Academic Extracurriculars

List of 11 items.

• ASB

  ASB is designed for students to develop leadership skills and to build a positive culture at Pegasus. The students in ASB plan, organize, and participate in such activities as spirit days, Thundergrams, dances, grade-level competitions, community service projects, and more.

• Competitive Robotics

  Pegasus students have the option to take a robotics elective in 7th and 8th grade for a semester block using VEX EDR materials. The VEX EDR division is designed for high school students, and students learn about the different subsystems on a robot (chassis, lift, and object manipulator). VEX designs a different engineering challenge each year and our students are tasked with designing, building, and programming an original robot to complete the challenge and score the most points. 

  
  

  Students research, plan, and build a team robot, and teamwork is the key element to success as the students go through the engineering design process to keep improving their robot over the course of the semester. Students also learn to be open to new ideas as they are often rebuilding parts of the robot that they may have spent many weeks building. 

  
  And students learn that the engineering design process is a method of constantly prototyping, testing, analyzing the results, and refining their design. After students build their robot, they will learn how to program the robot to move with a controller (driver control) as well as program autonomous movements on a game field. At the end of the semester, the culminating experience is being able to participate in our own Pegasus competition at school.

• Debate Tournaments

  The Pegasus Debate program is recognized as being one of the top in the nation. Through the Middle School debate elective, many of our seventh and eighth grade students compete in debate tournaments, sponsored by the Orange County Debate League (OCDL) and Middle School Public Debate Program (MSPDP). Pegasus often finishes  as the first place school in all of the OCDL debate tournaments, including league championships, and we have even finished in the top four in the country at the National Championship tournament. Many students proceed to participate and succeed in debate and Model United Nation (MUN) programs in high school.

• Geography Bees

  Selected fourth- through eighth-grade students are given the opportunity to participate in the Pegasus geography bee. The students are chosen to compete after they advanced from their classroom bee. The winner from the Pegasus Bee is invited to qualify for the State Geography Bee, sponsored by the National Geographic Society.

  
  

  The winner of the State Bee proceeds to compete in the National Championships held in Washington D.C.

• Model United Nations (MUN)

  In Pegasus MUN, students will participate in a simulation of the UN General Assembly. As delegates, students will assume the role of a diplomatic representative. Each delegate will be assigned a nation to represent in which they will research and prepare their position on global issues to serve on committees at their conference. Students learn their assigned country’s history, politics, and current position on world issues and form committees to solve these issues. Finally, students formulate their own solutions and submit them in the form of committee resolutions at their conference. Each year, students will prepare to participate in the HB Novice at HBHS in April. 

• Sustainability

  Through the Sustainability elective at school, students will learn about sustainability issues around the world. The elective is passion driven and can encompass a variety of different projects and ideas. In the past, students have attended the Algalita POPS Youth Summit, spoken at local city council meetings, been responsible for sustainability initiatives at school, built ROV’s to use in the local waterways, brought in our aquaponics system, been responsible for our hydration stations, and more.  The students are given the chance to use their scientific knowledge, coupled with their passion for the environment, to create change both locally, and globally. 

• Theater

  Theater allows the opportunity for students to perform in front of a live audience. They exercise teamwork and learn to explore their many hidden talents while having fun putting together a great production.​ This would include what happens off stage during a show, which is just as exciting and challenging as what happens in front of an audience. During a live performance, students are backstage helping to run most of the show. Whether someone needs help with a costume or getting their microphone attached, these student driven performances are incredible learning opportunities for students both on and off stage.

• Yearbook

  Students make an impact on our community and help preserve our memories by helping create the school’s published yearbook. Students learn graphic design techniques, build computer skills, practice photography, study and implement journalism methods, and work in a collaborative group setting. Each member of the team has input on the full design process including the theme and all specific elements, as well as completing the book through the publishing process. This is a great experience and one to include on high school and college resumes!

• Spelling Bees

  Pegasus hosts a Middle School Spelling Bee, open to students in sixth through eighth grades. Students are chosen based upon their performance in their class spelling bee.

  
  

  The first through third place winners from the Pegasus Spelling Bee proceed to the Preliminary Written Round of the Orange County Spelling Bee held at the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE), Costa Mesa.

  
  

  Winners from the Written Round compete in the Semi-Final Oral Round.

  
  

  The winner of the Orange County Spelling Bee qualifies to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington DC. 

• Math Invitationals

  Each spring, selected Pegasus math students compete in the Sage Hill Annual Mathematics Invitational. The competition is open to middle school students from independent schools, many of whom do not have other opportunities to compete in mathematics. Students participate in different categories that include: Mental Math, Probability and Statistics, Measurement, Algebra, Geometry, and Engineering.

• Orange County Science Fair

  The Orange County Science Fair is an elective.  It is an opportunity for 7th and 8th grade students to create their own scientific experiment , conduct the experiment and document their findings.  They will share their scientific findings via an interview and a Google Slides presentation. They may be selected to go on to the state fair and perhaps be selected for the Broadcom master.  This is a fantastic opportunity for any student, especially if they are passionate about the scientific world.