BHS Journalists place at competition
Baldwin High School journalism students competed in the KSPA Regional competition in Lawrence recently, with Baldwin placing in 11 categories, including two first-place entries.
First-place winners were seniors Josh Hanson (Infographics) and Brandon Kraus (Newspaper Sports Writing).
Second-place winners were Kraus (Yearbook Sports Writing) and juniors Ann Wallsmith (Editing and Feature Writing), Chelsea Turk (Advertising), and Erin Jansen (Editorial Cartoon).
Earning Honorable Mention were Jansen (News Writing), Turk (Editorial Writing), and seniors Taylor Brown (Infographics) and Julie Hill (Editorial Cartoon).
The placing entries in each category qualify for the State competition to be held in Lawrence at the University of Kansas on Saturday, May 1.
Baldwin ranked third out of all the 3A-4A schools participating. KC-Piper had the most, followed by Silver Lake.
The BHS Journalism adviser is Kit Harris.
Shoemaker wins state wrestling title
Baldwin High School freshman Bryce Shoemaker dominated at 4A State wrestling placing first in the 103 pound weight class. Senior Josh Hanson placed third in the 135 pound weight class.
“Feels really good to win state as a freshman,” Shoemaker said. “It is nice to have all my hard work pay off and too finish out a strong season.”
There were seven qualifiers including Shoemaker (42-4), Hanson (43-9), senior Heath Parmley (27-12), juniors Colby Soden (23-23), Will Von Bargen (11-11) and Greg Schiffelbein (24-14) and sophomore Andrew Morgan (24-15).
After the BHS wrestlers left Thursday, Feb. 25, to Salina to compete, many were only one match away from placing.
“Six of seven state qualifiers scored points, but all wrestled hard and it has been a good season,” coach Kit Harris said.
Soden had a big comeback his third match. He was down 10-2 late in the third period, but scored 11 points in 1:20 to win 13-10.
“My first match Saturday was against a guy from Eudora that had beat me in regionals but I ended up beating him and headed into quarter finals,” Soden said. “I did better than I expected, wish I would’ve placed, but it makes me more excited about next year.”
Hanson ended his season with 40 wins, along with his placing at state.
“It is so great to finish my high school career strong and meeting all my goals,” Hanson said.
The wrestling team finished out a strong season.
“The team did great it was the third highest team finish in school history,” Harris said. “We weren’t picked to finish this high at the beginning of the season.”
Story by Kendra Hedges, BHS Journalism
BHS Real World Design Team Wins Again
On February 5th, the BHS Real World Design Team found out that they have won first place in the State of Kansas competition for the second year in a row! That means that the team of Carson Barnes, Brandon Baltzell, Mason Johnson, Shelby Gregory, Carrie Deitz, Mac Halpin and Austin Kraus will be going to Washington D.C. all expenses paid to compete at Nationals. This project couldn’t have been completed without some very dedicated team members that were willing to give up their personal time on weekends and holidays to work on it. Also, the expert coaching of Sandy Barnes was an important factor in our winning. These students have learned what is involved in a real life engineering project, and how a team is more than the sum of it’s members. “I am very proud of them!” said sponsor, Pam Davis.
The Real World Design Project is designed so that there is no one correct answer. Each jet empennage starts with an original tail cone, and then there are hundreds of airfoils to choose from for the horizontal and vertical stabilizers. After you have made several original jet tails that are the correct size and shape to be compatible with the given fuselage and wings, you test them with fluid dynamics software that simulates a wind tunnel.You submit one of your designs, and wait for the judges to decide which is best.
The software we use is the same as the software used by CESSNA and KU to design their jets. The 3 software packages are not easy to master, and so the team learned patience while working with our project support staff online and by phone. One of the most important skills is learning to quit for the day, and come back later to ask more questions and regroup. It is a very difficult project, and over half of the teams in Kansas did not complete it.
Nationals is March 26th-28th in Washington D.C., and before then we need to do another similar project to the one we did, and then perfect our PowerPoint presentation and our 30 page engineering journal. Every member of the team has to know the project thoroughly enough to present their part orally in front of a panel of industry experts. We finished 5th in the nation last year, but I know we are much better prepared than we were last year, so I am excited about the possibilities.
Daffern, Kramps qualify for State Debate
Junior Alex Daffern and Sophomore Sarah Kramps are preparing for State Debate on Jan. 22-23. They will be traveling to Goddard for the tournament.
The team has a lot of work to do to be prepared for state.
“We need to do things such as write negative briefs for numerous cases so we are prepared for any case we may come up against,” Kramps said.
For their affirmative case, the students are using a case Daffern wrote.
“Our affirmative case is The Emergency Food Assistance Program as a social service to those in poverty,” Daffern said. “It’s where the United States Department of Agriculture buys the food and processes it, then sends it to the states based off of their population of homeless, impoverished, and/or unemployed, who then give it to local food banks, agencies, soup kitchens, etc. that will either provide them the food at a special place, or allow them to take it home. It all depends on the local area.”
The team is very confident in their affirmative case.
“Our affirmative case has only lost once,” Daffern said. “So, we feel like we’ll be able to actually get somewhere at state this year. Last year was just practice for this January.”
The debate team has a few more tournaments before state in January. Daffern and Kramps have more preparation to do, but are much more confident about this year than last year.
Story by Erin Jansen, BHS Journalism
03/10/2010 - loading...
Next Board Meeting
- When: 04/12/2010 6:30 pm
Where: 708 Chapel Street, Baldwin City, Ks 66006 - Agenda: Unavailable