MavLife La Costa Canyon High School
One Maverick Way, Carlsbad, CA 92009
June 2015
Volume 9 Issue 6
Science Projects Soar To New Heights Photo by: Felix Bonnevie
Sophomore Kelly Sakaguchi, student of Mrs. Sejut’s AP Chemistry class launches her device on the meadow. Her first run had an air time of 9.79 seconds, and deployed its parachute.
T
he Physics Olympics and AP Chemistry put students’ minds to the test and their grades on the line as final projects were completed throughout campus this week. The Physics Olympics are a set of obstacles physics teachers have set up to test their students on knowledge of physics, forces, motion and energy. During the three to four weeks of preparation, students build machines for one of five contests: the javelin throw, bocci ball, basketball, vertical shot put and the 10 meter dash. Students also have to prepare for one of five “On the Spot” events: Fermi’s Quiz, Picture This, Find the Mass, Brick in the Wall and the Laser Challenge. On the Spot events are events in which students are not allowed to prepare for. They choose an event and have to complete it in a certain amount of time. For example, students have to answer questions in a 30 minute time period about physics and science in Fermi’s Quiz. They also have to draw pictures and let their teammates guess what the word is, much like Pictionary;
to weigh an unknown object without using a scale; to build a brick tower that leans over a line the farthest amount; and to manipulate lasers to hit a target. Each student is in a group with four other students. Students get to pick their groups and how much they work together. The teams can either work together the entire time or only on the day of. “Usually the teams that work together are the teams that do the best,” Physics teacher David Evers said. “They’ve had an opportunity to bounce ideas off each other and to work together in order to win.” Students compete in groups of five, or “countries”. The better a team does, the more rewarding the benefits are. “If your team wins the Olympics, you get an automatic A on the final, which is an automatic 90 percent and you don’t have to take it,” Physics teacher Katie Stapko said. “For the top winner in each event, their multiple choice part of the test will have two choices instead of four. By offering that added bonus,
a lot of the kids who have “senioritis” or are struggling towards the end of the year are re-motivated.” Even though teachers try to encourage teams to be honest and bond with one another, this doesn’t always go as planned. “The teachers try to make the activity as fair as possible,” junior Zach Carter said. “We have a blog that we have to update every time you work on your project, so you know that they are encouraging fairness, but because the rewards are so high, the incentives are pretty big. I think that people who are going to cheat are going to cheat no matter what.” This competition takes place on the second to last week of school, which adds to the pressure of doing well at the end of the year. “I feel it’s going to be pretty stressful to do since I have a bunch of other projects to do, but I think it’s going to be fun once we finally get it over with. It’ll be a big accomplishment of my junior year,” junior Steven Lake said. “I think that I’m going to feel completely relieved when I finish it.”
And while the strain of finals and end of the year projects may make for some pretty late nights, some students are excited for the competition of the year. “I’m sure it’s going to get way too competitive at some points, but it’s overall going to be an awesome experience through which we can learn and have a competitive nature,” junior Maddie Germuska said. “In the future, I’m not going to remember who wins, but I’ll remember the memories we made.” The teachers also realize the importance of the characteristics that come out of this competition. “In terms of life skills and in terms of having to keep trying if something doesn’t work, you can’t give up,” Stapko said. “You have to have the grit to keep going, make modifications and keep working at something even when it’s hard. I think those are the things that are going to stick with kids a lot more than how we solve for forces in physics. Kalli Anderson Staff Writer
“It’s all a part of wherever you feel like you would best fit in the programs,” Marcus said. “So ultimately, I think with that choice becomes the flexibility and access.” The lack of new housing developments could also be a factor in the decreasing student population at La Costa Canyon. “You’re seeing what is called a stagnant growth: where there’s not a lot of development,” Marcus said. “When LCC was first developed in 1996, a lot of the housing community around it was also developed, so a lot of families bought homes with kids coming to the school. But now, there’s not a lot of new growth around LCC.” Another possible issue that could relate to the decrease in school population is the stereotypes that LCC carries with its athletic achievements. “One thing that has been said in the community is that LCC is a sports school,” Marcus said. “But I think that if you were to line up the two schools [SDA and LCC], you would see that the academics are the same. Sometimes, there’s this perception in the community that if you play a sport, you go to LCC. But if you look at that banner when you come in to school, you see that at lcc we’re celebrating the academics, the arts and the
athletics.You could be apart of all three.” LCC students are continuing to succeed in the classroom and on the field. “I think the culture that we have here is extremely unique: we have kids that are excelling in high academic courses,” Marcus said. “But here we also have kids that are participating in extracurricular activities whether that be in sports, theater or speech and debate.” Even though a decrease in enrollment may seem like it should ultimately lead to a decrease in programs on campus, this will not be the case. “We’re hoping to be able to continue growing programs even when our numbers are shrinking,” Wood said. While looking at everything this school can offer a student, the administration is hoping to create something similar to a flow chart when a student is deciding on what classes to enroll themselves in. “We’re just going to be looking at how we create pathways,” Marcus said. “So if you take this class, what is the pathway that it leads to? That way kids will have a better idea of how they can isolate on something that they really love and enjoy taking.” The decrease in enrollment gives LCC
the opportunity to evaluate everything we have to offer. “We want to make LCC the kind of place that everyone wants to go to and that everyone feels like they have a home here,” Wood said. “I think there are some things, school and community building wise, that we could do to increase that feeling and that sense that when people step on this campus they feel like this is a place they could really fit in.” It will take the work of the entire LCC community to begin a trend of increased enrollment in the upcoming academic schools years. “We have a great school and I think our job is to be able to communicate that we do to other people and then to also see what the community wants,” Wood said. “We need to recognize that there’s a reason that people are choosing other schools over us and we need to see what those things are and we need to adapt, change and grow as a school in order to meet the needs of those students. I think that ownership falls on everybody.” Cassie Amundson
Incoming Freshman Class Reaches Historic Low
E
ntering the 2015-2016 academic school year, La Costa Canyon is projected to have its lowest freshman enrollment class ever. Compared to the 3,200 students LCC enrolled when the school first opened in 1996, enrollment in the upcoming school year is expected to have 1,000 students less than its original enrollment. Principal Marcus comments on the upcoming numbers in terms of enrollment. “You’re seeing Torrey Pines numbers still stay at 2,675 [students], where as our numbers next year will probably be around 1,850-1,900 students,” Principal Bryan Marcus said. Several ideas have been presented as to the reason behind the decrease in enrollment. “I think a lot of us on staff and a lot of students have different ideas why,” ASB Director Kaitlin Wood said. “I think SDA and the type of school that they offer is exciting and enticing to a lot of students. I think the bell schedule is the biggest thing that draws students when you ask students why they are choosing [SDA].” A large factor to many students when they are deciding which high school they attend is the access to classes they wish to take, and LCC recognizes this.
IN THIS ISSUE
NEWS 2
Junior Savannah McMahon is a recipient of The National Acadmey of Youth Leadership Award of Excellence Page 2
OPINION 3
FEATURE 6 CrunchTime! Check out how to take a bite of some of the tastiest taquitos in town. Page 12
SPORTS 9
ENTERTAINMENT 11
Anchors Away! Seniors sail off into the sunset and celebrate their final days as a Maverick. Page 11
August
11 SENIOR BUSINESS DAY 12 JUNIOR BUSINESS DAY 13 SOPHOMORE BUSINESS 14 25
DAY FRESHMAN BUSINESS DAY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL