Takoma Park Middle School

Infobox School2|name=Takoma Park Middle School
established=1940Silver Spring|state=Maryland|zip code=20910|country=United States
free_label=District|free=Montgomery County Public Schools
colors=Blue and white|mascot=Blue Devil
motto=Ad Astra (To the stars!)|type=Public Middle School|grades=6 to 8

Takoma Park Middle School is a middle school (grades 6-8) in Takoma Park in unincorporated Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, and part of the Montgomery County Public Schools district. As of 2007, its enrollment was 968.The city of Takoma Park is assigned to this school.

Campus

Its current building supersedes the former Takoma Park Middle School building built March 15, 1940. The building is composed of three floors, with two gymnasia and a cafeteria. The first, second, and third floors contain the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, respectively. The first floor lockers are dark blue, the second floor lockers are red, and third floor lockers are green. There is a parking lot and a bus lane directly in front of the building; the bus lane has spaces for nine buses. In the rear, there are three basketball courts and four tennis courts. Two of the tennis courts are unused, and contained two portable classrooms until 2006. The school makes use of the Lee Jordan field, consisting of two baseball/softball diamonds and a soccer/football field, surrounded by a track approximately one quarter mile in length that is in the shape of a foot.

Academics

Takoma Park Middle School (TPMS) is a middle school with a Math/Science/Computer Science magnet program integrated into the school. Students in the magnet program take advanced classes in math, science, and computer science. Math topics generally include Pre-Algebra (a.k.a. Investigation into Mathematics) for the sixth grade magnet students, Algebra 1 for the seventh graders, and Geometry for the eighth grade students. Algebra 2 is also taught for more advanced magnet students, and students who are yet still more advanced take a bus to Montgomery Blair High School for Precalculus. In the sixth grade magnet computer science classes, students are taught the basics of Microsoft Office, including Excel, Access, and Powerpoint, as well as basics for the programming language, TrueBASIC. Seventh grade computer science topics include more advanced TrueBASIC programming, and creating basic web sites in HTML. JavaScript and further TrueBASIC skills are taught in magnet eighth grade computer science classes. Teachers previously taught a language known as Logo. In 2005, four students from Takoma achieved perfect scores on the AMC 8, tying the school with First Colony Middle School for the most perfect scores from a single school Fact|date=January 2008. One of TPMS's after-school activities is MathCounts, which participates in competitions at the chapter and state level every year. TPMS has also sent students to the national level, representing the state of Maryland. Their team has come in first place at the state level competition since MathCounts was founded in 1983Fact|date=January 2008. They also possess several chess trophies, and took second place at the 2008 USCF-rated Maryland Scholastic Chess Championships.

Athletics

The TPMS Boys Basketball team went undefeated from 2005-2006 (14-0), led by Lucas Babinec and Nevin Brown, having both perfect records in 2005 and 2006. But went 6-1 in the 2007, the team still captured 1st place for the 3rd straight year setting a new MCPS middle school record. TPMS also holds the Turkey Trot for students, which is a less-than-one mile run around around the school. In 2006, Nevin Brown set the school record with a time of 4 minutes and 14 seconds.

References

External links

* [http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/takomaparkms/ Takoma Park Middle School]
* [http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/takomaparkms/administration/magnet/intro.shtml Math, Science, and Computer Science Magnet Program]