Student news from Fox Chapel Area and Shady Side Academy

Free meals are available to all children ages 18 and younger during Fox Chapel Area School District’s fully online instructional period.

Children are eligible for five free breakfasts and five free lunches per week, and meals will be distributed once a week.

Meals can be collected at the back of Kerr Elementary School and the side of Dorseyville Middle School. Pickup times are 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at both locations every Wednesday.

Anyone ordering meals must fill out a Google form at FCASDPickupMeals. This form must be completed by 10 p.m. the Monday prior to pickup.

Coding club builds website

Members of the Shady Side Academy Senior School “Girls Who Code” club, led by juniors Emmie Jordan and Ariella Avigad, have created a website to help seventh-graders at SSA Middle School study various units of biology for their science class.

Last year, club members began working with seventh-grade science teacher Bonnie Maxwell to collect learning materials and build the website in Weebly to help students learn, study and review the curriculum. The site includes quizzes, review sheets, videos and general information about the skeletal system, cells and muscular system.

The club was founded at the Senior School in 2019, and its goal is to get girls involved in computer science and STEM.

In addition to Jordan and Avigad, members include juniors Ariana Barsotti, Riley Doyle, Gigi Horgan and Ava Kronman; and sophomores Emma Gardner, Elizabeth Kamin, Zoey Miller, Cassidy Mineo and Smrithi Shyam.

Candy collection successful at SSA

Shady Side Academy junior Maya Leyzarovich and the Senior School Service Learning Club organized a Halloween candy collection for veterans in partnership with Military Connections, a nonprofit organization that sends care packages, equipment and supplies overseas to service members.

SSA community members were invited to donate leftover Halloween candy the week of Nov. 2-6 by dropping it in boxes in the Senior School library and Deans’ Office.

Service Learning Club members packed up the donations, and Leyzarovich and her mother delivered the candy to Military Connections on Nov. 8.

FCA students thrive on ‘Hometown High Q’

Three Fox Chapel Area High School students won their first-round competition on KDKA-TV’s “Hometown High Q.”

They are seniors Amulya Garimella and Jackson Romero and sophomore Elijah Conklin. The team competed against students from Upper St. Clair and Valley high schools.

The staff sponsor is gifted education teacher Lisa Gibson.

“Hometown High Q” is a Saturday-morning high school academic quiz show presented by KDKA-TV in partnership with Williams, an American energy company.

The episode can be found at pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/hometown-high-q/.