page 8: Movie Reviews
page 5: Aftermath of Pakistani Floods
page 16: Chris Wroblewski
oUR iNteRNatioNal coMMUNity page 10
December 1, 010 • Estd. 18 • Vol. 11 • No. • Published Monthly • www.ihstattler.com • Ithaca High School, 1401 N. Cayuga St., Ithaca, NY, 148 0 • FREE
new visions NEW ICSD SuPErINtENDENt ANNOuNCED students Make a diffeRence By KATHERINE HAMBURY
While most seniors spent their vacations doing summer assignments for class, the New Visions Life Sciences students were working on essays to enter in the New York Youth Institute. The New York Youth Institute is an annual event held at Cornell that is open to all New York high school students. The topic for the 2010 New York Youth Institute was “Solutions for the Worlds Smallholders.” In order to compete, each student had to write an essay focusing on how a key factor is affecting food security in a developing country. In addition to being a research paper, the essay must also include solutions to the problems in the country. Two of the four winners were New Visions students Ariana Shapiro and Alyssa Pritts. The two chosen alternates, Annelise Schuepbach and Jordan Stark, are also New Visions students. The New York Youth Institute brings together 26 students from all over the state along with previous World Food Prize winners. At the Youth Institute, students are given the opportunity to break the ice by having a relaxed small group discussion with their peers. Then each student must give a short speech to the whole room explaining his/her findings and proposed solutions. Once everyone has presented, the judges select four students whom they want to represent New York at the Global Youth Institute in Des Moines, Iowa. Ariana’s winning paper focused on reducing the rate of urbanization and population growth in Kenya. The threat to food security in Kenya is becoming more severe because Kenya’s growing population is putting stress on its natural resources and, at the same time, farmers are leaving the area to go live and work in the cities. The result is a potentially detrimental continued on p. 3
Dr. Luvelle C. Brown, ICSD’s new superintendent, was chosen by a long, involved process. By ALLISON MOLLENKAMP
The Board of Education recently announced that Dr. Luvelle C. Brown will be the new superintendent of ICSD schools beginning January 2011. Dr. Brown comes to Ithaca from Albemarle county public schools in Charlottesville, Virginia where he has served as the chief information officer since 2006. Prior to this he held the positions of executive director for division and school improvement, principal, assistant principal and teacher. A long process has led up to this announcement, the cul-
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mination of many hours of work by many dedicated people. This process, which has been the focus of a superintendent search committee, has gone through many stages. The first was the writing of a job description; the district wanted to be very clear on what the position of superintendent entailed. One aspect the district was rather specific about was that they were looking for someone who has experience in a position like this one. The district hired a company which advertised the position both locally and in other areas. This company then narrowed the long list of applicants by looking at their continued on p. 3
Robotics teaM coMpetes at Ruckus
“The Commander,” Code Red Robotics’ competing robot at Ruckus. By REX LEI
On Saturday 23, 2010 at 4:00 AM, 40 half-awake students boarded the bus to Webster, NY, arriving three hours later at Ruckus. Rah Cha Cha Ruckus is a FIRST Robotics Competition that is a warm-up for returning members and serves as an example of a competition for new members. FIRST, described as combining a
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competitive sport with the rigors of science and technology, stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”. Every year a new game is introduced; each game is designed to push the limits of students’ abilities to innovate new robot designs and applications, yet be entertaining to both audiences and those participating. Code Red Robotics is Ithaca High School’s FIRST robotics team.
Last year’s game, named Breakaway, is played by two alliances of three robots each on a 27’ x 54’ carpeted field divided into three sections. Dividing the field into these sections are two one-foot high bumps. The game is played with 12 standard soccer balls, with the objective of the robots being to navigate the field over the bumps while collecting and scoring balls. Points are awarded for each soccer ball scored, as well as bonus points awarded to robots that manage to lift themselves off the ground using two towers placed on the game field during the endgame. Code Red unloaded the robot, and went through the process of making sure it was functional, while the veteran members taught the new members the intricacies of the machine. After most of the twenty teams arrived, qualification matches started. Teams were randomly paired with two other teams to form “alliances” which played each other. Many of the new members got the experience of participating. Each robot played seven games. The robots were individually scored and
continued on p. 3