Sixth Grade Student Council Interview
By: Isabel Loyer and Sophie Brassard
On November 8th, shortly after the election, we interviewed the new Sixth Grade Council Trio, Molly Saunders, Lyric Schenker, and Caroline Hanson. Here’s what they said:
Q: How do you feel about winning?
A: “Successful,” said Caroline, “Accomplished.” Molly added.
Q: How do you plan to make the school a better place?
A: “We want to make everyone welcome here and make our community a better place,” said Caroline. “And have relaxing activities like yoga during recess, morning movers, and occasionally gym.”
Q: How were you feeling Election Day?
A: “At first we were nervous, and then everyone said they voted for us and then we felt better.” Explained the three.
Q: What did you think the chances of winning were?
A: “Slim because of ‘popularity’” They said.
Q: What is the first thing you are going to do as a council member?
A: “Fundraisers to have more items for indoor recess.”
Q: How would you feel if you lost?
A: “We would still participate in council and be happy for the winning team.”
Q: Are you going to run again next year?
A: “Yes, probably with the same group.”
After interviewing the 6th grade council trio, they shared an inspiring message with us, “Be kind to everyone no matter how they look or act.”
Conservative vs Liberal.
By Jack Dunphy and Hanna Beukelman
The two main political views, both of which are to be discussed by a member of each party. All information stated in the article comes from the incredible content creators ASAP Science, which have a variety of fascinating videos on their YouTube channel.
On the surface there are multiple meaningless differences between the two. Liberals tend to enjoy foods from other cultures more, whereas conservatives tend to prefer more traditional foods, such as meat and potatoes. Generally, conservatives like purebred dogs, while Liberals like mixed breeds. Even taste in poetry is different, conservatives enjoying poems that rhyme, and liberals enjoying free-verse poetry.
When it comes to the actual brain, liberals typically have larger anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain in which conflict is dealt with. Meanwhile, conservatives have a larger amygdala, which processes fear and anxiety.
Also, when people feel threatened, they tend to become conservative. After 9-11 for example, the US became very conservative. Conservatives also employ different cognitive styles. While conservatives follow more direct, step-by-step problems, while liberals are better at flexible problems. Also, conservative college students have generally neater rooms. Political views can even be genetic. Genes can account to up to 40% of political views.
6th Grade Robotics Day
by E (6th grade)
On Robotics Day, teachers came in and talked to the 6th grade students of the New Paltz Middle School about the ways that robots impact our everyday life. For that day only, they were given a new schedule to follow, with each activity relating to some aspect of robotics. The activities included Drones, Ethical Thinking, Bridge, Ozobots, and Vex. In Drones, students were given the opportunity to fly a small drone across the room and back. Although some of them were a bit fussy, it was still a cool opportunity. At the beginning, the instructor flew a higher-grade drone around the room to show what it was like. Ethical Thinking proposed questions that the programmers of automated cars would have to face. If the car was about to crash, would it run into the SUV, and have a higher survival rate for the people inside, or into the motorcycle, to minimize the potential damage? In either of these scenarios, both options could lead to fatalities. Bridge was a challenge: to see which team could build a bridge out of paper, and paper only, that could hold the weight of one egg for at least 10 seconds. They were given as much paper as the needed, and the entire period to work. Ozobots are small little balls that can read a set of colors and transmit them into directions. The robot can speed up, slow down, and even make a u turn. There is no special paper, and you only need red, green, blue, and black markers. Vex was a little like soccer, where you controlled a robot and tried to make goals with tennis balls. There were two teams and the team that made the most goals won. Robotics Day taught the students how much robots can have an impact on our lives.
International Women's Day
By Kalle Masseo and Nicholas Kutzin
International Women’s Day is celebrated all around the world every year. The international day was created February 28th 1909. Women’s Day is where people all around raise awareness for women to have the same rights as men do. In Soviet Russia after women gained suffrage it became a holiday not just a day about women but a holiday. There are places in Africa, USA, Canada, Asia, England, and the rest of Europe that are a foundation for raising money for women’s rights. It’s also a day where women all over the world do things they wouldn’t normally do, such as building machines, picking up litter, and doing certain things that no man will, to prove that women deserve the same rights. Not only do women do things like that, they also donate money and medicine to people who are homeless and people who have HIV and AIDS. On this day, women protest all over the world about having a larger say about political actions. Each year on Women’s Day, women sign up as a sort of police that protect other women from harm and violence. Over all on that day, the level of domestic violence goes down 30%. Normally, the youngest women are the ones that have the biggest impact during this holiday, but all women still have a huge impact.
The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins
Colbey Semel-DeFeo
The Hunger Games is a novel by Suzanne Collins. It takes place in the future and is about a girl named Katniss. The story starts as she is going about her normal life. Her life is pretty bad because she lives in district 12, a very poor place. The conflict is introduced when it comes time to pick tributes for the “Hunger Games”. They are a game where two people from each district go to a massive arena and play Fortnite irl so the last player standing wins. The way it goes is they start in a field with tools and weapons to use to try and survive and fight until only one person is alive in the arena, the winner. This is a good book because the plot is suspenseful. Another reason it is a good book is because the characters develop well and all play an important role in the plot. One final reason is the detailed language she used to describe things was effective. It helped me picture what was happening in the book. Overall this book is worth reading.
Socktober
By E (6th grade)
So you may be wondering: what is Socktober? Socktober is a month long event where people just like you can donate new socks to homeless shelters. It takes place in October all around the country, but you can donate any time of the year. It was all started by Brad Montague in 2011. Brad saw what a problem homelessness was and he wanted to help. He researched homelessness and found out that socks were the most needed item by homeless people. So he started to film himself online saying “Happy Socktober!” and giving out socks on the streets. People liked the idea and started to donate. In 2015, the event spread across the globe to all seven continents! Over 1 million people contributed to the event and the next year there would be even more. Socktober is a great thing that was created to help people in need all around the U.S. So far, it has been a huge success so let us hope it continues to be in the future too.
School Life Hacks
By: Sophie Brassard and Isabel Loyer
Have you ever been in that situation where you just cannot think? These life hacks could help you with that, and maybe get you an A on your next test!
Study Hacks
Typing Hacks
C – Copy
V – Paste
B – Bold
A – Select all
L – Highlight URL
P – Print
T – New tab
W – Close tab
R – Refresh page
S – Save
F – Find
Z – Undo
Website Hacks
Cited Source:
https://www.pinterest.com/explore/school-life-hacks/ accessed January 3, 2019
Why Lunch Should Be Longer
By Nicholas Kutzin
Yes, I know there is one of these articles in EVERY newspaper, but lunch should be longer. Teachers and staff plese hear me out. Everyone I know never has time to finish their lunch during lunch time and they end up getting distracted during the last periods of their day because all they can think about is food. An average person needs about 30 minutes to eat a meal. Plus, kids barely get enough time to talk to their friends and lunch is the one time they can do that. The thing I look forward to about my day is talking to people at lunch and if we can’t enough time to do that, kids will be bored and will have a hard time concentrating in class. The class I have the hardest time in is math because it is the period before lunch and all I can think about is what I’m going to eat. I’m one of those people who eats super-fast so by the time I’m at the period after lunch, I am refreshed and ready to learn with a full belly. Eating really helps kids learn and get better grades. That is why we need a longer lunch.