Weekly Update 5/4
Dear NCHS Family,
A School-Wide Picnic will be held on Monday, May 21 for students and staff that would like to attend. We will not have a rain date, so let’s hope for a sunny day. Students will be able to buy lunch and will have about 90 minutes to celebrate the year with their classmates. The schedule for the day can be found here.
The NC Color Run was a tremendous success. Almost 900 people came out to run in the event. The proceeds benefit the Scholarship Foundation. For pictures from the NC Color Run, click here. A special thank you to Andrea Chalon for these wonderful pictures. They really are a celebration of the community.
Congratulations to our May Students of the Month!
Grade 12 Emma Barker, Cameron Blair
Grade 11 Daniel Lu, Tim Norton
Grade 10 Emily Knight, Tom Roscoe
Grade 9 Gavin Bramwit, Sophie Salmini
Congratulations to our May Staff of the Month!
Laura Cascioli
Roman Cebulski
Rachel Hartong
Jennifer Lee
Lou Marinelli
Matt Quinn
Weekly Broadcast:
Be well and stay healthy NCHS!
Bill Egan
Upcoming Events:
5/5 NCHS SATs
5/7-18 AP Exams
5/8 Orchestra Concert - 7pm - Auditorium
5/9 Concert Choir - 7pm - St. Mark’s Church
Department News:
School Counseling:
School Counselors are meeting with sophomores through their health classes to have them conduct a career and personality inventory based on the Myers Briggs assessment. In the 2nd session in May, students will be asked to reflect on the results and connect them to possible careers and college majors. This is also our kickoff to the post high school planning process and we will be showing students how to use Naviance tools to do an initial college search and talking about what to expect in junior year. Counselors also met with sophomore parents to discuss the same points.
Counselors are also speaking with seniors about their final plans as well as juniors as they line up more rounds of college visits and testing.
English Department:
Does the riverboat-shaped house below remind you of a favorite Connecticut landmark? Cause it should… the Mark Twain House! Last week Ms. Cullen’s and Mr. Gallo’s juniors classes went to the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, CT. Students participated in a guided tour of Mark Twain's home, where he wrote American Literature classics such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Since students had just read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in class, they also participated in an interactive lecture that placed the novel within its larger historical context, from slavery to the Jim Crow Era to the Civil Rights Movement.
Poetry Fest is in the books! Many thanks to the students and faculty who participated in this amazing event. Student voices were loud and triumphant!
Pictures from Poetry Fest:
Poetry Fest Winners: Olivia Flaherty-Lovy (Most Artful Use of Language), Sydney Kend (Best Performance)
Hannah Swimm (Best Use of Imagery), Julia Ozimek (Best Poem)
Honorable Mentions left to right: Elizabeth Luchs, Kate Reeves, Claudia Zhu, Neya Krishnan, Reilly O'Neill
Dukes Plum (not pictured)
Finally, in classroom tidbits, AP Lit. seniors performed selected scenes from Hamlet. Shakespeare endures!
World Language:
Congratulations to the 40 Latin students who represented NCHS at the annually held Connecticut State Latin Day and won the Best in Spirit Nancy Lister Award for our school! This year approximately 50 schools participated in the much anticipated celebration of Latin language and Roman civilization.
The Nancy Lister Summa Cum Virtute (Best in Spirit) Award is given to the school who excels in participation and achievement in selected events at Latin Day. This year the events include: Declamation (recitation of a memorized Latin poem), Certamen (Jeopardy style competition with grammar, mythology, literature, history and derivatives questions), Banner, Costumes, and School Tunica contests.
In addition to this prestigious commendation, there were some exceptional individual performances:
1st Place in Lower Level Certamen - Dhiraj Kuttichirayil, Elyssa Grogan, Oliver Russell, Alexa Madrid and Hannah Swimm
2nd Place in Declamation - Anna Thérèse Mehra
2nd Place in the Costume Contest - Kate Reeves
1st Place Computer Generated Display Projects - Theodore Nelson
2nd Place Photography Display Projects - Theodore Nelson
1st Place Warfare Display Projects - Kaitlyn Sill.
Many students also took the academic tests, whose results will be made available at a later date. Special thanks to Theo Nelson and Anna Thérèse Mehra for their extraordinary effort in chairing the Latin Club activities in preparation for this event.
CTE:
Business/STEM Education:
This week Miss Martinich’s Exploring Computer Science students started coding their own games! They chose between a Scrolling game (like Flappy Bird), a Maze Game, or a Pong game. Students are now adding enhancements to their games, like keeping track of score, adding timers, and making new levels.
The AP Computer Science classes are one week away from taking their exam! On Monday students submitted their Create and Explore tasks to their College Board Digital Portfolios. These tasks are worth 40% of their AP score. Students had to choose a computing innovation, like a smartwatch, and answer response questions on how it deals with data, effects society, and any security concerns with the data it uses. They also had to create coding programs and answer prompts regarding how their program uses algorithms and abstractions. All students submitted their work before the deadline! To prepare for the sit-down portion of the exam on May 11th (74 multiple choice questions) students have been taking practice exams in class and getting ready to knock it out of the park!
Family and Consumer Sciences:
Culinary Essentials/Rams Cafe have been preparing and serving menus in Rams Cafe. This past week students Alexa Pottero, Jack Fahey and Elizabeth Luchs served a Breakfast for Lunch Menu which included a waffle grilled ham and cheese sandwich and tomato soup. For the next three weeks students will be serving some special menus.
The Child Development II students continue teaching their lessons in the preschool.This past week Jenny Loomis and Sandra Reyes taught lessons based on the stories “Corduroy” and “Plant a Seed.” Both themes revolved around kindness to others. The student lessons include crafts and two learning activities that promotes development in one of four areas: intellectual and literacy, physical, emotional, and social development..
The Individual and Family Development students are presenting on various topics on teen topics including peer pressure, cliques, eating disorders, and risky behaviors. Emma our Teen Talk Counselor visited our class to talk about how she became a mental health counselor and her role here at New Canaan High School.
This week in Ms. Zilly’s Art of Bread Making class students researched some of the most popular breads around the world. Each lab group researched the origin of different breads. Groups researched caribbean bammy bread, brazilian cheese bread, french baguettes, italian focaccia bread and middle eastern naan bread. After researching and presenting, the students made and sampled each type of bread.
Technology Education:
TV Broadcasting - Students took a field trip to Creative Dimensions, a Connecticut company that specializes in building custom studio sets for TV networks. NCTV has started the process of redesigning their own TV studio and during this visit students were presented with some initial designs concepts. The also saw the overall process of how the sets are built.
You can watch today’s live broadcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUq_Q_aOyeU
Graphics - It’s almost time to make t-shirts! Students are finishing up their original designs on the computer then “print” them out on the vinyl cutter and adhere them to t-shirts. Right now, students are learning how to remove the positive space from negative space on the vinyl material using a technique known as “weeding.”
NCHS VEX Robotics team takes time out to pose for a picture between matches. Mr. Zambarano and his students all gained valuable lessons as they move forward for next years season. Go Team 162A!
Science:
Earth Science students conducted a lab to study Ocean Acidification - - seeing how carbon dioxide from the atmosphere enters the ocean and changes its pH.
Also in Earth Science, students conducted an experiment to see the effects of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere as it relates to temperature changes.
In Biology this week, students were learning about genetically modified organisms (GMOs). They took normal E. Coli bacteria and inserted a gene from a jellyfish that fluoresces in UV light. After growing the bacteria overnight, they saw that they had successfully transformed the bacteria, and it now fluoresced in UV light as well.
Also in Biology, students dissected frogs to assist in learning about the various systems of the body.
Also in Biology classes, students conducted a gel electrophoresis "outbreak" lab. Students play the role of CDC investigators and use DNA fingerprinting to determine if a new viral disease outbreak source is a mutation of a fatal or a benign virus.
AP Biology students are busy preparing for the AP Exam by doing in class practice of released AP materials. Honors Biology students are working on an independent research project asking them to identify a biologically based problem that affects adolescents and that currently does not have an obvious proven solution. Students will design an experiment to generate data which could be used to determine a solution.
The Astronomy class began studying the solar system, beginning with the sun. Students viewed the sun through the telescope earlier this week.
In Physics, students are studying properties of solids, liquids and gases, and have investigated the concepts of density and buoyancy. Students are shown studying Archimedes’ Principle in the lab.
Six members of the Lapham Center visited the NCHS planetarium earlier this week to view a star show and learn about the constellations that we can currently see in the night sky.
VPA News:
It's that time again! Come hear your fantastic young musicians!
The NCHS Orchestra will present it's 2018 Spring Orchestra Concert Tuesday May 8 @ 7:00 in the NCHS Auditorium.
The theme of the concert is "20th Century Masters"
Program:(see above)
NCHS NEW AGE FILM FESTIVAL | VIEWER’S CHOICE AWARDS | VOTE NOW!
Click on the link below to vote for your favorite
narrative, documentary, psa/commercial and open entry!
https://ncps.digication.com/newagefilmfestival/resume
Voting closes on Friday, May 11th!
