DEVASTATI N
Disaster in Japan triggers student reactions by sahilaJORAPUR & joySHEN
On the evening of March 10, senior Kenta Labur was on Facebook when he saw his friend’s status describing an earthquake in Japan. Labur immediately began watching the news on TV. “They were showing [footage of] a tsunami—something I’d never seen before,” he says. “I was shocked. I was watching with my family and none of us were talking because it was so unbelievable.” A massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9 struck Sendai, Japan on March 11, triggering devastating aftershocks and enormous tsunami waves along the northeastern coast of the country. The shock set off countless fires and floods, causing thousands of casualties and massive destruction throughout the nation. Though these casualties have primarily affected those residing in Japan, many others are also feeling the effects of the quake as well. Senior Emily Sato* was one of the people who felt directly impacted by the disaster. Sato has family residing near Sendai, the epicenter of the earthquake. “I haven’t heard from them yet, so I don’t know if they are alive or not. But they’re tough, so I think…” She pauses as she recollects her thoughts, “My mom [told me to] be prepared just in case.”
Junior Mayu Nishimura was able to contact her friend who lives in Sendai. “The supermarkets are out of food and lack water and gas. They really need supplies,” she says. Although the majority of Lynbrook students have not been directly impacted by the natural disasters in Japan, students are eager to help out and contribute to the cause. “We’re in a safe place. If we can’t do anything to help, then it’s really painful,” says Sato. Labur, his twin brother Yuta and senior Jiminy Sugino are selling lanyards for $5 as part of a joint effort with schools throughout the Bay Area to raise relief money for Japan. All proceeds collected will go through the Red Cross to the Japanese consulate. Lynbrook has already received over 100 orders from supporters. Similarly, junior Chesley Mok and sophomore Isabel Yang have partnered with local high schools to sell t-shirts for $15 each. The money raised will be donated to the GlobalGiving Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. Japanese Club, Japanese Honor Society and the Japanese language classes are folding 1,000 origami cranes in order to send them to students in Japan. Each crane will hold a message, providing support and encouragement to the Japanese students. “There’s no word that describes how I feel [about the earth-
GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY CLAY SONG
AP courses to be revamped by claySONG
For years, students crammed every detail into their memory to prepare for AP tests. Every date, name, location and equation memorized to ensure the highest score possible. Now, most of that is going to change. The College Board recently announced its upcoming revisions in the AP testing system. Scheduled for the 2012-2013 school year, the AP Biology class will be the pioneer of College Board’s new campaign. According to the College Board, the curriculum will now focus more on analytical thinking and labs rather than facts, by asking students to collect, analyze and evaluate data. The number of free-response questions will double; the number of multiple choice questions will be halved. 20 chapters out of the 56 will be cut from the standard textbook. This gives students more time to focus on the important content and gain a more in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the material. As of now, the AP United States History course is being revised. The revamp is scheduled for the 2013-2014 school year; teachers and administrators are still debating which contents can be cut out without affecting oth-
er important events. AP United States History teacher Kyle Howden believes that this is a good change. “The idea is to understand the big picture,” he says. “Many facts on the test and in the curriculum aren’t necessary unless you plan on being a historian.” As of now, the course has an uneven focus on different eras. “If the updates merely shifted the focuses to different eras, then you’re not really relieving the stress level, which is the goal of these changes,” he adds. According to him, the best balance is to understand the material as a whole, while being able to tie different events together. As for the biology curriculum changes, “The AP Biology courses in colleges usually focus on one topic a semester, like botany or molecular science. The curriculum here covers everything in one school year,” explains AP Biology teacher Nicole Della Santina. “We don’t get to go as in-depth into the material as students in college are able to, but the content-heavy curriculum makes up for it.” Many institutions nationwide are unsure whether these changes will still create enough merit to award AP credit. For now, it seems that in general, the credits will still be awarded.
quake],” says Japanese teacher Kumi Kobayashi, “It’s devastating. It’s my country; I was born there. I know many students who are from Japan and who have family there. One of my students recently learned that their mom’s sibling passed away.” To aid the relief cause, Associate Student Body is hosting the annual school-wide Coin Wars event through the week of March 28. *Name has been changed