In honor of this season of Festivals of Light – Bob Kulawiec, Chemistry teacher extraordinaire, offers the following Holiday Tale – On Strontium, on Lithium, on Copper, on Barium:

Most years, during the last class period of each section of chemistry before winter break, I share “celebratory holiday pyrotechnics” with my students.  The dishes contain metal salts dissolved in methanol, a highly flammable solvent.  When the methanol burns, the heat of combustion promotes the metal atoms to higher energy states.  When they fall back to their ground states, they emit the excess energy in the form of visible light.  Since each element has its own characteristic quantized energy states, each element emits light of different wavelengths, which we perceive as different colors.  The colors correspond to the classic “flame tests” used for centuries to identify elements.  They are, from left to right: lithium (bright scarlet), copper (green), strontium (reddish orange) and barium (green-tinged yellow).

Happy Holidays from the Edmund Burke School Chemistry Lab!

–Bob

Putting on a big holiday party tonight – means bringing out the heavy machinery and the right artists to make it happen, like Lucinda and Mel.  Thanks to them and to all the faculty, parents and students who are making the Burke Holiday Party the place to be tonight!

Stars & Stripes

Two Burke stars, Jennifer & still-recent arrival Ryan, lookin’ good in stripes (from the sun) and kickin’ back after a grueling breakfast meeting at the Metro Diner. Jen returns to the Development Office in January.  Before then, keep a look-out for some possible cameo appearances by Jen, Ryan, Ellie & Christian (if you’re nice and not naughty – they might even fly in for this Thursday’s Holiday Party).

Geralyn

A special thanks goes out to another star, Geralyn Lobel, who has more than held down the fort in the development office.  The parent of a Burke alumna, former development co-director, and always a relentless supporter of Burke in all ways, Geralyn came through again over the last 3 months+ in so many ways – including: helping the development trains run on time, orchestrating this year’s 100 Percent in 100 Days Annual Fund Campaign, organizing meetings between all new families and Andrew, supporting the early work on this Spring’s Auction, pulling together another great Grandparents Day, etc., etc., dayenu!  Along with Cathy Collins and Abby Kernan-Schloss, Geralyn has helped make sure that Burke development has continued to grow in a way that reflects the values of the community and insures that the school can continue to pursue its missions of academic achievement, diversity, personal growth, and service.

Thanks Geralyn!

Jump Shot

Roving reporter and 8th Grade parent, Mark Popovich attended Tuesday’s Girls Middle School B-Ball game against Waldorf and filed this report (and action photos):

The middle school girls basketball team tipped up the 2011 campaign with its first “midnight madness at 3:15pm” game.  Facing Waldorf, the gallant gals worked through the first game jitters and both teams produced little scoring in a first half dominated by strong defensive play.  Scoring picked up the pace in the second stanza and while the burke bengals showed signs of much of the hard work of the preceding practices, they came up short on the final score.  The team looked mah-vah-lus.   Get em next game — Thursday…

Update – true to Mark’s word, La Bengals “got ‘em” on Thursday with a great team effort (and btw – evening up their record at 1 & 1 with a strong “W” – and we’re not talking about G. Bush’s middle initial).

More Popovich original photos (from his new phone) at BurkePix!

The moon set on the final performance of Dracula Saturday night.  Though the story is as old as the Count himself, it came to life anew in the Burke Theater.

The spotlight shown down through the dark on the eternal drama between: the flash of youth and the thirst of age, the shadow of madness and the hope of reason, the hypnotic power of love and the use of love to gain power over others.

Love Hurts

In other words this wasn’t your father’s old Dracula.  From the moment a dank fog settled over the theater and the audience settled into their seats, a gothic world arose where heaven and hell were separated by only a kiss.

Front Row Seat

The Good Doctor

Van Helsing

What goes on in Dracula's Castle

Innocent Youth

Bravo

A Richard & Mel Production

Eerie lighting & sound engineers

And remember, if you dare, there are more photos at BurkePix (courtesy of the ever photopresent and not too scary Steve O’Keefe) and the Burke Media Gallery (thx to Burke’s correspondent at large, Alison Merow)… thanks also to the scores of students, parents and staff who helped bring the play to life…

And don’t forget as you go to sleep that this night is not so very different than the night envisioned by Bram Stoker….

Bram Comes Alive

Jumping Off Point

Another action photo from Math Master & Commander, Steve O’Keefe.  We know he’s at home at sea.  But he’s equally adept at capturing life as it flies by.

More Steve pix can be found at the PhotO’Keefe link to the right – or by clicking here.

PhotO'Keefe Meets Dali

This picture from Cap’n Steve O’Keefe, our Math Master & Commander, shows that if you peer down a level or two, reality isn’t all just straight lines and crisp angles.  I think this photo is from a trip to Denmark (right Steve?) or some other wonderfully surreal location.

For more pics by our Math professor, click on the “PhotO’Keefe” link on the right column – or just click here.

Seniors' Night!

One of my favorite nights of the school year is Senior Night.  After a hard fought soccer, wrestling, softball, etc. match, with the sun setting on another season, the players, coaches, parents and friends gather to recognize the work of the senior members of the team.

The night is less a celebration of individual contributions, than it is a recognition and tribute to the power and passage of time and the journey that the individuals and the team make through it.  With teammates and family around them, it’s a recognition of the many things that they have accomplished over the time that they have had together; a recognition that the separate moments of time are fleeting and deserving of a ‘look around’ before they become memories; and that the time ahead of them, though not fully defined, has promise.

Coach McQ and his bouquets

It’s also a (sometimes too implicit) recognition of all the hard work, patience, friendship, urging and caring from all the great coaches that they have had over the years.  A special nod goes to this year’s Girls Varsity Soccer team coaches, Meggan Eckert, Molly Eckert and Lynne Zummo, who not only taught the girls about how to play the game, but about how to be a team.  And thanks to Coach McQ for helping bring together and supporting such a great team of coaches across all of the Burke sports squads.

Here’s to the Seniors and the wonderful time we’ve had watching them grow:

Valerie!

Kate!

Faith!

Grace! (blurry)

Grace & Kate (less blurry!)

Ellie (of course, she makes everyone smile too much to stay in focus!!)

Dana - so much heart - no photo is big enough to capture it!

Congrats to the Girls Varsity Soccer current and future Seniors!

As always – more photos at BurkePix.

Homecoming!

Let the trumpets sound:

Let the food be prepared:

Let the people assemble:

And let the Games begin:

For last Friday was the Homecoming Doubleheader for the Varsity Boys & Girls Soccer squads – as well as all of their loyal fans.  There were two great matches with a beautiful Fall sky colored by a setting sun on one side of the field – and a raucous crowd of Burke fans on the other.

Everyone came out, including – soccer hooligans:

Women of great stature

Men of great stature:

The runners:

The up & comers:

The movers & shakers:

The coaches:

The coach’s puppy:

And the players:

In fact, just about the entire Burke community:

Also, special bravos go to all the many people who pitched in, including Elena Hernandez, Nancy Golding, Diz Hormel, Monica Miracky, Vanessa White, Hal and Dawn Hiemstra, Thorne Rankin, Lisa Carr, Tina Chen, Beth Allaben, Wanda Cosmo, Mike Carr, and especially the Varsity Boys Soccer Team for hazmat cleanup duty under the bleachers – which got a good housekeeping stamp of approval from Coach McQ!

Lots more photos at BurkePix.