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