Bruin Buzz - The Academy Spotlight

STEM Academy

Earlier this week, Aerospace Engineering students competed in the State TSA Conference. Four of our students placed 3rd in the VEX Robotics competition. In the System Control Technology competition, Ballard students finished in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for a clean sweep! Congrats to all of the following students as they move on to National competition later this summer. Big Thank You to Mr. Drawbaugh and Mr. Oltman for their leadership with this student organization.

1st Place - Dinu Hubert, Thinu Hubert, Karthik Nadimpally

2nd Place - Max Collins, Colin Cook, Connor Hamm

3rd Place - Tanner Aslan, Brennan Davis, Charlie Wilder

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Media Arts Academy

Our Graphic Design students were the ONLY high school to have students awarded the coveted Silver Julip Cup for the AIGA Annual 100 Show. The 100 Show recognizes the best creative work from designers within Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Agencies, freelancers, and in-house teams are celebrated for their efforts in a range of design disciplines including advertising, branding, packaging, environmental design, interactive design, service design, and more. The awards culminate in the top 100 works – showcasing the Best of Category winners and a single work that is Best of Show. You can see all of the winning pieces and animation in THIS LINK!

James Perkins - Growth Mindset Animation

Annie Rhee - Lavender

Shivam Chopra - Bluegrass Coffee Packaging Design

We also had our Interactive Media students compete in the State STLP competition this month. We had multiple students making it to the semi-finals in STLP that participated as library aides and in the classroom, in addition to making it to the final round. This was Ballard's first year competing STLP, so we are very proud of these students' accomplishments!

You can check out the work from our winners at THIS LINK!

Teaching, Learning, and Leadership Pathway

In early March, our Teaching, Learning, and Leadership Pathway students competed in Kentucky's State Conference for Educators Rising. Fifteen of our students qualified to compete at the National Ed Rising Conference this summer. This was truly a group effort from our faculty. A huge Thank You goes out to those Teachers who advised, encouraged, and supported our aspiring educators on their projects. In addition to the 1st Place Winners listed below, we also had 10 additional students with 2nd and 3rd Place finishes. Great work by all of Mrs. Cummings' students!

1st Place: Paley Huntington and Ella Harrington- Children's Literature

1st Place: Aiddan Robinson- Educator's Rising Moment Public Speaking

1st Place: Tamira Thompson- Exploring Non-Core Subject Teaching Careers

1st Place: Janae Allen- Lesson Plan and Delivery (Social Studies)

1st Place: Paley Huntington- Impromptu Speaking

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Media Arts Academy

Last week, Ms. Zink took a couple of our Media Arts Academy Students to the Regional SkillsUSA Competition. We had two students compete in two total events - and they won both of those events! Senior Sam Hatfield won the T-Shirt Design competition, while Senior Tania Vergara Gongora won the Job Interview competition. Both students will now move on to State Competition in April with a chance to advance to Nationals in Atlanta this summer. Best of luck, and way to represent Ballard!

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Sam Hatfield

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Tania Vergara Gongora

Aptiva Health Partnership w/ Ballard

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Earlier this week, we were thrilled to officially sign a partnership with Aptiva Health. They are an independent multi-specialty medical group with locations throughout Kentucky. They specialize in urgent medical treatment, orthopedic surgery, orthopedic spine surgery, total joint replacement, sports medicine, physical medicine & rehabilitation, interventional pain management, concussion treatment, advanced imaging, physical therapy, and much more! Former Ballard Athletic Trainer and current Aptiva Director of Athletic Training, Aurelio Puga, will be in the classroom working with students, as well as offering opportunities for students to visit one of Aptiva's many locations here locally.

FBLA Regional Conference

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In late February, 118 FBLA members competed at the FBLA Regional Conference in downtown Louisville. With so many student members this year, Ballard won awards for the Largest Chapter as well as the Largest Membership Increase. In addition to that, we brought home trophies in 42 Events - with 20 of those being 1st Place winners! Massive congratulations to all of our FBLA student members! Last but not least, huge thanks and congratulations to our Advisor, Ms. Napier, and her Assistant Advisor, Ms. Dohn. Great job, Bruins!

Graphic Design

Ms. Dohn's Graphic Design students that have been working hard to earn Adobe certifications. In December and January, there were 21 students that earned a total of 39 certifications. In addition, 15 of those students earned multiple certifications, which gives them additional recognitions from Adobe and makes them more marketable for jobs in the Graphic Design industry, as these certifications are recognized by industry professionals all over the globe!

STEM Academy

Biomedical Science students in the Human Body Systems class are exploring the urinary system this week. Students modeled the organs with clay on the skeletal mannequins and dissected a pig kidney to examine the structure.

Allied Health Pathway/Training Room

With the addition of Allied Health as a new career pathway this year, the Training Room has had some recent renovations done as well. As you can see, we now have brand new, custom training and taping tables, three new state of the art whirlpool tubs, and a custom mural of Ballard athletics on the back wall. Students in the Allied Health pathway will finish up their four course sequence by taking Applied Sports Medicine. During this final course, they will work closely with Ms. Gatterdam as well as our Athletic Trainer to learn all about acute care skills, nutrition, human performance, and proper taping and wrapping techniques.

Media Arts Academy

Cinematography Pathway students are busy writing, filming and editing their Holiday 10-Minute Films. Four classes are competing with each other in telling the best story about what we didn't know about Santa Claus. Each movie features an original script, creative use of the green screen and two musical numbers. All four films will be viewed and judged next week before the holiday break. Judges will be representatives from two local media companies as well as Ballard administration. Students had only 2.5 weeks to complete the entire project.

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STEM Academy Spotlight

Allied Health Pathway students have been studying a unit on the Cardiovascular System. Throughout this unit, they have been learning about structures in the heart and their function, and how our blood flows through our heart to our lungs and body. As future health care professionals, they learned important assessment skills such as taking a pulse, measuring respiratory rate, and blood pressure. Once they learned these techniques they put them to use in our Heart Fitness Lab. The purpose of the lab was to compare the difference in vitals from a resting position, to the difference after 90 seconds of exercise, to then how it would be after 90 seconds of strenuous exercise with a heavy weight (their backpacks!). Once students recorded all their vitals we put the input on a graph to compare and contrast class findings. The students were very excited to be able to test their assessment skills but also to utilize our additional brand new athletic training room that is attached to our classroom. The training tables provided the perfect space for measuring resting heart rates! And the nice large area gave them plenty of room to “exercise”! We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful additional space to our classroom and we will utilize it for many classroom learning opportunities in the future!

KMS EXPLORE Pathways @ Ballard

Kammerer Middle School, the feeder school to Ballard, recently started the Explore Pathways program. This is designed to let middle school students get involved in all of the various career pathways that Ballard offers. All students have an Explore period each day in which they learn about the different pathways related to Business and Communication, Healthcare Science, and Engineering and Technology. They do a rotation throughout the year so they are exposed to all of the options before coming to Ballard. In October, they got to come do a tour of each pathway, meet the teachers, and hear from students and teachers about the pathways we offer. They even got to participate in an activity at the news desk during their stop in our Cinematography & Video Production studio!

Media Arts Academy Spotlight

Graphic Design Pathway students got the opportunity to learn about product photography from TWO amazing professionals. The two senior photographers from the Rue | Gilt Group in Shepherdsville, KY visited Ballard in September to work with the Graphic Design Pathway students. They were able to bring professional equipment and teach the students about product and model photography. The pathway teamed up with the newly renovated Ballard Bookstore and tested their styling skills to photography lay flats of the BHS merchandise. Students learned about lighting, standard camera to computer workflow and styling best practices. Our senior class dove into model photography and were able to team up to model and take photos wear Ballard gear.

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STEM Academy

Principles of Biomedical Science students have begun their investigation of the mysterious death of Anna Garcia. So far, students have documented the scene, and completed trace element analysis of hair, fingerprints, and digital evidence.

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