April 2015 | Vol. 12 Iss. 4
FREE Olympus Junior High Students Earn Bank By Bryan Scott
T
wo teams of local students from Olympus Junior High earned top national finishes in the Lexus Eco Challenge. One team brought home $10,000, while the other received $25,000 for their performance. Each year, seventh-grade science teacher JoAnne Brown works with her gifted and talented students to enter the national contest, sponsored by Lexus. This year Mrs. Brown had seven teams compete. Two of the teams won their regional contests, earning each a $10,000 prize. Each of the teams chose a community project, best described as an “Eagle Scout-type” project. For example, one team spent the day cleaning up the area around Suicide Rock, while another promoted a cell phone recycling program. The Crushers, a team of five students, used old, recycled bikes to build a can crusher named Serk-E. The kids had identified that the school district only focused on recycling
paper and not other material. This, coupled with the fact that most students in the school and district were unwilling to participate in recycling programs, inspired the team to show that recycling can be fun. The second team to win the regional contest, and who eventually went on to win the national prize this year, was comprised of five seventh-grade students. The team consisted of Abigail Pederson, Nathan Delis, Kate Wiseman, Carson Barnes, and Josh Bonham. This team, recognizing a global concern that they thought they could bring local awareness to, chose to focus on cell phone recycling. Last year Apple launched their new iPhone 6; during the last three months of the year, the company sold 75 million of these phones. This was exciting for consumers and shareholders, but was less-
Students Earn Bank continued on page 4
door to fine arts
2
new method for hiring
6
ojh annual play
12
who’s your caddy?
20
community sponsors:
Local Postal Customer ECRWSS
Presort Std U.S. Postage PAID Riverton, UT Permit #44