It was fun," he said. "We got to do a lot of stuff we wouldn't normally be able to do."

"Operation Owl" swooped into the fourth grade in the form of balls of fur handed out to each student. After measuring and weighing the fur balls, the students burrowed into them, pressing tufts to find hard parts and using toothpicks to pull fur away from them.

Brianna Getsie's work area showed the fruits of her labor: piles of tiny skulls, teeth, ribs, vertebrae and leg bones.

"This is the prey," said Brianna, of Farrell. "This is what the owl ate."

"The owls eat only birds, rodents, shrews and moles," said Kayla Cole of Farrell.

But the owls can't digest the bones and fur, regurgitating the remains of their meals.

Students had to try to figure out what kinds of animals the bones came from and keep track of how many of each creature they found in the balls of fur, called "owl pellets."

"What do you think this is?" asked Ashley, as she held up a skull with long front teeth and showed how its jaw was once attached.

"Probably a rodent," Brianna answered.

Justina Crocker of Farrell admitted she was grossed out when she first got her pellet.

"You only have one glove," she said, holding up her ungloved hand. "It turned my fingers black."

But revulsion turned to fascination as the students uncovered the remains of the owl's lunch.

"Look," Brianna said holding up a small ball of fur she believed was bereft of bones. "That's all I have left."

"No, you don't," Ashley said, pointing out a bone.

Ashley held up her bag of bones, which she got to take home, for teacher Lisa Kirila.

"You did a good job," Ms. Kirila said. "You were meticulous."

Ashley said the assignment made her think of a couple of dead birds she has seen in her neighborhood.

"Maybe I can dissect those," she said.

The students have been studying predators and prey and the food chain, and earlier this year learned about owls, said Ms. Kirila, who teaches math, science and social studies.

After lunch -- the students washed their hands thoroughly before heading off to the cafeteria -- students went back to their classrooms for math lessons on averaging and bar graphs based on the data they collected during the pellet dissections with Ms. Kirila and Marge Gillern, who usually teaches reading, English and spelling.

Carol Kohut, who also teaches reading, English and spelling, gave them a writing assignment on owls, and Brent Shrawder, a math, science and social studies teacher, showed a video on owls and demonstrated owl calls.

"Operation Owl" was funded by Ted Pedas and a Great Idea! Grant through the school district.