Character Counts!

In an effort to encourage the development of moral character in students, Union Public Schools has incorporated the Character Counts! program into its educational curriculum. Developed by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, the Character Counts! program is based on six core values, or "Pillars of Character": respect, responsibility, fairness, trustworthiness, caring and citizenship.

Student of the Month  

Student of the Month is a recognition program for students who have been nominated by their teachers.

Extra Curricular

The 8th Grade Center provides many extracurricular activities and organizations for students. These organizations include everything from academic teams to athletics and spirit teams.   Wrestling, cross country, track, golf and tennis are school-sponsored athletic activities available to 8th grade students.  However, these activities are not offered at this building and may meet after the regular school day.

National Junior Honor Society

The purpose of the National Junior Honor Society is to create an enthusiasm for scholarship, to stimulate a desire to render service, to promote worthy leadership, and to encourage the development of character and citizenship in students of Union 8th Grade Center.  Students who have an average of 3.6 GPA from second semester of 7th grade and first semester of 8th grade are invited to begin the membership process are in January of eighth grade each year.

Academic Team

The Academic Team is the Olympiad of the mind.  Students who excel in Trivia in a variety of subjects, will enjoy competing against other area schools. Tryouts are the end of September and practices start in October.

MATHCOUNTS

MATHCOUNTS is a nationally recognized middle school math competition program sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers.  Beginning in September, the Eighth Grade Center provides opportunities for students to come together after school and work through challenging math problems both individually and collaboratively. These practices allow for all methods of solving problems (creatively, pictorially, algebraically, etc.), and all students are welcomed to participate. For more information, please visit the MATHCOUNTS website: www.mathcounts.org.

Robotics

Starting in eighth grade, students can join Union’s FIRST Tech Challenge teams, The Bazinga Project and Project Agnizab. Union students are mentored by older students and STEM leaders in the community to learn about engineering design, programming, and documentation.  Each year the students are given a new game they have to analyze and then design a robot to complete certain tasks in a timed and competitive setting. Since 2014, Union’s team has won numerous awards and participated in the state championship.