DESTINATIONS
SPORTS
FEATURE
Club sailing team competes throughout the MidAtlantic
B&W reporter goes to fourth grade to observe Common Core
PAGE 19
PAGE 15
Class of 2017 college choices PAGE 16
SPORTS DESTINATIONS
Photo courtesy KELSEY BONHAM
Walt Whitman High School
Photo by ANDIE SILVERMAN
7100 Whittier Boulevard Bethesda, MD 20817
Athletes join college teams PAGE 18
Monday, May 22, 2017
Volume 55 Issue 6
myMCPS to replace Edline next school year by VALERIE AKINYOYENU
Photos courtesy MARIA LOPEZ-SILVERO
This spring, juniors and seniors from varsity football and soccer joined a local rugby team, the Maryland Exiles. The team competes throughout the region and recently won its eighth consecutive state championship. Full story on page 17.
Students ‘MOD’ify protein bar buisness by SAM SHIFFMAN
Whenever senior Jeff Su finished swim practice, he would always run into the same problem when searching for a postworkout protein bar: most of the bars had tree-nuts, which he’s deathly allergic to. Instead of settling for what he deemed as mediocre, nut-free bars, Su and five other Whitman students—seniors Wyatt Talcott and Nate Stevens, juniors Max Levine and Koki Belikow and sophomore Joseph Oleynik—took matters into their own hands. The team founded ModBars, an officially licensed company that produces both premade and customizable protein bars that accommodate various dietary restrictions. “I wanted a way to essentially create my own granola bar where I could still get my 20 grams of protein and have the option to add whatever ingredients I liked and wanted,” Su said. “All of our granola bars are original simple recipes that we crafted from scratch.” The six founders design, bake and package the bars themselves using equipment around each other’s houses. But, at first, they struggled to create appetizing bars since none of them had any culinary experience. Their first batch of bars had almost no taste and consisted solely of flax and oat, junior Max Levine said. “We had no recipes planned, so needless to say they did not turn out well,” Su said. After a month of intense trial and error and self-instruction on how to bake the bars, the group created successful, high-quality recipies. “My favorite memory was our first successful batch,” Levine said. “It actually tasted really good when we tried it and everybody was so happy and excited.”
Continued on page 12
After years of plans and pilot programs, MCPS will replace Edline with myMCPS Classroom and its mobile app starting next school year. Currently, only teachers and administrators can input grades, access curriculum notes and review professional development resources through the web-based myMCPS, but next year’s expansion will open the platform to students and parents. After the transition, the county will no longer subscribe to Edline. In addition to providing functions that Edline currently offers, including access to calendars and class documents, myMCPS Classroom displays a course dashboard that allows students to participate in class discussions and submit work electronically. “The platform is user-friendly and integrates with Google Drive for ease of sharing documents that have already been created,” said Kara Trenkamp, director of the Department of Technology Integration and Support. “Students will find this system easy to use and very similar to Google Classroom.” The county will also release a myMCPS Classroom app that can send out notifications for announcements, missing assignments and grade changes. Through this portal, parents can also review school and countywide letters that get sent home, check a school’s social media and even manage their child’s lunch account balance, said Derek Turner, director of the MCPS Department of Public Information. “We often heard concerns about Edline not being the best tool for parents, that they often couldn’t manipulate it in the way they wanted to,” Turner said. “This new app and access point gives parents a dashboard of student information.” To help parents adjust to the new technology, the county will also provide parents with training materials in labs and workshops, Turner said. “While it’s a teacher-based tool, it’s also a communitybased tool,” Turner said. “It’s only helpful if both the producer—the teachers who put the content in—and the users—the parents who are using the content—both are comfortable with it.”
Continued on page 4
Senior soars to great heights, receives recreational pilot’s license by CARMEN MOLINA Senior Francesca D’Onofrio turns the keys into the ignition, and the single engine of her instructor’s Piper PA-28 Cherokee rumbles to a start. Pushing down on the throttle, the four person aircraft rattles, and my heart leaps to my throat as we gain speed. The nose of the plane tips up, and all of a sudden, the tension beneath the wheels releases as the aircraft lifts into the air.
Photo by TOMAS CASTRO
D’Onofrio prepares for take off in a Piper PA-28 Cherokee at Washington International Flight School.
Since September, D’Onofrio has spent six days a week at Washington International Flight School (WIFA) both in the school building and the airspace above. Working first as an intern, then employee and finally, as a student, D’Onofrio hopes to earn her private pilot license by June. D’Onofrio flew for the first time her freshman year in an hour-long introductory lesson at WIFA for people considering pursuing a flight education. She was initially fearful of potential nausea, and with good reason—my stomach starts to twist uncomfortably only moments after we take off. But for D’Onofrio, her first time in the cockpit confirmed that she wanted to fly; she fell in love with the grace and power of the plane in the air and the knowledge that she could control it, she said. “I wanted to be in the sky more. I can’t really explain it, but it gives you a lot of perspective,” D’Onofrio said. “You can see things that would be so big on the ground, and they become so small. And the views are amazing.” Her newfound passion wasn’t cheap, though; D’Onofrio had to put her flight training on hold to work, doing odd jobs during the school years and the summer to save up money to pay for plane rentals and flight lessons. The cost of getting her license is close to $14,000, she said. Last summer, D’Onofrio contacted WIFA Director Harry Kraemer for an internship at the flight school, which eventually led to a paid position doing administrative tasks that helped her pay off her flight instruction.
Continued on page 9