Annual Agstravaganza provides plenty of hands on learning for all ages

by Kylie Lea

This year’s Agstravaganza was about teaching younger students from Mt. Carmel, Laurel, and Brookville all about agriculture.

The Agstravaganza was held on Friday, May 11th, outside, at FCMS.

At the Agstravaganza, the FCMS students were involved in AG, setting different stations outside to give the children a visual about what they were teaching.

Brooklyn Hampson and Josh Dillhoff set up their station for the day.

Jersey Bohmen was at the station teaching about ATV and Motocross Safety. The students at this station also sat up helmet pong for the children to play.

Other students displayed their tractors for people to see.

Amber Stenger, Amber Galyen, Eva Eidem, Eric Schwab, and Jonathon Wiwi had a race setup. The visiting children were asked to race like an animal on four legs and see who was the fastest.

We hope all the students who attended learned about the subject of agriculture but also had fun while doing so.

8th grade science students spread knowledge, not diseases

by T. J. Merrell

Once again, Mrs. Brown’s science class is teaching each other about the vast list of viruses or bacteria that could plague a nation.

Students researched their own virus or bacteria, which were on separate lists spread throughout the classroom. Students would research this outbreak and show what they’ve learned in a Google document, from there to be put onto a “WARNING!” poster telling and showing the disease.

Eighth grader Dylan Gehrig stated, “I don’t think this will turn out well with the change from docs to the poster, because I need to manually draw the pictures.”

William Higginbotham, 8th grader, added, “I think mine will be great! It isn’t too hard to find information for this.”

Eighth grader, Sam Westerfeld, chimed in, “I think the transition will work well. This is pretty easy to research so far.”

Upon a follow up to Mrs. Brown’s class the next day, more students were wrapping up their projects. Much work had been added to students projects.

Erin Lewis, 8th grader, admitted, “This is going well so far, and I think this should end out fine.”Eighth grader Jaden Everett vocalized, “The time given to work on this was the roughest part of this. For the most part, this turned out how I expected.”

Dylan claimed, “This is turning out a bit worse than I expected. It’s a bad idea to turn it in late I suppose.”

Sam reported, “This is turning out pretty well. I think researching this and drawing was the hardest part.”

Regardless of the challenges, the finished products were educational and presented to the classmates, providing more opportunities to discover what is plaguing our country.

Sixth grade social studies discover impact of Holocaust on survivors

by Toni Williams

This past week Mr. Sherwood’s sixth grade social studies class did research about Holocaust survivors.

The students read the people’s life stories and summarized them into their own words. This was followed by a presentation of the survivors in front of the class.

Although the survivors are not with us anymore, Mr. Sherwood was honored to have had the opportunity to meet a few of them while they were still alive.

Students Christian Hinson, Adreonna Fox, Cynthia Willoughby, and Austin Voegele are all a part of Mr. Sherwood’s class, and they recently displayed their summaries.

The students were all interested in learning about their stories and seemed deeply touched by them as well.

7th grade science students unlock the mystery of mitoses

by Makayla Bradley

On May 15th, Mrs. Middendorf’s 7th grade class did a project on mitosis.

The class did this project because it was a hands-on activity to cover certain standards they have to know about mitosis.

How did the class cover those standards, you may ask?

They covered those standards by coloring little squares that had pictures on them about the process. After that, they made a key to match everything that they colored. Also, they had to use colored pencils.

Next, the class cut their squares out and glued them onto a couple of worksheets.

The worksheets were used, so they could glue the squares into a box of four, in order to match the same sequence on how mitosis works.

Seventh graders Hailey and Heaven Mcqueen stated, “The best part about this project is being able to color.”

“I like coloring the best,” remarked seventh grader Hayden Barrett.

As you can see, many students seemed to enjoy this project.

Best wishes learning about this important process!

Tech students design working brackets

by Kylie Lea

Mr. Herbert’s tech class was recently working on making sample brackets that can be bolted into a surface like a wall, and then a shelf or other object could be fasted to the bracket, using screws. They are also working on following the directions to make these brackets.

Mr. Herbert informed us, “A fillet is a rounded corner that can increase structural stability and also improve the aesthetic feel of an object.”

Seventh grader Katie Mauntel added, “I’m working on filling in my fillets for my bracket.”

“I’m working on making a bracket,” stated 7th grader Trenton Lainhart.

Seventh grader Jay Schallick mentioned, “I’m trying to follow the directions to make my bracket, but they’re kind of confusing me.”

“I’m making a circle,” informed 7th grader Erica Weaver.

Hopefully after working on the brackets, the students are now able to follow directions better and make their bracket on their own!

FaCS students are stitching up their new best friends

by T. J. Merrell

In FaCS on May 2, the students were hard at work bringing their sewing creations to life.

Students picked from a variety of different projects, ranging from a horse to a basketball. Their task was to sew and stuff animals to the tee. All students were hard at work to make their project picture perfect.

Eighth grader Nathan Staudt stated, “The pins are really annoying, I hope I get better at sewing thanks to this.” Apparently, pins are both pointy and easy to lose.

Cristian Murphy, 8th grader, added, “I chose the project called ‘Toby.’ He’s been quite easy to make so far.”

Levi Sanders even added, “Sewing is somewhat interesting. I chose the grizzly bear project.” The bear was already looking amazing, Levi. Good work.

Doug Shoemaker, 8th grader, declared, “I chose the alligator, since it is quite difficult to put together.”

Eighth grader Kelsie Brackney announced, “I chose the soccer ball for my project, and so far it hasn’t been too hard. I think it’ll turn out fine.”

Nathan Stringer, 8th grader, affirmed, “I chose the dog because I like dogs. It’s quite a hard project. Plus, I’m sure my dog will have this ripped apart within 12 minutes.”

When asked about what she thought of her students work, Mrs. Kaiser even expressed, “I think the students are doing wonderful. They’re learning life skills that they will need in the future.”

Good luck to Mrs. Kaiser’s class with their projects. Happy sewing!

7th grade tech students envision a bright future for Franklin County

by T. J. Merrell

On May 1, Mr. Herbert’s 7th grade class was remodeling the town!

Every year students remodel the parks in Franklin County, seeing what they can add to FC. Yet this year, they were changing other places around FC, such as the Brookville Theatre, the old fairgrounds, and the Mount Carmel Primary school.

Every student had their own ideas of what to add to the town. 7th grader Jay Schallick added, “I plan to remodel the baseball fields, fix up the dugouts, and other parts of the fields.”

Brooke Broughton, 7th grader, suggested, “I think that empty lot by the Subway would be amazing placement for a Starbucks!”

7th grader Katie Mauntel stated, “I want a Dunkin Donuts somewhere near town. I don’t know where it should go though.”

Another student with plans for the town was 7th grade Audrey Sacksteder, who delivered, “I wish I could remodel the Alco store. That would be an amazing place for one of those Freddy’s restaurants!”

Mrs. Rosemeyer was excited to see the creativity from the students. She exclaimed, “I like the students thinking together to fix the town up. It will make them want to take this kind of action when they’re older.”

Another teacher ecstatic about the students creativity was Mr. Herbert. He even insisted, “Every year students come up with something unique to change the parks. This year, since I’m letting the students pick their location, they’re even more creative about how to add to Franklin County!”

Good luck, students. Bring glory to FC!

Mr. Linville's tech students tap into artistic side

by Toni Williams

On Thursday, April 19, Mr. Linville’s 6th grade technology class took pictures, translated them onto Google drawings, and placed text boxes over the drawing to describe the outline, color, and the object.

The students were busy at work and were improving their technology skills.

Sixth grader Sophia Garrett made a pineapple, and 6th grader Audrey Harper made a unicorn.

Sixth graders seemed to enjoy applying their artistic side to tech class.

7th graders utilize keyboarding skills to compose admirer letters

by Makayla Bradley

On Thursday, April 19th, Mrs. Mitchum’s seventh grade computer class were busy writing admirer letters.

First, Mrs. Mitchum explained how to write them and why. She wanted the class to know how to write an admirer letter in the students’ own words to someone they admired, such as like a family member or friend.

The admirer letter helps students tell someone why the students admire them. For example, if someone was being kind you could tell them how they were being generous.

The class learned how to write the introduction and each paragraph. The introduction didn’t have to be long. Students basically just had to say who they are.

For example, “Hi! I’m so and so, and I’m 13 years old.”

Mrs. Mitchum has a cover letter for each of the students to explain the project. The cover letter is to help them in case the class gets lost.

The admirer letter can’t include personal information. To illustrate, the students had to leave out address, phone number, etc.

After learning how to do the letter, the class had to brainstorm about what they want to write about and who it was going to. Next, they went to a new google doc to write their admirer letters.

Whenever the students sign their letters at the bottom, they can’t have a nickname. The class has to have their own names in order for Mrs. Mitchum to grade it.

Whenever the students get their letters back, they can pass them out to the recipients, cross out their name if they want to, and spell it however they want to.

Seventh grader Emma Reatherford stated, “My favorite part about the admirer letter is getting to choose who we are writing about.”

“My favorite part is getting to know the person we are writing about better,” confessed seventh grader Joey Eckstein.

Seventh grader Bethany Noah exclaimed, “My favorite part is being able to type the letter. I love to type!”

As we can see, lots of the students love writing their admirer letters. We wonder who received the letters.

Chet Galyen's math skills earn him tickets to musical

by Grayce Walker

Smart, determined, and focused--Chet Galyen is all of these. He was focused, determined, and used his intelligence to win You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown tickets recently.

How did he do it? Well, Mrs. Yager, the 7th and 8th grade math teacher, put up a brain teaser problem up on her bulletin board in her room.

Chet Galyen answered the brain tickling question with no problem. He did a fantastic job, so Mrs. Yager rewarded him with You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown tickets.

“I am very proud of myself for winning the tickets,” remarked Chet.

The question was trying to find the volume of Snoopy’s dog house. Not a lot of people could figure it out, but Chet could.

Congratulations on winning the the tickets, and we hope you enjoyed the musical!

FaCS students ice cake like a boss

by Makayla Bradley

On Wednesday, April 11, Mrs. Kaiser’s FaCS class decorated cakes. Their cakes were in the style of Winnie the Pooh and other characters.

Two groups iced Winnie the Pooh, another created Piglet, another finished up Tiger, and the last one performed freestyle.

They made these cakes because it’s a great experience for when they are older. Mrs. Kaiser stated the reason was, “To run the horizon.” That’s her motto for something like this.

They mixed ingredients in a bowl to make plain white icing. Then they put food coloring in the icing.

The colors they made: yellow, red, orange, purple, and pink.

Next, they put the icing in icing bags and practiced on the cake pan before putting it on the cake.

Students practiced to get a feel on how it feels and how to make straight lines. Classmates picked two different tips: one made straight lines, and the other made stars/flowers.

After practicing, they iced the cake.

Then they devoured the cake. Most of the students said the cake was marvelous, while others said the icing was way too sweet.

Eighth grader Summer Atkins stated, “I like how this activity promotes teamwork.”

“My least favorite part is doing the dishes,” confessed eighth grader Whitney Cox.

Eighth grader Anne Becker beamed, “My favorite part is mixing all the ingredients in a bowl.”

“My favorite part is eating. Isn’t that everybody's?” gushed eighth grader Jayden Taylor.

Everybody did an awesome job with their cakes and style. The FaCS had so much amazing creativity when it came to icing the cake.

We sure loved going over there while FaCS manufactured delightful cakes. Maybe one day some of them will be on a cooking show or become a wedding cake designer. Whatever they chose, bon appetit!

Science students produce and present slide shows over researched disorders

by T. J. Merrell

Has there ever been interested in a disorder you’ve heard of, but you’ve never known what it is? Mrs. Brown’s science class is getting to the bottom of some of these disorders.

A list of all the disorders from which students could pick: adrenoleukodystrophy, Alzheimer’s type 5, albinism, Alfi’s syndrome, Angelman syndrome, Burkitt’s lymphoma, birth defects caused by Agent Orange, cat eye syndrome cri-du-chat, cystic fibrosis, DiGeorge syndrome, Down syndrome, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and over twenty more!

8th grader Alex Kersey stated, “I find my disorder interesting. I’m quite excited to learn about all the different diseases.”

Another student who is excited about learning of their disease is 8th grader Anderson Kiracofe, who commented, “I chose the disorder cystic fibrosis. I’m somewhat excited about learning of these. Plus, this is a fun project!”

Eighth grader Marklynn Keal declared, “I chose Prader-Willi syndrome, but the other disorders don’t really interest me.”

Whether or not the students were interested, they all were deep in focus on researching the disorders, making sure to get every piece of useful information.

Elizabeth Ariens, 8th grader, quoted, “I was given Alzheimer’s disease, which I already know a lot about.”

Eighth grader William Higginbotham cited, “I chose hemophilia A. I’m quite interested about these disorders so that I know how to avoid getting them.”

After researching their disorders, students will then show off a slideshow about the disorder to their class.

Good luck with your presentations, students!