Volume 2, Issue 1
1 February 2018
The Middle School Newspaper at King’s Academy Community Service by Faris Kassisieh Today, the 12 Sep 2017, the community service volunteers at King’s Academy brought orphaned youths from Madaba, which is very close to our School Campus. Today was a recreational event for the youths; playing games like the Egg Race, ThreeLegged Race, Musical Chairs and a great deal of other activities. “The mischievous children were confused by the strange student volunteers,” said Alexie Geokgeozian; a student at King’s. The students at King’s that were not native Arabic speaker’s had trouble with communicating, but they had no problem with letting the kids enjoy their time. “Some were calm, some nice and some were rough, but overall we all had fun,” said Susan Aloudat. “This is only one of the many things we have done. Last year was very similar,” she says. The children were between ages 7-10. At the end of the day they all stood in front of the grassy stretch the school lays on and took a group photo. The activities begin again in a week’s time once more for a similar event with the same children. At first, they wrote their names on a card and were asked to decorate it in order to know their names and a little bit of their characters. Afterwards they clipped them on and headed straight to the activities. The children split up into groups and certain volunteers were assigned to those groups. It was like a “mini Olympics” where if you win an activity you advance to the next one. “I’m very excited!” said Hamzeh, one of the children. The activities began with musical chairs until one child remained while they were running around the chairs to the “Peanut Butter and Jelly song.” As they advanced to the other events, the next event was one
of their favorites: football. They zoomed across the grassy field to attend to the ball to their heart’s content. The children were fast to laugh and tell jokes like how they had five Mohammeds in their class. The children ran and played and so it is sure to be a memory.
The Complexity of Writing by Rakan Mouasher Writing is a the most expressive type of art that there is out there, so if you don’t know how to express yourself or in what way to express your creativity, you will never be truly capable of showing others your deepest emotions that you want to get out there. Writing is also useful in a way that it allows you to be able to speak more vividly whilst maintaining all that you would like to express and even clarifying it more. But like all art, writing takes a long time to master, as a lot of trial and error come into play with the learning process. This is a lot longer than any of us would like to write for. So I thought to myself, how can I improve my writing? The first thing that came to my mind was to see what tactics well known writers have. When I looked through some books such as Lord of the Rings and Around the World in 80 Days, and I couldn’t find a thing in common. The writing styles were different, the vocabulary was different even the story structure was entirely different. It was fascinating! So I checked out some of the works of Ernest Hemmingway and when I compared it to all the other books that I had read, I was shown a whole new exquisite form of writing. This all astonished me! I never thought that something such as writing with so many rules can be so unique depending on one’s perception of the world! I truly now understand that writing is a very complex form of art that should never be undermined by anybody.
Come one, Come all!
If you have any questions, refer to Rakan Qawas
You have been invited to participate in the Wasat’s first ever Art/Writing contest! You can either submit a) an art piece reflecting this paper’s theme.
Theme: Implementation of fantasy into reality. (Abstraction)
b) a short story ranging from 1500-2000 words
Deadline For submission: 25th Feb.
Volume 2, Issue 1
Page 2
Glowing Trees could now be streetlights’ worst enemies
A New System
by Hani AlKarrain
If you are a new student at King’s and Mr. Nadim teaches you, there is a large chance you have gotten a new system you need to adapt to. A much more technologically advanced system is enforced.
A recent scientific discovery suggests that one day, all street lights might be replaced by glowing trees. In a study funded by the US Department of Energy, researchers at MIT proved it is possible to inject the luminescent chemical used by fireflies into leaves so that they shimmer brightly. In watercress, the leaves gave off a light strong enough to read a book by, and the scientists believe that plants could one day illuminate homes and offices, without the need for electricity, as well as provide street lighting. “The vision is to make a plant that will function as a desk lamp — a lamp that you don’t have to plug in,” said senior study author Michael Strano, Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. “The light is ultimately powered by the energy metabolism of the plant itself.” “Our work very seriously opens up the doorway to streetlamps that are nothing but treated trees, and to indirect lighting around homes.” Professor Strano’s lab has already designed plants which can detect explosives and monitor drought conditions. To create their glowing plants, the MIT team turned to luciferase, the enzyme that gives fireflies their gentle glow. Luciferase acts on a molecule called luciferin, causing it to emit light, while a third chemical helps the entire process along by removing the obstacles which block luciferase.
by Faris Kassisieh
I spoke with Mr. Nadim and asked him about the efficiency of the system. “Several studies have shown that taking notes by typing is proven to be less efficient and cause more problems in memory because there is no muscle movement therefore no muscle memory. My system is different, your laptop acts like a notebook, but with this notebook you can share your work with me if you have trouble,” he told me. Another advance to this system is the questions are already added by Mr. Nadim to the OneNote notebook so no time is wasted opening your textbook, finding the questions, then answering them. With OneNote you can directly open your notebook and start working. One of the best advances in this system is you can share your progress and work with Mr. Nadim without him having to be with you physically. This can help you understand the subject more and have your questions answered on the spot. “I have a few students in my class that prefer a pencil and paper so you are not forced to use the system. If you aren’t comfortable with the system and prefer to use ye old pencil and paper; you are welcome to.”
Check out these systems of equations problems from our Math Counts students. Find the solution to be entered for a FREE HOMEWORK PASS!