See inside for performing arts, Adam Underground premiere and fall sports
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pages 10-12
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Newtonite ◆ Friday, Oct. 1, 2010 • Volume 89, Issue 10
Non-profit org. US postage paid Newton, Mass. Permit no. 55337
Newton North High School, 457 Walnut St., Newtonville, Mass. 02460
School may win green award Building fulfills qualifications Hilary Brumberg This school is projected to earn a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, according to teacher Steve Chinosi. He said that there are a number of environmental categories, such as Rainwater Harvesting and Solar photovoltaic, in which LEED judges each school. Each category is worth a designated number of points. If this building fits the qualifications of a particular category, it accumulates those points. This school is estimated to earn 45 points, which would barely put it into the Gold certification range, according to Chinosi. Erik Ruoff, LEED consultant and project manager of The Green Engineer, compiled a partial list of the green LEED features this school fulfills. These include: ◆ School is located near public transportation. ◆ Site of the old building will be reused. ◆ Roof is an Energy Star Rated Cool Roof. ◆ Rainwater is harvested, resulting in a calculated one million gallons of water savings each year. ◆ Highly efficient plumbing fixtures, such as motion detection sinks and toilets. ◆ Energy efficiency features, including insulation and efficient lighting. This will reduce the overall energy cost by over 21 percent. ◆ 168 solar panels on the roof over the gym. ◆ Light pollution reduction. ◆ Utilizing low-Volatile Organic Compounds materials in the paints, carpets, adhesives and sealants. ◆ Proper ventilation that provides fresh air and exceeds indoor air quality requirements. ◆ Good day lighting to both save energy and provide a better learning environment. ◆ A curriculum based on the high performance features of the building. According to Chinosi, this school is creating a “School as Teaching Tool” curriculum. “We’re fortunate that we can turn this incredible building into a teaching tool,” he said. “Before, schools were just schools. Now, the possibilities to connect our students to the cutting edge engineering in this building are really endless. You can’t beat that.” Chinosi said he appreciates LEED because it forces people to ask questions about materials. by
“Before LEED, we didn’t ask ‘Where’d you get the cinder blocks from?’ ‘Where’d you get the windows from?’ ‘Where is all the construction waste going?’ Well, we know now that 75 percent of the construction waste will be recycled because of LEED. That, to me, is phenomenal that we actually know where some of that went. “LEED certification demands asking questions that could benefit a project financially and environmentally.” Anyone who would like to learn about the green aspects of this school can go on the Newton Green Buildings Tour, according to Green Decade Energy Committee co-chair Steve Barry. The tour, which is tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will showcase the parts of the school that could help it earn the LEED Gold certification. Barry said that Chinosi will assign each of his student-greengineers to a green section of the school to research or study. Barry likes the Green Building Tour because it “brings people together to work together to make things happen,” he said. According to Green Decade vice president Ed Cunningham, “Newton North is topical and famously green, and it turns out to be a great educational tool in the wide range of features which can make a home or other building green—efficient use of a range of resources from energy to water to building materials to municipal resources. “Many pieces can contribute to making a building green, and NNHS is a testament to that.” Cunningham said he believes that commitment to using limited resources wisely should be a mainstream, universally held value. “I hope that the tour will give people ideas which they implement in their own lives, which will result in more efficient resource use. I feel that the more the principles and practices of green building are spread throughout the community, the better off we’ll all be.” The Green Decade Building Tour will also include the 1912 Arts and Crafts house and a newly constructed luxury condominium. For more information and to register, go to www.greendecade.org/events. It will meet at the Newton Community Service Center and carpool to the sites. Students can also learn more about LEED and this school’s green initiatives through the Greengineering club in 148.
Teddy Wenneker
Jump for it: Sophomore Nick Roberts and senior Dylan Wolff, a captain, compete for the disc at Ultimate Frisbee practice. Ultimate Frisbee was one of the clubs and organizations that had a table at Club Day in the cafeteria yesterday. See pages 5-8 for more infomation about clubs.
in brief
Parents to see building, meet with teachers
Meredith Abrams Back to School Night will give parents a taste of their child’s classes for an evening, said vice principal Deborah Holman. At the event, Thursday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m., parents will follow their child’s schedule and attend each of his or her classes for 10 minutes each block. Holman said the event will give parents a better idea of what their student’s academic life is like. “Parents will meet the people who teach their kids,” she said. “I think it’s always good for parents to meet the person behind all that homework assigned, the projects, the challenges and the new ideas students are getting from classes,” she said. “Parents will be able to see the new classrooms and hear an overview of the curriculum and expectations for each class.” She said that other than geography, the event hasn’t been modified for the new building. “It will run similar to how it ran in the old building,” Holman said. “The major change is the setting and orienting parents to the building. We will provide maps and hopefully have student guides.” by
Four students prepare for math competition
Malini Gandhi Four math students from this school are preparing to compete in the second annual Math Prize for Girls contest, according to math teacher Elisse Ghitelman, the math team coach. Junior Caroline Ellison, sophomore Christina Chen, freshman Ying Gao and Bigelow eighth grader Julia Feinstein, who Newtonian takes math at this school, will Elisse travel to New Ghitelman York City November 14 for the contest. Hundreds of other girls from across the country will meet at New York University as they compete for $44,000 in prize money, according to the Math Prize for Girls website. Students will have 150 minutes to solve 20 problems, according to the website. Ghitelman stresses that these problems are “not calculus, but regular math at a more challenging level.” by
Both Chen and Ellison participated in the contest last year, placing13th and 25th, respectively, a result Ghitelman said was “pretty impressive, considering the number of people.” At this year’s event, seminars regarding the promotion of girls in mathematics and a lecture given by Yale professor of physics Priya Natarajan will be held as well, continuing the contest’s original goal of encouraging young women to become future mathematical and scientific leaders. According to Ghitelman, it is “definitely helpful to encourage girls” to pursue math. “A lot of fields have become more open to females in the past decade or so, but math is still a mostly all-male network,” said Ghitelman. “It is not a level playing field. It is easy for girls to get discouraged if they are not encouraged.” The purpose of the Math Prize for Girls is to provide this encouragement and enthusiasm, and Feinstein said she finds the whole event “extremely exciting.” “I know I’ll probably be one of the younger people there, but I am looking forward to going to New York and being able to do challenging math I haven’t done before,” Feinstein said.