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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 2017)
SIUSLAW NEWS SCHOOL NEWSLETTER ❚ JANUARY 2017 ❚ 3 Siuslaw A RT I S T O F T H E MONTH Hanna & Ben — Creative Writing anna Anderson and Benjamin Cahoon have been chosen as Artists of the Month in Creative Writing. Both students are seniors in Neil Wartnik’s College Writing class at Siuslaw High School. Coincidentally, both stu- dents have been past B Y B ENJAMIN C AHOON winners in the Artist of Siuslaw High School Student the Month column. ___________________________ Hanna won in Speech Arts for her debating skills three years ago, and last year for Creative Writing. Benjamin won for two-dimensional art last year. Each student enjoys being able to express their opinions in the class rather than focusing solely on just putting words on paper. Through talking they become more introspective and can develop their PHOTO BY CAROL JOLLEY thoughts more fully to explore their specific writ- ing styles. Benjamin states, “I have learned to use imagery and lead in phrase “At My House.” From this he described alliteration in my writing style.” what his house would look like and how he would build When asked about their favorite class project, Hanna it to suit himself. says she really enjoyed writing about her “Ideal Hanna, daughter of Dirk and Kathy Anderson, was Husband”. Benjamin took his cue for writing from the 2016 Queen Rhododendra of the 109th Rhododendron H Students engage in great debate efore Winter Break, eighth-grade students in Mrs. Wells’ science class learned about human impact on earth’s natural resources. Student teams researched natural resources to deter- mine the advantages and dis- advantages of using those resources for the production of electricity. Then, they squared off against each other in The Great Energy Debate. Students soon realized that there are advantages and dis- advantages to using any of Earth’s natural resources. For example, using coal is a relatively cost effective way to produce electricity, but it is a nonrenewable resource that creates pollution. On the other hand, solar energy is readily available and once it is installed does not produce pollution, but can be prohibi- tively expensive to install. While there was no clear winner in the great debate, most students agreed renew- able energy sources like hydroelectric, solar and wind energy are more beneficial for our planet. After The Great Energy Debate, students delved deeper into learning how electricity is generated. They learned about the relationship between magnetism and elec- tricity by experimenting with B Festival in Florence. After high school, she plans to go into the communications field in college. She says “I like talking. I might go into politics or journalism; anything that involves talking or debate.” She is applying to Portland State College where she discovered she could be immersed in the com- munications major field for all 4 years rather than just her junior and senior year. Benjamin, son of Ahren and Trudie Cahoon, has been accepted at George Fox University and Whitworth University. Both schools have offered him Trustee Scholarships. He intends to major in Art and Art Education. Here in Florence Benjamin has been involved with Key Club, volunteer activities and his multi- ple prize-winning artwork projects. He is learning how to play the ukulele this year. He has also been the student writer for this Artist of the Month column for the past 3 years. Benjamin has been selected to be one of three Senior Court Princes for this year’s 110th annual Rhododendron Festival in May. Gearing up ollege days are here again! Siuslaw Middle School students are gearing up for activities focused towards college readiness and exposure to higher education. Students will participate in weekly scavenger hunts to learn more about their teachers’ college experiences. They will then get the opportunity to attend presentations led by middle school staff members to get a more in depth look at college life, find out about the differences in educational opportunities and make a college pennant of the college of their choice. Just as exciting is the middle school ASPIRE program. All eighth-grade stu- dents rotate quarterly through Mrs. Wells’ ASPIRE class. ASPIRE is a mentoring program designed to help students devel- Eighth-grade ASPIRE students stand in op educational goals for high school and front of Weatherford Hall at Oregon State beyond. University on a college tour. In this class, one focus is researching possible career choices and the paths stu- college majors, campus life, and of course dents need to take to get to their career of college food. choice. Ms. Girard, the school counselor, This semester some of the students were advises the students on various college also able to attend a similar tour of Oregon options including technical schools, two- State University in Corvallis. These college year colleges and four-year colleges and uni- tours are made possible by a grant through versities, as well as the availability of finan- the ASPIRE program. cial aid options. While many students may not yet know The culminating event of the ASPIRE what they want to do when they “grow-up,” class is a college tour. Every eighth-grade it is important for the students to start think- student has the opportunity to travel to ing about their future now. Eugene for a campus tour of the University Mrs. Wells and Ms. Girard feel that this of Oregon. The students are led on a 90 program is one of the most impactful minute walking tour of the campus guided programs for getting students excited by a college student ambassador. The stu- about what the future has in store for them. dents learn about the history of the campus, — Submitted by Alexis Wells C Eighth-grade stu- dents design and build wind turbine blades and simple motors and light up small light bulbs in Mrs. Well’s science class. magnets and by building a simple motor with wire coils, a magnet and a battery. Students learned a motor is a device that turns electrical energy into mechanical ener- gy and a generator is a device that turns mechanical energy into electrical energy. As the culminating event to this unit, students used a renewable energy source — wind — to generate electrici- ty with a model wind turbine. By becoming student Giving a hand iuslaw Middle School students col- lected food for Florence Food Share during the month of December. Each year, the SMS library puts up the Giving Tree and has a competition between grade levels to see who can bring in the most food. This year, the sixth-grade won the contest with 126 items. The total amount donated to Food Share this year by SMS students was a little over 250 items. — Submitted by Alice Burns and Colleen Christian engineers, teams of students designed and built model wind turbine blades. They followed the engineering design process by testing, redesigning and retesting their wind turbine blades until they were able to gener- ate enough electricity to power at least one light bulb. Some teams even managed to generate enough electrici- ty to power as many as 3 light bulbs. — Submitted by Alexis Wells FULL OF HEART S iuslaw High School Choirs will present a program of love songs for Valentine’s Day on Monday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m. City Lights Cinemas, 1930 Highway 101, is providing the venue for this special evening. Bring your sweet- heart to hear “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and other oldies that are new again. You can support the music education of our talented students with a suggest- ed donation of $5 at the door. For up- to-date information on upcoming concerts, follow Siuslaw Choirs on Facebook. — Submitted by Debra Young S Vikings take second at Coos Bay Knowledge Bowl O n Wednesday, Jan. 18, the Siuslaw Middle School Knowledge Bowl Team traveled to Coos Bay for a competi- tion. Knowledge Bowl is where students work in teams of four against teams from other schools, answering var- ious academic-based questions on math, science, language arts and social studies. Thirteen seventh- and eighth- grade students from Siuslaw Middle School competed in this particular competition at the Coos Bay Boys and Girls Club. The other schools at this competition were Brookings, North Bend and Coquille. Siuslaw placed second. The top four scorers for Siuslaw were seventh-graders Hannah Warner and Jason Rawlins and eighth-graders MaKayla Cobb and Max Klump. The next scheduled competition is Feb. 22, again in Coos Bay. Nice job Viks! — Submitted by Andy Marohl
