Elevating a school’s commitment through the students' leadership. Creating community service projects in order to better the country. Encouraging students to become responsible and enthusiastic. This is what occurs behind the scenes in the National Junior Honor Society in Bob Miller.

National Junior Honor Society, or NJHS, is an organization dedicated to making communities around the world better. It was founded in 1928, and on average for a year does 650 hours of community service, along with raising at least $1,000 for different charities. NJHS was created with the purpose of having students gain enthusiasm for scholarships and learning leadership skills.It also helps students become well rounded, which can be a useful skill later in life.

“NJHS gives students that already excel academically to elevate their commitment to the community through service and leadership. Students complete service projects and volunteer to serve the community while also maintaining high scholastic standards,” said Mrs. Karczewski, NJHS advisor

Throughout many years, Bob Miller students have joined NJHS. Activities of all sorts, such as food drives and community service, are what they specialize in doing.

“We do different types of cleanups and trash pickups, along with serving our kids and community service hours,” said Milana Garza, 8th grade.

NJHS has helped create many beneficial platforms, like helping less fortunate kids with food or helping people with the numerous community service projects that they provide.

While NJHS does provide a lot for the community, they also provide just as much for the students. NJHS also offers students the opportunity to learn about the values of scholarships, service, leadership and citizenship in order to make them well-rounded. It also motivates students to work harder in order to reach their best potential.

“It has made me a better person and now I want to contribute to the success of my school and help my peers,” said Garza.

NJHS helps students seek out opportunities for them to show their skills, and become leaders. This also allows students to take their own initiative into new activities that they would like to take part in, or even create.

NJHS also helps strengthen Bob Miller’s reputation in the community by reaching them through the numerous projects. These projects can be life changing experiences for members who discover new passions, and allow them to expand their interests into new areas.

“Currently, members are planning a school-wide day of service, hopefully getting other students involved in our school community. We are also looking forward to our annual participation in the Green Up, at the Las Vegas Wash,” said Karczewski.

This year's president, Ethan Au, 7th grade, talks about how he has been able to grow his leadership skills while helping run the club.

“I get to make sure that everyone is following rules, come up with plans for opportunities and make the club fun for the members of NJHS,” said Au.

All in all, the National Junior Honor Society has provided a lot of things, along with all of the projects that have been done and all of the community service that has been given. For the many students that have joined, the Bob Miller NJHS club has left a big impact on their lives, and has set them up for a successful path in life.

Hearts pound as the announcer goes up on the stage in the auditorium at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Sweat is pooling in everyone’s hands as they fearfully wait for the verdict. How did they do at this competition?

This is a common feeling for those who compete in Mathcounts. 

Mathcounts is a national math competition with up to four rounds. Miller participated in the Southern Nevada Chapter Competition on February 11th. 

We will be sending ten Bobcats to UNLV to compete. 

This competition was started in 1983-1984 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and CNA Insurance. Schools all over the nation send a select group of students to compete in their Chapter Competition each year. Four of these students represented the school in the Team round, and the rest of the students competed individually. There are up to four rounds: the Sprint, the Target, the Team, and the optional Countdown. 

In the Sprint Round, each competitor is given a packet with 30 math questions of different levels of difficulty. They are given 40 minutes to complete all 30 problems without a calculator. After this they move onto the Target Round. In the Target, students receive four pairs of problems, with six minutes to complete each pair, before receiving the next pair. Students are allowed to use a calculator during this round. Afterwards, the Team Round. In this round, each school selects four students to complete 10 problems in 20 minutes with a calculator. The rest will be competing this round, but it’ll be for fun and won’t count towards the school’s ranking. 

Sometimes, there is also an additional Countdown Round where two competitors face off, and whoever gets the most right out of three questions wins. Both competitors are given paper and a pencil as well as a buzzer. The moderator reads the question aloud, and whoever gets an answer pushes the buzzer and says their answer. If they get the answer correct, then they get the point. If not, the other person gets a chance to answer within a limited amount of time. The top 4 teams and the top 20 competitors minus the students from the top teams, move on to the State Competition in March.

Bob Miller has been competing for 21 years, Miller’s team is composed of 10 people. These students are Ayan Chavan, Sarah Chen, Kadan Nguyen, Sahana Jeyapandian, Jonah Lee, Sandy Zheng, Charlie Mashore, Ramya Konchada, Karthik Durairaj, and Alyssa Jeong. These students are headed to UNLV on February 11th under the supervision of Samuel Chen, 11th grader at Clark High School and Mrs. Topham, Geometry Honors and Algebra teacher. Samuel Chen is a former Bobcat who has returned to coach this year’s team.

“I decided to come coach the Bob Miller Mathcounts team when I heard about Mr. McConnell’s passing last spring. Mathcounts meant a lot to me in middle school, and I wanted to make sure everyone at Miller still has the chance to explore competition math and compete in Mathcounts. Ms. Florian, Ms. Topham, Ms. Berg, and the rest of Bob Miller's administration were super helpful in making it all possible, so I want to thank them,” said Chen, 11th grade.

This season seems to have been a great experience for Chen.

 “I loved coaching Mathcounts this year. Even though we could only meet once a week, I think everyone improved a lot over the year. Everyone’s enthusiasm and willingness to put in the work made coming here worth it everytime. I’m excited to come back next year, and I hope Bob Miller Mathcounts will continue to improve!” said Chen. 

On the competition day, all students reported to UNLV’s Sciences & Engineering building by 8:15 am. After the team had arrived, the students started by sitting around at one of the tables in the building. They went over some problems in order to get in a warmup. Then, the Bobcats went and took pictures in the Mathcounts shirts they had received. Soon after, they were called into the SEB Auditorium to listen to the Opening Remarks and receive the first set of instructions. 

They split up according to their school and reported to the testing rooms. Students then sat at the seat which had their name sticker. They received packets for the Sprint and waited for the proctor to give permission to start. Right after, students receive a set of problems for the Target round. There were four rounds and each of these were completed in six minutes. Afterwards, there was a short 5 minute break in which students were free to use the bathroom and such. 

Then it was back into the testing rooms for the Team Round. The four students competing for the school team sat together. The rest of the individual competitors found groups of four students to work with. This round flew by in a measly 20 minutes. The students, exhausted from all the math, needed to refuel and regroup with some delicious pizza. 

After all the Mathletes finished their meal, they went back to the auditorium to watch an educational video about engineering. After this video was over, the calculators began to be raffled off. Two lucky Miller students, Jonah Lee and Karthik Durairaj, both in 8th grade, won these calculators. Then the top 8 students began facing off in the Countdown Round. Unfortunately, no Bobcats qualified for this round.

 Afterwards, the awards began. Top 4 teams got their accolades, and the next 20 were called up. These were the students that made it to State. Four of our brilliant Bobcats qualified, Sarah Chen, Alyssa Jeong, Kadan Nguyen, and Ayan Chavan. Congratulations to these four!

Students seemed to have many thoughts about this packed day, but it overall seemed positive. 

Sarah Chen, an 8th grader at Miller, has competed in Mathcounts for all three years with the school. She seems to have had a few regrets about her last Chapter competition, but overall her experience seems to have been enjoyable. 

“My experience was both good and bad during the Chapter Competition. I did pretty well on the sprint, but didn’t know where to start on the target rounds. I still made it to state which I’m very proud of, but I did feel I could have done better,” said Chen, 8th grade. 

Looking back on her experience, Chen seems to have great memories.

“I’ve enjoyed my years on the Miller Mathcounts team, as I enjoy math and especially when I’m doing it with my friends. I think everyone should be doing math with their friends, and the Mathcounts team has made that possible for me,” said Chen. Sarah has been with the program for a long time, but there’s newcomers too. Sahana Jeyapandian, 8th grader, joined this program in her last year at Miller. 

“I was inspired to join Mathcounts because I have always enjoyed doing math and I enjoy solving challenging problems. Also, many of my friends were also participating and I thought it would be fun to do it with them,” said Jeyapandian, 8th grade.

Jeyapandian seems to have enjoyed her experience with the team

“I found it really fun to work with my friends to figure out how to solve complex math problems that offered a greater challenge than what I would normally do in class. It was also great learning about different ways to solve problems that I didn't know how to before,” said Jeyapandian, 8th grade. This was her first Chapter Competition, and it turned out to be a great experience.  

“My experience at the Mathcounts competition was great. It was fun competing, especially during the team round where I got to work with my peers to solve complex problems. The competition was educational and really enjoyable. Overall, it was a memorable and great experience,” said Jeyapandian, 8th grade. 

Sandy Zheng, 7th grade, is competing in the Chapter Competition for the second time. Last year the competition was online, so this was her first year in person. 

“I liked my first in person Chapter Competition a lot. It was way better than last year, as it was not online and as my performance in the competition improved,” said Zheng. She says that the competition was an amazing experience and helpful. 

“My experience at the MathCounts competition was fun and engaging. I got to make new friends during the competition, so I’d say that this experience was pretty beneficial to me personally,” said Zheng. 

Overall, this competition seems to have been a great experience for everyone, and you should definitely try it out next year.

This year, Ms. Tingey became Bob Miller Middle School’s new STEM teacher. In previous years, Ms. Tingey taught 7th grade science during first, second, and third period, and now, in addition to those classes, she teaches STEM during fourth, fifth, and sixth period.

First of all, what is STEM? STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and STEM classes are typically hands-on and focused on problem solving. Many STEM classes, including this school’s STEM class, teach robotics, which is interactive and includes technology, engineering, and math when building and programming robots. “We started STEM classes about 5 years ago. We noticed a need and want for them from the students and thought we would try it out,” said Ms. Berg, Assistant Principal. Our school uses VEX robots, which are easy to code and don’t require very much previous experience with coding or robotics.

Even though Ms. Tingey taught science at Bob Miller until this year, she has had experience teaching STEM before. “I did all of [the Civil Air Patrol’s] STEM classes for the squadron that I belonged to,” said Ms. Tingey, STEM and 7th grade Science teacher. According to gocivilairpatrol.com, the Civil Air Patrol is a group that was founded on December 1st, 1941, and promotes aviation and related careers. Its cadet program accomplishes this using STEM education with hands-on learning. “And then later on, I was the coordinator for the whole state of Nevada, for the aerospace-STEM part of what they do,” said Ms. Tingey.

This year, Ms. Tingey has made some changes to the STEM class. “I don’t know what they did before, so I just went into it with ‘here’s what I want to do with it.’ Because it’s an elective class, I don’t have to stick to a specific curriculum,” said Ms. Tingey. Even though there’s no specific curriculum, there are still tests and assignments; including tests about the rules of robotics competitions, check-ins about whether a team’s robot can accomplish certain goals, and weekly typing practice. “So this year it’s kind of more focused and more about learning what we need to learn about building robots and making them function,” said Ishita Puppala, 7th grade.

There have been some challenges in teaching STEM. “The biggest challenges are… funding. Because we have to buy materials for the bots, and materials for the other parts of the class, and things like that,” said Ms. Tingey. More challenges have come from the fact that STEM is a more hands-on class than science, and students in a STEM class are more independent. “Just managing 8 teams at a time in class, it’s a lot of people, and everybody’s doing their own thing, and deciding what they need to do. So, I turn into more of a troubleshooter, and ‘How can I help you’, customer service type of person,” said Ms. Tingey.

Photo by: Ainsley Cronrath

Ms. Tingey is the new STEM teacher at Bob Miller Middle School this year.

Despite these challenges, Ms. Tingey isn’t giving up on teaching STEM. “Ms. Tingey is doing a great job. She is trying to build the program and improve it each year,” said Ms. Berg.

According to students and staff, Ms. Tingey is a great teacher. “She teaches what we need to know, she helps us understand it, and even if sometimes she’s strict, she just does it because we need to learn,” said Puppala.

“With her experience in the Science classroom, her involvement in Civil Air Patrol, and other interests, she was the best candidate,” said Ms. Berg. STEM has changed a lot this year, and it will continue changing in the future. Next year, the STEM class will include more drones and 3D printing, topics that weren’t emphasized as much as robotics this year.

“You always learn something and try something different next time,” said Ms. Tingey.

Photo by: Ruby Chung

This is one of  Ruby Chung's drawings that she had submitted to the Happy Times Calendar, but unfortunately did not win this year.