THE CHARGERWabaunsee High School

Issue 20 February 18, 2016

Magdaline McCallsenior

Last week, a 1997 Wabaun-see graduate tells about her job as a lead engineer on the An-tares Rocket Project.

On Thursday, Robin Heard, an engineer on the Antares Space project, Skyped with Wabaunsee students during ad-viser base. Science teacher Lisa Hull had the freshmen come up with some questions to ask Heard, and any student was welcome to come listen.

Robin Heard is a 1997 Wabaunsee graduate who lived in Paxico. After Heard gradu-ated from Wabaunsee, she went to Kansas State University where she received her bach-elors in chemical engineering. After that, she went to Arizona State University and received her master’s degree.

After Heard graduated, she was looking for a job around the area when she came across Orbital ATK. “Orbital ATK launches rockets. Little ones, communication satellites, we launch a lot of science payloads

for NASA, we manufacture missile defense interceptors that help protect our country from incoming ballistic mis-siles, and lots of stuff like that,” Heard said.

Heard started working for Orbital ATK about 12 years ago, where she worked on some of the missile defense programs until about seven years ago. She then started working on the Antares Rocket Project. Antares is a medium sized rocket that is approximately 180 ft. in height. The current mission of the An-tares rocket is to resupply the International Space Station.

Heard’s job on the project is engineering management for the actual rocket. The engineer-ing part of her job is mainly to help other engineers solve tech-nical problems, whether they be with electrical systems or software problems. As a man-ager, it is also her job to come in and make sure everyone is doing their work at a reason-able budget, and that they stick to their schedules. For instance, if NASA needs a cargo delivery, they need it on time.

Heard loved toy rockets as a child, so working with ac-tual rockets suits her perfectly. “Watching and participating in successful launches is my fa-vorite part of my job. I have the privilege of usually being able to be in one of the control cen-ters when we watch, so I get to listen to the countdown, see all of the data that comes in as it’s coming in, and I get to physical-ly be within a few miles of the rocket as it’s taking off. When those launches are successful, it is extremely rewarding. That first successful launch was no joke one of the best days of my life.”

Most students attending seemed to think that Heard’s job was very interesting. “I learned that the payload of a rocket is 7000 kg or more,” said freshman Travis McCall. “I learned that the International Space Station gets a lot of de-liveries and there is a lot of ef-fort put into getting them their supplies when they need them,” said junior Heath Hier.

The whole idea of having a Skype session with Heard was

generated in one of science teacher Lisa Hull’s classes. The freshmen were learning about projectiles and space, so Hull showed the students some rocket launching videos and gave them an assignment on the International Space Station. That was when freshman Aus-tin Magette mentioned that his aunt worked for them.

“I had my doubts, but I con-tacted his mom and she sent me all her contact information. I contacted her and asked her to please share her story, not only because she’s the lead engineer on the Antares Rocket Project, but also because she graduated from Wabaunsee,” Hull said.

Not only was the Skype rel-evant to the freshmen studies, Hull was also looking to inspire the students. “I just really think that this stuff is interesting, and I want to get everyone interest-ed in science too. I want to show our students that they don’t have to go to a big school to do well, you can go to Wabaunsee and still shoot for the stars.”

SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER

Freshmen Skype with Robin Heard. Heard is the Lead Program Engineering Manager for Orbital ATK. During this Skype session, freshman got the opportunity to learn about Heard’s career, and other details of her field. Photo by Lauren Brovont.

Freshmen Skype rocket program manager during AB

TRADITION CHANGEPage 2 February 20, 2016The Charger | Opinion

Most schools in the United States arrange students by their age. Students start school as kindergartners or first grade when they are five or six. Many schools won’t even allow chil-dren to enter kindergarten un-less they are five by a certain date even if their intelligence level indicates that they should be in school. This starts all stu-dents of the same age at the same learning level and usually keeps them there for the next twelve years of public educa-tion.

Schools are age-based for several reasons. Students inter-act better socially with students

who are their age rather that kids a few years older or young-er than them. However, this slows some students down in their educa-tion and shuffles some students along too fast.

Some schools are ar-ranging their students by abilities rather than age. Their students are able to have more in-dividualized education and still interact with kids their age. Stu-dents in these schools can also move up a grade level at any time when they’re ready to move on in their studies, not just at the end of the year, and can be at different grade levels in different subjects at any given time.

With the current age based school system the curriculum moves at a speed that is the right speed for a fraction of the stu-

dents in the classroom. When students have to sit through a lesson that moves too slow for

them or moves too fast for them to understand they get bored. This boredom produces the perfect opportunity for kids to mess around, distract others, and get in trouble. Some dis-tricts may provide the opportunity for stu-dents to skip a grade, but in order to do so they must pass a test in

all core subjects. This means if a student excels at English and writing but is an average stu-dent in math, they would not be able to get the higher education in writing that they need.

Teachers in an ability based school system would not have to spend so much time figur-ing out what each student in their class knows and doesn’t

know already. Each student would come to the course when they were ready to move for it, knowing exactly what they need to know to be successful in that class.

Age based schools should be replaced with a skill and achievement oriented school system. This would let kids move through school at their own pace, be it faster or slower than the current system. Stu-dents would still be able to interact with others their age and teachers wouldn’t have spend class time assessing the student’s knowledge. The few American school districts that are using this type of system are seen as unconventional and odd, but if schools across America adopted this system it would quickly become normal and we would emerge with a better educated country.

Why are schools arranged by age instead of skill level?

MadisonAlderman

A tradition we and many other schools have is Home-coming. Homecoming is a time to celebrate the school students attend. After students graduate it is a time to go back to their town to see old friends, and talk about the old school days. Homecoming is normally cen-tered around a football game. There are a lot of activities that come with homecoming, such as spirit days throughout the week, pep rally’s, voting for can-didates to be queen and king, then later choosing a queen and king, and a dance. Although every school is different and many have their own home-

coming traditions. Homecoming started at the

college level in 1911 at the Kan-sas Vs. Missouri football game. The school wanted more people to attend the game, so they de-cided if they invited alumni back more people would come, increasing the money they made from the game. After a while many colleges caught on and it eventually spread to high schools.

Schools should stop having Homecoming queen and kings. By voting for candidates, you are literally choosing who is the most popular, prettiest, nic-est, hottest, senior girl and boy. This could hurt many people’s feelings and cause an uproar in drama. Say someone that is chosen for queen or king is only mean to certain people, some students would not think it is fair that they got chosen. Or if

someone does not get chosen as Queen or King they could feel as if no one likes them or feel very poorly about themselves.

Schools should also stop having homecoming dances be-cause most students these days have places where they hang out with their friends. If you look around our school most of the student body hangs out in the parking lot. Most students do not want to go to the dances because they are simply not fun. As technology has become a big part of people’s lives many stu-dents have friends that do not go to their school. Therefore, if their friend does not go to their school they may not feel like attending the dance without them.

However there are some good things that come from homecoming. Since it is nor-mally the biggest game of the

year and many people come that don’t normally the school brings in a lot more money than they normally would. The students get to have fun dress-ing up for spirit days. Since most schools have a homecom-ing parade the students get to have fun decorating floats, painting windows and banners, and competing against other classes. To make homecoming not so much about popularity schools could substitute queen and king for something else, or simply just leave it out. By leav-ing it out you would decrease the amount of drama and hurt feelings. If schools have their students be more involved in planning the dance, then more students would come to it. In the end homecoming is a lot of fun and it does not need to end all together.

Crowning homecoming royalty an outdated tradition

Kassidi Huff

These stories are guest articles

from the fresh-man English class. After

reading “The Lot-tery,” by Shirley

Jackson, students had to write about

a tradition that should end.

Page 3 February 20, 2016The Charger | Features

PARTICIPANTS IN FCCLA

• Alison Johnson, Britany Buchanan- Advocacy/Occupa-tional. Gold• Elizabeth Erikson, Hadley Schreiner- Chapter in Review Portfolio/Senior. Gold• Kylie Evans, Sydney Swenson, Jessica Vanstory- Food Innova-tions/Junior. Gold• Heather Boiteau, Nick Carroll- Food Innovations/Senior. Gold• Rayann Johnson, Emily Schmitz- Food Innovations/Oc-cupational. Gold• Alison Herren- Life Event Plan-ning/Occupational. Gold• Abby Oliver, Kinsey Stuewe- Sports Nutrition/Junior. Bronze

FCCLA SHOOTS FOR THE STARSNick Carrollsenior

Wabaunsee STAR Event par-ticipants went for gold at compe-titions.

On February 3, participants presented their STAR events to the judges at Wamego High School. STAR stands for students taking action with recognition, STAR events are just one of the competitive events that FCCLA, offers.

In these events, FCCLA members create a project per-taining to their selected category and create a display or portfo-lio to present to judges at STAR event competitions. Projects can range from a variety of topics from creating an original recipe to advocating about dating vio-lence.

Wabaunsee brought seven FCCLA members to competi-tion, and out of those seven, six received a gold. “We were both a little nervous at first, but once we started though, it all came smoothly, and it was a really fun

experience,” sophomore Hadley Schreiner said.

“I'm proud of all the hard work each person put into their project,” FCCLA adviser Ash-ley Weber said. Six of the seven will compete at State April 3-5 in Wichita.

Along with STAR events, Wabaunsee students Emily Schmitz and Elizabeth Erikson ran for a District Office on Feb-ruary 10 in Frankfort.

Both candidates presented an original speech to voting delegates from each District D school. As a result Schmitz re-ceived the office of Vice Presi-dent of Power of One and Erik-son received the office of Vice President of Public Relations. “I didn't expect to be elected, so it was a big surprise. Hopefully by having this office, I can strength-en my FCCLA knowledge and public speaking skills,” Erikson said.

As new district officers, Schmitz and Erikson will help plan many district events for the upcoming year, such as Summer

Leadership Training, Fall Lead-ership Conference, and many others. As apart of her office Erikson will gather information from each District D school and Schmitz will make awards and encourage District chapters and members to complete Power of One modules.

Justin Fagersophomore

Health teacher Skylar Suther is trying to help his students build healthy eating habits.

The freshman physical education class is study-ing different ways to stay healthy and what effects eating a poor diet has on the body.

As part of the unit, the class is studying the mov-ie “Super Size Me.”

This video from 2004 is about Morgan Spur-lock, a person in good health, who eats McDon-ald’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a month and analyzes the results. Eating only McDonald’s for a month straight not only made him gain weight but he also be-came depressed and le-thargic. The moral of the video is that eating fast food all the time is not good for your health.

“I think that it informs kids of their decisions and how those decisions affect them over time. In my opinion, I don’t see it making a huge difference over time because they will stop eating fast food for a while but they will eventually forget about it. My hopes is that I can at least improve 2 or 3 people that will actually listen,” P.E. teacher Skyler Suther said.

This class taught some students last year how to stay away from un-healthy foods. “It is really unhealthy to eat any sort of fast food,” sophomore Ethan Senne said.

Jordyn Savagejunior

Voting is a right and a privi-lege. “These people are our rep-resentatives. They are supposed to be doing what is best for us as a people and society. It is impor-tant so that we select competent individuals, not people just there for their own personal gain,” government teacher Jess Rut-ledge said.

“I plan to vote because it's an important power you have as an American citizen to do some-thing about how our govern-ment is run,” senior Alli Terrapin said.

County Election officer Jen-nifer Savage answered our ques-tions about voter registration. “Everyone who is eligible should vote. That is you getting your say

in matters,” Savage said,

How do I register to vote?“You can get an application from any county election officer in the state. You can also get a voter registration when you get your driver's license,” Savage said. You can also register online if you will be 18 on voting day..How early do I need to register before an election?Registration must be done 15 days before the March 5 caucus.How do presidential elections differ from smaller elections?Kansas doesn't have a presiden-tial preference election (a prima-ry), where other states do. How much time and effort goes into running an election?“Preparation for an election starts many months before the actual election. Elections are not

finalized until the week after the election— we are not finished with them until then. We have to send out federal services bal-lots 45 days prior to an election,” Savage said. How many students are eligible to vote?14 current students at WHS will be able to vote by the March election. 33 current students will be able to vote by the November election.Can I vote in advance? Yes, you can call in and order a ballot. You do have to fill out an application first. How much does an election cost?In Wabaunsee county, it is from $6,000-$8,000. How many registered voters live in Wabaunsee County?About 4,600 registered voters.

Freshmen study

fast food

FAQ: Voter registration

HOW CAN VALENTINE’S DAY GO WRONG:

“Not preparing or your signifi-cant other expecting too much.” senior Hannah Peacock.

“If your significant other doesn’t do anything at all.” senior Alison Johnson

“If they break up with you.” senior Emma Williams

“If the other person doesn’t show up.” senior Magdaline McCall

“Expecting too much from Val-entine’s day.” junior Jordyn Savage

“You could join the 53 percent of guys who get dumped be-cause they didn’t get their girl-friends’ anything.” freshman Taylor Hoffman

“Have a snow day and none of the goodies get delivered.” secretary Myrna Gleue

“He gets himself a video game instead of getting her some-thing.” sophomore Justin Fager

“Being single and having to be around everyone else while they are being all lovey-dovey, it really sucks. Single Pringles Unite!” senior Michaela Butts

“Having to babysit instead of going out with my boyfriend.” senior Lauren Brovont

“Having your significant other order flowers, them not getting there until late and when you do get them, they are dead.” Spanish teacher Rachel Cox

Page 4 February 18, 2016The Charger | Features

Who did you spend Valentine’s with?

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121. Senior Alison Herren and junior Cooper Inthurm 2. Senior Brendan Milroy and junior Jordyn Savage 3. Senior Emma Wil-liams and junior Chandlor Polston 4. Juniors Heath Hier and Rayann Johnson 5. Graduate Derek Kilian 6. Freshman Kaytlin Savage and Noah Mills 7. Graduate Zach Rohleder and senior Lauren Brovont 8. Graduate Bryce Centamore and senior Katie Mayer 9. Sophomores McKenzie Lohmeyer and Chase Nelson 10. Senior Magdaline McCall and Dustin Cooper 11. Seniors Alison Johnson and Zachary Williams 12. Sophomores Samantha Moege and Hunter Witt.