News

The PCA Community: Joining Together For Day Of Prayer

ACSI’s National Day of Prayer was a morning to be remembered. On February 28, students in grades K-12, along with faculty and parents, gathered in the Student Life Center for worship and prayer. Lower School, Middle School, and High School Student Government Association officers helped bring the crowd to their feet as the songs, “Never Be Shaken”, “Light of the World”, “Thank You Lord”, and the Lower School unofficial anthem, “My Jesus”, rang out through the building's speakers.

"It was a great, and humbling experience,” said 10th grader and Upper School SGA member Will Perkins. “It was really driving home that it's never about just you, or even your group, but it's about the church body and about glorifying Christ; not worrying about what people might think." 

“Prayer is such a simple yet profound part of our relationship with the Lord,” said Lower School Principal Tracy Cox. “What a privilege it is knowing that we can talk with God about anything at any time. I loved that we had a special day to focus on prayer as a PCA family. Worshiping together with all of our students and teachers was an incredible way to start the day. I also think it's so special that students were able to spend time throughout the day praying as a class or in their small groups.”

After worship, the lower school was dismissed back to their classrooms where they continued the day with prayer immersed in their Read Across America activities.

Meanwhile, PCA’s own art teacher and author, Nicole Seitz, took the stage and gave a message to the Upper School students about what it means and looks like to pray. “Prayer is personal and powerful,” explained Seitz. “Yet many of us are not quite sure how to pray effectively. In a Christian school when prayer begins each class, we run the risk of becoming immune to the power of prayer. The words can become routine. I wanted to address the unique nature of our school and the challenges we each face in our prayer lives in an effort to begin a frank discussion about how to talk to and listen to God through prayer.”

We are so fortunate to be in a school community where we can worship the Lord daily.

Building Complex Machines To Understand Force & Motion

Pulleys, levers, and inclines, this was the world that Mrs. Liz Jarvis’ 5th graders entered when Mrs. Liberty Cosseti from HighTouch HighTech visited PCA with the goal of creating an intensive scientific experience. Mrs. Cosseti brought all the components needed for students to learn about, and create, a complex machine. “A machine is something that makes work easier,” explains the HighTouch, HighTech website. “The cool thing about machines is that the simplest machine and the most complicated machine work off the same principles.”

Getting into groups of four, Cosseti walked the students through a lesson on the 6 types of simple machines – Inclined Plane, Wedge, Pulley, Wheel and Axle, Screw, and Lever. Students worked together to try and figure out how various components could be put together to create a complex machine, and by the end, and through excited squeals, each group of budding engineers had put together a system where a pulley helped to raise a lever. 

This in-house field trip was a “rising” success!