Winter 2017 Archive

Artwork by Alice Takimoto

Our First Field Trip

by Alice Takimoto

On September 26th, the 7th graders went on a little field trip. They went to watch some natural resource presentation at the fair ground. People represented all about geology and…literally everything. The 7th graders looked like they’re having some pretty good time there, but not all the time. When I looked their face, their eyes were missing the pupil, their ears were closed, and their mouths were opened carelessly. I thought it was interesting, though.

At this one station, the other students started jumping in the creek! With a mile-long net in their loose hands, they splashed the water all over the creek. I got soaked all over my body, so I was freezing for the rest of the day. Other students were walking everywhere barefoot; they say that it’s pretty comfy.

Overall, I think it was a pretty good field trip for this year. But one thing…it was scorching out there. I am extremely excited of where we are going next for the field trip!!

An Inside Look to the World of Spellers

By Eleanor Mackenzie


Spelling may be difficult for some, but for these kids, it’s a breeze. Let’s look at what this speller says, Sophie Riggle, 6th grader; Sophie is 11 years old. She loves tennis, baking, and swimming. When asked the question, “Is spell bowl hard?” she responed with, “ I think that it can be, but with the support of your team it gets easier.” I also asked her what they do in spell bowl, she replied, “We start out by studying by ourselves, on our devices, or with a partner, then we come together as a group and practice our words.”


“I feel like we look forward to practice because it's less like we’re practicing and more like we’re just hanging out.”


I asked her when the competition was, what it looks like, and if the team is excited, “The competition is November 1st, it is in a gym, there are desks in the front of the room and benches in the back for the teams to sit on. You sit at the desks with a proctor and write your words. The team is all very excited because we’ve been studying very hard and I think we deserve to win.”


Next I interviewed Iris Mackenzie, 8th grader, Iris loves reading, band, and complaining. I asked her “Do you like the rest of your team?” She replied with, “ Yes I think we work really well together, the coach is supportive and has a lot of good ideas on how we can study.” “I spent three hours studying last night so I could beat Hunter Miller.” She says. “Why are you in spell bowl?” I ask,”Because Maieasha made me, and I love academic things.” “I’m very excited for the competition, we’re going to cream Honey Creek.” Her final statment to me was, “In conclusion spell bowl is fun, and I encourage 6th graders to join next year, becuase I’m not gonna be around much longer...” And that’s an inside look to the world of spellers.


Since writing this, the Spell Bowl team has gone to the competition, and… they got first in their division!


Women in STEM

by Alice Howard and Rebecca Hebb


Women hold only 8% of America’s patents. For every 2 patents females hold, men hold 23. But why is this? It’s certainly not that women are any less capable or intelligent. However, our society was convinced for a very long time that that was not the case. That opinion has mostly died out, luckily, but a strange lack of females in STEM remains.


In 2009, 48% of America’s workforce was composed of women. In contrast, only 24% of jobs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics were done by women. That’s a very wide gap. In college, about the same amount of the overall STEM classes are female, but in some engineering classes, men make up as much as 90% of the student body. Keep in mind that the ratio of women to men in the world is roughly 1:1, not 1:9.


Women have actually created some incredibly important things that we still use and learn about today. Some of these include the washing machine, fire escapes, paper bags, windshield wipers, kevlar, and computer software. Nuclear fission, x-rays, and many other things have also been influenced by women. And that’s just the beginning! The STEM world has been very much affected by women.


So, in conclusion, society is currently very biased against women in the academic field. However, this is not because of any actual differences; merely the influence of the masses on impressionable minds.