The Classic newspaper Volume 15 Issue no. 2

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Townsend Harris High School at Queens College

149-11 Melbourne Avenue, Flushing, NY 11367

Revamped Regents Five. fare well w-ith Intel, reach se·mi-finalist status Re·adie-d for ·2ooo by Maggie Yuan June 2000 will usher in a new six-hour English Regents exam as a part of the State Board of Regents and State Education Commissioner Richard P. Mills' attempt at raising standards on the examinations. In ad\llition, Regents in mathematics and science win be tested in pilot schools this year and will make their debut in either one or two years, depending on the subject. The new Engl~sh Regents witl first be given here in June, 2000. Th~ revised exam will be twice as long and will place greatecr emphasis on writing. It will consist of four parts given over two sessions of three hours each. The first part is an assessm~nt o(stu-. dents' listening skills. As in the old Regents, the teacher will read a speech and students will answer multiple choice questions based on the specech. What's new is that the students will then write an essay on the specech. The essay will be gracled on content, organization, and command of English, ·t neludi.n g word choice, grammar, and punctuation. The second part of the new

.Bnglish Regents wil'l require students to read, and write an ess~ on, a nodctioo text and a related chart or graph. In addition, there will be mul.._ fiple choice questions based on the information given, vo· cabulary and interpretation. Part three will be reading and writing for literary response. Students will write an essay on two paired literary texts as well as answe,r multiple choice questions on key ideas, detail and vocabulary. Fiw naHy, the fourth part wil1 con,. sist of reading and writing for analysis. The student will write an essay en two works of literature read in class during the student's high school career. The old-Boglish....Regents+-!i was administered for the last time on January 2-6 when the current juniors took it. It con,. sis ted of three parts. The first, which was all multiple choice, involved listening compFehension, vocabulary, spelling, and reading comprehension of both prose and poetry. The second part called t:or writing an essay Ctlmparing literary works read in English classes, The third Continued on p.7

by Christina Lesica and Jonathan Cofsky Setting a new school record of accomplishment, seniors Richard Capone, Diana Lewis,

and object identification on that the class has been estab~ January II. . ll.shed. Anthony Scarnati, soThe previous school record · cial science research te-acher, of semi-finalists, four, was bro- was "delighted" and "hope[s] ken this year, as the contest this is the start of a trend."

A new Harris record is born as five seniors-reach the semi-finals of the Intel competition (formerly Westinghouse). Smiling over this success are Huge Navarro, Richard Capone, Assistant Principal of Science Brendan Curran, Principal Malcolm Largmann, social science tea;her Anthony Scarnati, Diana Lewis, science teacher Odile Garcia, Diana Raab, and Nicole Zuchelli.

Hugo Navarro, Diana Raab, changed sponsorship from and Nicole Zuchelli attained Westinghouse to Intel. The new semi-finalist status in the newly record "is a very wonderful renamed Intel Science Talent thing," said Brendan Curran, Search (STS). The 58'h annual Assistant Principal of Science. competition, formerly the For the first time, a project Westinghouse STS, honored from the social science research their projects on stress, mela~ class (Richard's) reached the noma, pigeons, tree growth, . semi-finals, in the second year

Richard was shocked when he learned about his project's success from Principal Malcolm Largmann. "I didn't expect to be a semi-finalist," he said. For his project, Richard an').lyzed the effects of stress on a person's perceived acaContinued on p. 7

Convention culminates in_new SU .constitution next couple of years," said Dr. ·lines" . article consists of all byAianFu Principal Malcolm Larg- Largmann. The new constitu- election procedures, which mann ratified a new Student - tion was submitted to him last were never written in the old Union (SU) constitution, the month. constitution but had become Changes in the new consti- . law by tradition. These tradiproduct of a fiveomonth Constitutional Convention held tution include: I) the addition tional practices have changed in by Coordinator of Student Ac- of an "Election Guidelines" ar- the new document with the adtivities Odile Garcia and the ticle; 2) the clarification of gov- dition of primary elections in ernment officers and their ex- January and the elimination .of Executive Board of the SU. "I think it is an improvement - act duties; 3) the revision of a screening committee to over the last document. It has-- impeachment procedures; and choose candidates. "Primary elections were a more democratic approach to 4) a greater emphasis on deelections. It should satisfy the . mocracy, as the principal noted. formeq so that anyone who The new "Election Guide- wanted to run could run withneeds of the students for the

Winter Carnival p.3

SU Primary Elections p.5

out going through the screening committee," said present SU president Anthony Prince, senior. "People felt that the screening committee was biased." · Qualifications for candidacy in elections are also finally specified in the new elections article. The criteria include having no more than two latenesses, no more than five referral points, and a cumulative grade point average of 80.

Senior Bridge. Year pp. 8-9

The new constitution has updated the roles of different offices in the SU. Three new officers have been created: the Public Relations Officer, the Consultative Council Representative, and the Vice Presi~ dent of the Senior Class. • Impeachment procedures have also been revised in the new SU constitution. Acquiring seven demerits during aterm in office will now Continued on p. 7

New Weight Room p.16


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