Articles

Why are food prices going up so high???

By Emman

Why are food prices going up so high? There are three main reasons. One reason is because of diseases such as Covid 19 and Avian Flu that cause disruptions in production. For example, eggs went up in price 8.2%. because chickens have the Avian Flu, which makes it more expensive for chicken farmers.

Weather events also affect food prices. Foods like tomatoes or wheat can get wiped out because of hurricanes or other climate events like droughts or floods!

Wars can also affect food prices because transportation costs can go up and trade routes can get blocked. Then food does not get to where it needs to go and there is a shortage. That makes the prices go up!

So now you know some causes of food price increases.

Video Game Graphics

By Matthew

When you’re playing video games do you ever wonder, “What are the best video game graphics?” Today you are going to learn about the best video game graphics.

My favorite video games are Pokemon, Fortnite, and Minecraft, but I've been researching the top three game graphics and they’re not any of those. In my search, I found that Alan Wake 2, The Last of Us part 2, and Cyberpunk 2077 are rated for the best graphics. I have not played any of those games, but according to IMDb.com those are the top 3 rated for amazing graphics. (I don't think those are the best games for kids! In fact, they are rated 13+ so they’re not made for kids!)

The best graphics are considered to be the games that are the most realistic, including frame generation. Frame generations are like making something disappear and come back when your character looks at it. Frame generation is in the best of games.

Keep in mind that games like Minecraft are still awesome even if they do not rate in the best graphics category! In conclusion, the top rated graphics games are not necessarily the best for you. Whatever games you think are good are the best for you!

Is YouTube Good for Kids?

By Mateo Lopez

Every person wonders: Is YouTube safe for kids? I found that the answer is NO. I was curious, so I researched the topic online and interviewed my teacher and found some ground breaking news about youtube.

YouTube can share information that has been passed generation to generation. Wanna see something funny? YouTube has that, but is it appropriate and safe for kids? No! Here is why. While YouTube is able to provide good information, that doesn't mean it can't spread false information.

YouTube has entertainment, but it's not always meant for kids. That's why they created YouTube Kids. The problem with YouTube Kids is that it’s content is meant for kids; however, YouTube used to treat the moderation system the same as the regular YouTube. They patched that in 2016, but there was a new problem. In 2016-2019 bad people started abusing the moderation weak spot. In this period of time people found a way to bypass YouTube's moderation system. An example of that is they would use popular cartoon characters, such as Spider Man and other famous Disney characters. At first everything would be fine, then they would suddenly make the characters do inappropriate actions like attack each other in ways I cannot explain. It took YouTube 3 years to find out and fix this problem, but it was too late. Too many kids were scared to use YouTube. So the answer is no, YouTube can't always be good for kids.

In my class, my teacher discovered that YouTube Kids blocks content that we need in school. We don't use YouTube Kids because when we tried to research and use educational videos, YouTube Kids wouldn’t allow us to watch the videos because it's not “appropriate” even though it is perfectly fine and useful for school.

Sources: Google.com , aap.org, Youtube.com

Thespy Competition

By Vale and Xitlali

The WCSA theater troupe participated in a workshop theater program in January. This was no ordinary theater program; this workshop took place in the most magical place on earth, Disneyland. The Imagination Campus organization from Disney agreed to take us under their wing and help us soar higher in the theater world. Although we didn’t have any wings to soar, we had a bus driver willing to drive 20 middle schoolers to Los Angeles, and that’s close enough. On Thursday, we all piled up on the bus and started our journey to the happiest place on Earth.

At the Disney workshop, we practiced half of the song Belle, rehearsed, and were given roles to play. The roles were narrators, Belle, Baker’s townspeople, LeFou, and Gaston. All members of the workshop danced, sang, and used props. We performed with people who were in real Disney shows, movies, and voice actors. At the beginning we had to warm up our voices. Our workshop was incredible!

Although we were excited about the workshop at Disneyland, we had even bigger things to think about. Mr. Bobby signed us up for one of the biggest theater events in the world, the Thespian Society. We competed against middle school theater troupes from all over California for the big prize, Group Number Judges’ Choice Award. It’s every theater kid’s dream to win a Judges Choice, especially the group number which delusional people think of as being handed the title of Best Theater Troupe in the State. And we’re really delusional.

As we piled into the competition theater, we felt a wave of nerves fall upon us. We observed our opponents; they all looked so professional. They did warm-ups that we had never even heard of, they could hit notes that we could only dream of, and they had those matching sweater vests that you see jocks wear in the movies. Who would have guessed that the kids from nowhere would win? Our students won the Judge's Choice Award for their Spongebob showcase number! Belly Marquez also performed a solo, and she won an award for her piece. Although the odds were stacked against us, and we weren’t nearly the most talented group there, we got two thespian awards on our first time competing. We're not a fancy private school or hardcore theater maniacs, but we are from Watsonville, from the acres of strawberry fields, from the fertile soil that raised us from the ground up and we may not have fancy sweater vests, but we don’t give up.

Dia De Los Muertos

An Interview with Monica

By: Xitlali and Matthew

We interviewed Monica, the coordinator of our first Dia De Los Muertos ofrenda. It was an incredible display of community at WCSA and took a lot of work to set up and keep all the photos and crafts safe each night.

Why did you organize the ofrenda?

Monica: Dia De Los Muertos is an important part of Mexican culture and I wanted to include this important holiday and tradition to our school where many of our students already celebrate this at home. I feel like it is important for us to be proud of our heritage and culture as a school with a student body of mostly Mexican Americans.

How did you do it?

Monica: First I knew that Mrs. Pozzi felt just as strongly as I did so we came up with a plan and recruited other teachers and staff who knew about the holiday and could help plan and put it together. Ms Pozzi, Ms Bianca, Mr Stemper, Ms Maribel and I met twice to plan and figure out what we needed.

Next, I messaged families at our school to let them know what we were doing, asking them to bring a photo. I also sent out a sign up sheet to donate items to our ofrenda.

I also went to certain classrooms to read books about Dia De Los Muertos and facilitate projects for our ofrenda to get everyone excited and involved.

Ms. Kendralyn and her husband helped build and paint the display steps.Students then helped put up the ofrenda and take it down each day because we didn’t want anything to happen to our art and photos.

Thank you for organizing, Monica! It became a great Dia De Los Muertos at WCSA!

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