Having a "Ball" in AP Literature

Throughout the months of January and February, Dr. William Vinson's AP Literature class read the classic novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The story takes place in the Regency Era in England, where it was popular for the rich to host balls. The balls play crucial roles in both the novel and in the social lives of the people at the time. Pride and Prejudice is a comedy of manners in the Regency Era, and the students learned of the manners and expectations at the time. We learned about the games they would play, the dances they would perform, and the music they would listen too. Students provided decorations, food, and some even dressed as the characters would have. It was a very learning experience and a lot of fun as well! Below are some pictures of the highlights of the ball:

The students learn how to dance like the characters in the novel would have.

The students perform a dance here where the two people at either end of the 2 lines walk through the gap while the other participants raise their hands and form an angle.

One big, happy, AP Literature family!

"Band"ing Together to Learn About Energy

Mr. McCollum's physics class recently learned about energy and it's characteristics. The way the students did this is by creating rubber band cars. As Mr. McCollum explains:

We learned that energy is never created nor destroyed, only transformed. Now, in most systems, we see energy lost to heat, noise, and light instead of it all being transformed into our target energy usage, but in a simple system, we can calculate where most of the energy will be used. So, they calculated the potential energy of different rubber bands to be used in a slingshot! As the slingshot fires, it transforms that energy into kinetic energy, and if we fire straight up, it all becomes gravitational potential energy. Which just means, they could predict how high the mass would go in the air by how far back they pulled the rubber bands. The students did all the measurements and calculations themselves. It was a two-day project because they spent the first day testing the rubber bands with different forces to determine the spring constant. The spring constant is needed to calculate a spring or rubber band’s potential energy. The second day they built their slingshots, calculated height, measured and marked it, and fired the mass to see if they were right. Every group was able to accurately predict the final height of the mass! They used two different masses and two different pull distances, on the rubber bands, to prove they could predict the height with accuracy.

The video below shows a student explaining the project:

Egg Drop Project

Check out Mrs. Barger's physical science class testing their Egg Drop projects! They dropped them from the catwalk into the trash can, timed the drop, measured the drop height, and measured the height of their apparatus. They then checked to see if the egg survived, calculated the velocity, momentum, PE, KE, acceleration, and force of impact of their device. Pictured below is Mrs. Barger with Cole Bumgarner and Chandler Brady, Michael Bumgarner, and Jai-Kwaun Tilley with their projects.

 

Queen of Rodeo! Emily Prince has been Crowned!

Queen of Rodeo: Emily Prince has been Crowned.

An interview with Emily about the honour and the privilege.

Inspired by Hannah Munford who was crowned from 2017-2018 who was welcoming and brought appropriate representation of the league, Emily wants to use Hannah's influence as well as craft out a path of her own. When Emily was asked if she could considering running, she thought: "Well you know I’d like to be queen. I'm a senior, I want to go out with a bang, and that's what i did. I want to graduate reassured that I have impacted the rodeo and made it more universal and accessible."

Although Emily is very enthused to be apart of this opportunity, she finds that with her responsibility and platform, she is able to speak on a few things. "No one sits down to reach out to younger rodeo girls and show them that this is what it is and this what you have to do, it’s a great opportunity and it’s exciting. Being able to be awarded on something like this is truly honoring to have that title, it’s a little nerve-wracking because I have eyes on me at all times. People have a lot to say. I’m trying to be an example." Emily is serious when it comes to this title, stating that it's a lot of work putting into this industry, it’s not just a title, one meets people and friends and there’s a lot of respect in this. It’s a honour to represent your state. There is no room for bias nor holding people on different grounds. Everyone is equal and holds the same opportunities. "What is rodeo? Horsemanship and friendship. Horsemanship is the bond between your horse and you and if you don’t love your horse and you don’t need to be here. Friendship is passion, fun and fellowship."

Ready, Set, Race!

Last week the front lobby was turned into a speedway as Mrs. Barger’s Physical Science class

had a Mousetrap  Car Race. The students made their race cars out of mousetraps and

measured the individual distance that each car traveled.  They also calculated and compared

the speeds of the different cars, as well as the time it took to travel that distance.

The overall winners had the highest calculated distance and velocity out of all the racers.  

The distance winners were Leah Bentley and James Thompson, and the speed winners were

Zoe Buey and Haley Allen.

How is Makeup Biotechnology?

Students in Mrs. Dupis Biotechnology class studied how makeup is an example of biotechnology. These students also entered their videos in the Spark Video Contest.  Click the videos below to learn more about this intriguing topic:

Planting an Interest in Reading

Who says English must always be taught in the classroom? Students in English I headed outside to learn why details are important.  Students are learning how to "close read" a story.  In order to understand this concept students were assigned plants in the courtyard to "close read."  Students had to observe the plant from a distance (like a first read) and then gradually made observations that included more details (like a second reading) until they finally were allowed to touch the plant (like a third reading).  Students then took their observations back to the classroom and attempted to identify their plant with the help of the internet.  Most students successfully identified their plant or tree and all the students said they now understand why just reading a text once does not allow a reader to grasp all the ideas embedded into it. As one student said, "you don't really know your plant until you get to touch it."