High School Assembly - Volume 7 Issue 3 by Iowa Sports Connection

Table of Contents

Lights, Camera, Show Choir By Tim Weideman - Editor

College Prep | AP or Dual Credit?

Student Life | AIB Spotlight

Student Life | Facebook’s IPO

Student Life | Showzam! Academics | The Harms of Synthetic Drugs

It’s show time! The house lights are off, the curtain

is drawn and the spotlight is focused on center stage.

Students dressed in glamorous outfits file in, the music

starts and the show begins. What a blast!

I don’t know of any other performance that looks as fun

as show choir. Who doesn’t want to dance like nobody’s

Academics | How to avoid Senioritis

guy like me who only dances and sings when nobody’s

Entertainment | Expanding Horizons

Entertainment | Top 50 Free Apps of 2012

watching and sing their heart out? Well, to a nervous, shy watching it might not sound fun, exactly, but these kids

put it all on display. I definitely envy their courage and talent.

The January issue of High School Assembly features the adrenaline-pumping, dance-inspiring sensation that is

show choir. We’ve focused on Johnston High School’s

17th annual Showzam Show Choir Competition, which

was held Jan. 21. The day was filled with some of the top

high schools in the Midwest. This wasn’t just an Iowa

affair. Teams from surrounding states got in on the fun and showed off their dance moves and voices.

As an Iowa kid through-and-through, I was happy to see 2928 Ingersoll Ave. Des Moines, IA 50312 PH: 515.283.1933 FAX: 515.283.1646 isceditor@iowasportsconnection.com

Volume seven | Issue two

schools from Iowa do so well, but congratulations to all

that competed. Show choir takes a lot of talent and a lot

of versatility. You guys rock.

Thanks for taking a glance at High School Assembly.

We’re excited to take this publication in a fresh direction

Mike Rickord | President

and involve you, the students, in the process. More

John Streets | Business Consultant

reading. We truly appreciate it.

mrickord@iowasportsconnection.com jstreets@iowasportsconnection.com

Lisa Pringle| Sales Representative lpringle@iowasportsconnection.com

Tim Weideman | Editor Ethan Clevenger | Staff Writer ADAM OESTREICH | Graphic Designer

details on that to come, but for now, thanks again for

Have fun, Tim Weideman, Editor P.S. - Dont’ forget to visit highschoolassembly.com

for the low-down on Iowa high school activities and

academics! 2

Volume 7 Issue 2

Visit us on the web @ www.highschoolassembly.com

College Prep AP or Dual Credit? Ethan Clevenger Staff Writer AP or Dual Credit - that is the question for many high school students. The answer is rarely definitive, and yet a college career may depend on it. It’s time to get down to the nitty gritty and decide what’s best for you. For those of you with no idea what I’m talking about, if you want college credit for a high school class, you have a couple of options that include taking an AP test or what is called dual enrollment. An AP test is taken at the end of the year, after the course, to evaluate how much you learned. Dual enrollment means that the high school class has been verified in one way or another by a local college, and by paying them a certain fee, they give you college credit for it, which can be transferred to whatever school you choose to attend. In general, AP looks better on a college application. AP courses are

Visit us on the web @ www.highschoolassembly.com

held to standards by the same people who administer the SAT, so a college can know that it was legit. A dual enrollment class is held to whatever standards a community college may have, and maybe not even that much. Additionally, the big test at the end of the year for AP credit is the same test every other student in the country is taking. It’s all about standardization. The AP test will also be cheaper than dual enrollment, since dual enrollment is generally priced just under what it would cost the average person to take the class from the college itself. However, if you’re taking an AP test, your college credit rides on that one test. You’ll be assigned a score of 1-5, and you have to have a three to get college credit at most Universities. That’s not to say that some will accept less – that’s to say that some require more. Some places require you to have a four or five to get credit for the course. If you aren’t a good test taker, alternatives to this might be important avenues to consider.

Be sure to investigate with the schools you are considering attending to determine which choice is right for you. Ask important questions about what score they require, what you’ll actually get credit for and if you even need that credit to graduate there among other things. Regardless, keep challenging yourself with upper-level courses, as these look good on college applications regardless of whether you get college credit for them.

Volume 7 Issue 3

Student Totten Earns AIB Spotlight for Community Service AIB College of Business www.aib.edu Kirbie Totten of Webster City has been recognized by the Community Engagement Center (CEC) at AIB College of Business for her volunteer work at Children’s Cancer Connection in Des Moines. Totten embraced the spirit of service learning to turn a college requirement into a strong personal commitment – and a potential career. AIB’s community engagement program complements its traditional business education by promoting students’ civic responsibility, personal growth and active learning. To complete their college degrees, students must volunteer for 20 hours with organizations in their hometowns or near AIB’s Des Moines campus. Totten spent her volunteer time with Chilldren’s Cancer Connection doing holiday gift wrapping, making crafts at a hospital and participating in a Family Camp. Totten said she felt fortunate to continue at Children’s Cancer Connection in an internship needed for her Associate of Applied Science degree in Communications and Design Management at AIB.

“Any organization that helps support those who have been touched by childhood cancer or cancer of any kind is a worthwhile organization, but Children’s Cancer Connection is one of the most amazing of its kind, in that we support the entire family through their entire journey,” Totten said. “ We not only focus on the sick child from their diagnosis through remission, but we also support the siblings and parents as they cope with the changes and questions that come with childhood cancer.” As she began to work toward her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration at AIB, Totten was hired by the Children’s Cancer Center as an administrative assistant. She has recently become a development coordinator. “Kirbie was an awesome volunteer and great as an intern,” said Mark Slocum, the executive director of Children’s Cancer Connection. “She has a gentle confidence and level of maturity that many college students have not yet developed. We were pleased to be able to have her join our staff while she finishes her degree and hope that she will consider starting her career with us.” Volunteering can be one of the most gratifying and humbling experiences a person can have, Totten said. “I value volunteerism more than I ever have because of my experiences at AIB and feel blessed to have attended a school with a volunteer

requirement,” she said. “If it weren’t for AIB’s requirement, I can’t say that I would have the job I’m so passionate about today.” Julie Spicer, director of Community Engagement and Tutoring at AIB, said, ““We often tell students that this obligation gives them valuable volunteer and work experience for their resume, and as in Kirbie’s case, it can lead to employment.” Totten’s career will be established sooner than many of her peers because of AIB’s “Degree in 3” program, which allows high school graduates to save money by earning bachelor’s degrees in just three years. “The ‘Degree in 3’ program is one of the main reasons I chose to attend AIB,” said Totten. “I loved the idea of obtaining a bachelor’s degree in three years instead of four, because I would be able to start my career ahead of schedule.” The Children’s Cancer Connection has been a great community partner, Spicer said. “They have allowed several AIB students to volunteer there and have brought volunteer opportunities onto campus for AIB students to participate in,” she said. Slocum said Children’s Cancer Connection thrives on volunteers like Totten. Interested readers should check out www. childrenscancerconnection.org to find opportunities to help, especially at the summer camps run by the organization. “The single biggest need we have is for individuals to donate a week of their lives to be a camp counselor and provide children that are affected by cancer – both kids that have or have had cancer and their brothers and sisters – a week away from the thought of the disease and with others who really understand how cancer can devastate a family,” Slocum said.

No one covers golf like Iowa’s #1 and only year round golf show!

WEDNESDAYS 6pm - 7 pm brought to you by:

Volume 7 Issue 3

Visit us on the web @ www.highschoolassembly.com

The best a man can get.

WELLNESS HEALTH

NUTRITION NUTRITION

NUTRITION

HEALTH HEALTH WELLNESS WELLNESS

Student Facebook’s IPO Ethan Clevenger Staff Writer Facebook recently filed for its Initial Public Offering, but what does this mean? Time to find out. Facebook has been a privately owned company for quite some time. This means that anyone with equity (ownership) is a direct investor, founder or employee. Facebook’s IPO will make it a publically owned company on the stock market. What? The stock market is a place where people buy and sell stock. Stock is ownership in a public company. This means that anyone can buy stock from a company and is therefore part owner. That means you can show up to shareholders’ meetings and such. For example, the Green Bay Packers are the only publically-owned team in the NFL. That means that anyone can buy stock in Green Bay and show up to such meetings. Most companies are set up in such a way that the original private

owners retain a majority of the public stock so that they are the active owners. If you’ll remember in the film “Batman Begins”, Wayne Enterprises went public and Bruce Wayne bought up a majority of the stock to spite the acting owner. If you didn’t get it, go watch it again, because it’s funny. Stock prices change based on the success of a company. If a company is bombing and its net worth is dropping, people want to sell off the stock – its losing value. Similarly, if the company is on the upswing, people want to buy the stock and then sell it again when it has appreciated. It’s a bit of a gamble, certainly. So what does this mean for a company? For something as big as Facebook, it means a ton of people are going to buy stock, and since Facebook is very successful, the stock will be very expensive. The IPO is expected to have a value around $100 billion. Who wins? People who already retain a huge part of the company. Mark Zuckerberg currently owns a 28% stake in the company, so that

will be worth $28 billion. He could sell it all, day one, and probably get about that much money out of it. He won’t, of course. He likely expects the value to go up and would like to continue running his own company. Interestingly enough, however, Zuckerberg has announced that his salary will drop from $500,000 to $1 in January 2013 – after the IPO – per his request. Compared to $28 billion, it’s not much, but it remains a bold statement. Aside from other large investors, cofounder Eduardo Saverin will be looking at about $5 billion. Sean Parker (founder of Napster and founding president of Facebook) will have stock worth $4 billion, and the 3200 employees at Facebook have a combined share of 30% - $30 billion. For you, this doesn’t mean much. Facebook will be mostly the same with the current staffing retaining ownership. However, if you’re 18 and interested, you could even buy some stock in Facebook. Sell it before the bubble bursts and you could make a few dollars yourself.

CAREER TRAINING. MONEY FOR COLLEGE.

AND AN ENTIRE TEAM TO HELP YOU SUCCEED. Talk to a recruiter today, and see how the Air Guard can help you succeed.

Volume 7 Issue 3

Visit us on the web @ www.highschoolassembly.com

Student Showzam! Ethan Clevenger Staff Writer Johnston High School held its 17th annual Showzam Show Choir Competition on Saturday Jan 21. The competition features some of the best high school show choirs from around the midwest. Here are the results*, and be sure to flip to the center spread to see more pictures from the big day.

Johnston Showzam 2012 FINALS

1st Place Studio - Urbandale High School Grand Champion Best Vocals, Best Band, Best Male Vocalist 2nd Place Visual Adrenaline - Ankeny High School First Runner Up Best Choreography, Best Female Vocalist

Visit us on the web @ www.highschoolassembly.com

3rd Place Perpetual Motion - Ankeny High School Second Runner Up

4th Place Elegance - Lincoln East High School Third Runner Up

4th Place Express - Lincoln East High School Third Runner Up

*Results compiled via showchoir.com

5th Place Vitality - Urbandale High School Fourth Runner Up 6th Place Side One - Indianola High School Fifth Runner Up PREP DIVISION

1st Place Perpetual Motion - Ankeny High School Grand Champion 2nd Place Vitality - Urbandale High School First Runner Up 3rd Place Intensity - Ankeny High School Second Runner Up

Johnston Innovation

Volume 7 Issue 3

Aca The Harms of Synthetic Drugs Ethan Clevenger Staff Writer While the crackdown on marijuana may have its benefits, many young people are suffering from the side effects of eliminating that market. In a world where marijuana is illegal, it hasn’t taken long for some entrepreneurs to get smart and start making synthetic pot and other drugs. These sorts of drugs are sold as bath salts and incense, marked not for human consumption. However, many young people aren’t concerned with those warning labels and have taken to smoking the stuff to get high. Brands like “Pure Evil” are flooding the market – and putting youth in hospitals.

Volume 7 Issue 3

Marijuana, for as adamant as some people are to get rid of it, is relatively harmless compared to other drugs out there. Being organic, Native Americans have smoked it for years. Its hallucinogenic properties certainly aren’t conducive behind the wheel of the car, and many people abuse it, letting it get in the way of their day-to-day lives. But these new synthetic look-alikes aren’t just going to get you high. They are landing lots of high school-aged kids in hospitals after becoming unresponsive and suffering seizures. These synthetic drugs contain all sorts of chemicals that are often even hard to label, let alone determine their potential effects. Laws banning the sale of such substances are currently working their way through Congress, but many believe that this won’t help.

Excuse me for another Batman metaphor, but in “The Dark Knight”, Alfred advises Bruce Wayne: “You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand.” In the same way, dealers without marijuana as an option have turned to chemicals they don’t fully understand, and putting a label on and banning these chemicals and products will simply lead them to more dangerous territory. One response to this predicament, and one that has often been suggested for marijuana, is for government regulation instead of a flat ban. This regulation would keep such products out of the hands of young people and in establishments where its use can be observed and limited. Until then, we at High School Assembly urge our readers to avoid such products. Just like you wouldn’t take candy from a guy in a white van, you should avoid synthetic drugs laced with questionable chemicals with somewhat unpredictable results.

Visit us on the web @ www.highschoolassembly.com

Aca How to Avoid Senioritis Ethan Clevenger Staff Writer It spreads like wildfire, infecting students across the United States. It will often keep them home from school, make doing homework nearly impossible and has been known to have a severe impact on the infected students’ future. What is this, you ask? Senioritis. Senioritis is pretty awful. Symptoms include listlessness, sleepiness and general disdain for all things academic. But it’s not something to be taken lightly. Senior year can be very important for students. Any college can choose to deny acceptance to a once-admitted student if senior year isn’t up to par. But how can you possibly avoid this fate? At the beginning of the year, sign up for the next class on track. Don’t skip on a math course just because you can, and don’t even think about skipping AP Lit for Studies of Modern Fiction. They aren’t the same. Current senior, it’s too late for you, but

juniors take heed! So if you’re a current sufferer, how can you relieve the pain? Here are a few tips: This one comes from my brother, a student at Iowa State. If you’re a gamer and find that video games tend to absorb a lot of your free time that should be spent preparing for tests and doing homework, give up your video cords to a trusted friend when times get tough. Give them a date to keep them until. You’ll have no choice but to study for that exam. Continue to get a good night’s sleep. Senioritis is often a direct result of being too tired to care, so keep your energy up. Every minute awake in calculus in another minute you aren’t working in fast food because your college cut you off. If you’re a Facebook, Reddit, or some other form of internet

junkie, there are several add-ins for internet browsers that will allow you to restrict access to certain sites at certain times of the day. For example, LeechBlock is a Firefox extension that even allows you to lock the settings while the sites are supposed to be blocked. If you lock Facebook from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., you can’t simply open up the extension and cancel it whenever you please. You have to wait until 9. Elegant. But for the most part, use your head. No one wants to not get to college. Let’s face it, a Bachelor’s degree is quickly becoming the new high school diploma, so for your own sake, keep the nose to the grindstone. See the AP vs. dual enrollment article for ways you can even use your senior year to get a head start on college.

Call - 515.327.1500

Drive Tek. The Drive in Driver Education. or visit us at:

www.drivetek.com Visit us on the web @ www.highschoolassembly.com

Volume 7 Issue 3

Enter Expanding Horizons Ethan Clevenger Staff Writer Today’s radio, and in turn, today’s high schools, are filled with Top 40 radio. From Bieber to Beyonce, it seems that teens can’t get enough. But they can. Rarely does a song make the charts that doesn’t eventually have everyone blubbering about how overplayed it was. So what is your average teen to do? Find alternative music, of course. I’m not speaking specifically to the genre – I mean in its traditional sense. At the risk of being called a hipster, I’d like to take this time to share a lesserknown genre of music with you – one that rarely hits the radio. That genre is called ska. Ska, a word not recognized by Microsoft Word, is a genre of music that has developed over the years from Caribbean reggae and southern jazz to today’s broader spectrum that includes both punk and rock influences. Ska is characterized, in most cases, by accents on the up-beats and brass instruments on top of the traditional

guitar, bass and drums. The first wave of ska began in the 1960s in Jamaica with artists like the Skatalites and Bob Marley. These bands would often cover popular American hits, including many Beatles tunes. This wave is probably a little tame for the taste of most high school students. The second wave, called 2 tone, was named after a record label started by prominent second wave ska band The Specials. This generation was largely a British fascination. The English Beat was another popular band at this time. The Specials are definitely quite laid back by today’s standards, but they still rock, and it’s easy to see the roots of today’s ska in their music. The third wave of ska really infected North America and the punk scene. The early 80s saw bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones get big (“The Impression That I Get”). From here it really took off – especially in Orange County, Florida, where bands like Reel Big Fish (“Sell Out”), Save Ferris (“Come On, Eileen”) and Sublime (“What I Got”) got started. Listening to the Specials and Reel Big Fish, the correlation is obvious, as is the growth. While ska remains hot among

alternative junkies, main stream radio is generally oblivious since Reel Big Fish’s “Sell Out” charted, despite platinum records by several of these bands. On the punk end, but still often included in the ska genre, bands like Less Than Jake (“All My Best Friends Are Metalheads”) and Streetlight Manifesto (“We Will Fall Together”) remain huge. Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish and Streetlight Manifesto have all made stops at People’s Court here in Des Moines in the past two years, and they put on a fantastic show. The concerts are notable for being, aside from a huge hipster-fest of thick-rimmed glasses, suspenders and plaid, loud, a huge crowd of sweaty people dancing up a storm and moshing as it was originally intended. As a general tip, I suggest turning on Pandora and opening up a playlist based on Reel Big Fish or Streetlight Manifesto, depending on your taste, and adding in some Dance Hall Crashers and Chase Long Beach to keep it interesting. Here’s to a year of less Katy Perry.

www.AllPlayDM.com

MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE DISCOVER YOURSELF DEFINE YOUR WORLD DESIGN YOUR FUTURE

615 3rd Street Des Moines, Iowa 50309

515.333.5050

HOURS OF OPERATION

Sunday: 11am until 9pm Monday-Thursday: 4pm until 10pm Friday-Saturday: 11am until 12am

The Morningside College experience cultivates a passion for life-long learning and a dedication to ethical leadership and responsibility. civic responsibilit

Volume 7 Issue 3

All Play has a variety of games including:

SENIOR VISIT DAYS October 21 • November 4 November 11 • November 18 Sioux City, Iowa (800) 831-0806

Battle Zone Laser Tag, Pool Tables, Shufﬂeboard, Golden Tee, Suer Shot, Wheel of Fortune, Guitar Hero, Deal or No Deal, Foosball, Soft tip Darts, Pinball, Skeeball and much more! Visit us on the web @ www.highschoolassembly.com

Enter Top 50 Best Free iPhone Apps of 2012 Craig Grannell TechRadar.com There are now well over 250,000 apps available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and, surprisingly, many of the best are free. The following list showcases our pick of the 50 best free iPhone apps, and includes iPhone applications for social networking, travel, news, photography, productivity and more. If your top free iPhone apps aren’t covered, tell us all about them in the comments. 1. Facebook Once an ugly duckling, but now - as of version 3 - a social-network-aware swan, Facebook is a triumph. The revised gridbased ‘home screens’ provide speedy access to regularly visited sections (news feed, notifications, and so on) and pages, and the experience is such that it in many ways beats the browser version. 2. Gorillacam Pretty much from nowhere, Gorillacam arrived in December 2009 from the creators of the Gorillapod tripods. It mashes together a slew of features to

hugely improve an iPhone’s camera (timer, multi-shot, spirit-level, on-screen grid, ‘press anywhere’ capture), meaning you can bin a half-dozen standalone apps that offer similar things.

That means you can spend no money, yet use your iPhone’s GPS capabilities to track your jogging and cycling routes, and examine mapping and details of your pace and calories burned. Activities can be shared online, and treadmill runs and other exercise details can be entered manually. 4. Stanza Kindle’s grabbed many ‘electronic book’ headlines, but an iPhone or iPod touch is a perfectly competent alternative - at least if you have the right app to hand. Stanza enables you to download books from various sources (many of which offer free titles), and you can transfer your own ePub, PDF or eReader titles from the free Stanza Desktop.

3. RunKeeper The prospect of Nike+ but better and for free might sound unlikely, but that’s what RunKeeper provides. Previously split into ‘pro’ and ‘free’ versions, the developer now generously includes all the features in one free app.

5. Dropbox Plenty of apps exist for transferring content between your computer and your device, but Dropbox is free and easier to use than most of its contemporaries. Dump files you want to sync in a folder on your computer and Dropbox for your device will enable you to access them, download them for offline viewing, and, in many cases, view them. 6. thetrainline For anyone commuting by train, thetrainline is the free app to beat all

The leading cause of death in young Iowans, aged 16-20, is fatal car crashes. The Iowa Department of Public Safety-Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau (GTSB) is focused on helping deter one of Iowa's and the nation's bleakest statistic: Nationwide, a total of 58,000 drivers ages 16-20 were involved in fatal crashes; crashes which took the lives of 6,400 individuals. Additionally, in 2009, 41 young people ages 15-20 were killed in Iowa fatal crashes.

Several factors contribute to these unfortunate statistics: Distracted Driving - Texting While Driving - Alcohol Use Speeding - No Seatbelts - Inexperience

Visit us on the web @ www.highschoolassembly.com

Volume 7 Issue 3

Enter others. Journey planning, offline results, timetables and a location-aware ‘next train home’ option are available via a clean, streamlined interface. The app’s not quite as good as National Rail Enquiries, but it is very similar - and five quid cheaper. 7. Skype It’s imperfect and annoyingly lacks push notifications, but Skype is still an essential download. The interface is pleasingly simple and usable, enabling anyone with a Skype account to make free calls to other Skype users and cheap calls to anywhere in the world. If you’re on Pay and Go, this is particularly handy, but the app also enables iPod touch users to utilise their devices for calls.

Volume 7 Issue 3

8. Movies Although some aspects of cinema listings app Movies are disappointingly US-centric (notably regarding details on upcoming movies and DVDs), it succeeds where it matters. Select a film and the app figures out where you’re located, lists nearby cinemas, and displays times your chosen film is showing. Efficiency can be further increased by pinning favourite cinemas to the top of the list. 9. TonePad Virtual pianos and guitars are all very well, but purely digital musical toys are more suited to Apple handhelds. TonePad is the best of them, using a grid-based interface that enables you to turn notes on and off and compose pleasing and harmonious loops; your creations can be edited, saved and uploaded to share with other users. 10. Thomson Reuters News Pro There are many free news apps, but Reuters News Pro offers a breadth of coverage that makes it a winner. Preferences enable you to tailor the app’s output to the UK, and the toolbar provides swift access to news, pictures, videos and stock markets

coverage. 11. Twitter (formerly Tweetie) Tweetie was the iPhone Twitter client that other iPhone Twitter clients wanted to be. Its combination of polished interface, plentiful options and multi-account support meant everyone loved it - apart from cheapskates, because Tweetie wasn’t free. Now, however, it is, because Twitter bought it, rebranded it as Twitter, and set fire to the price tag. 12. Comics In all honesty, Comics is a little awkward compared to using it on an iPad, but you won’t find a better comics experience on an iPhone. The app is free, as are dozens of downloadable comics - and once you run out of those, many more are available to buy. Reading works on a frame-byframe automated ‘zoom’ basis, and is surprisingly usable. For the complete list of all 50 free apps, visit TechRadar.com, or CLICK HERE

Visit us on the web @ www.highschoolassembly.com

HOW MANY? How many empty seats in the class room does it take to change your mind? How many empty seats at graduation does it take to change your behavior? How many times do you have to grieve the loss of a friend, classmate or relative? You’ve heard it all before: the leading cause of death in young Iowans is fatal car crashes. But did you know that many of these teens were speeding or using alcohol or driving distracted and not buckled up? Start being a leader now and set the example- Buckle up, Drive the Speed Limit, Don’t Drink & Drive and Don’t Text while Driving!

You have the power to save your life and the lives of others:

IOWA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY Identify traffic safety problems & thereon, develop & implement traffic safety programs designed to reduce death & injury on Iowa’s streets and highways through partnerships with local, county, state and private sector agencies. Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau www.iowagtsb.org