TAMU elects first gay student body president pg.4
AP Capstone students learn research skills pg.15
Beauty and the Beast review pg. 20
Ten DECA students advance to national competition By Fizza Gilani News Editor
On February 25 and 26, Creek’s DECA team traveled to San Antonio to compete in their state tournament. Out of the 41 from Creek that participated in the tournament, six - Diego Allison, Emily Kincaid, Lydia Haregot, Richard Jiang, Lindsey Ashorn and Karina Bertelsmann - advanced to the national competition in team events. Anusha Jiwani, Greyson Gilliam, Scott Lindberg, and Atanu Choudhury advanced in individual events. DECA will also be taking three other students to “represent the school store certification.” DECA competitions are split into role plays and written competitions, and “divided by career clusters”. Those clusters are “[b]usiness management [and] administration, entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, hospitality [and] tourism, and personal financial literacy.” . In a role play, students “[get] a prompt with a problem that needs to be solved in a particular area of business management between 10 to 30 minutes prior to presenting a solution to a judge,” senior Diego Allison explained. Written competition involves competitors writing a paper anywhere from five to 30 pages in length. According to Allison, the topic of the paper can range anywhere from writing out business
plans or promotional project plans. Some events also require students to take a test. DECA is sponsored by Mrs.
state.” Students’ chances of making it to state are based on “[their] competitive event performance which is comprised
Photo by Kendall Eley Deshawanda Mosley, who helps of your event score students get ready for competition. and test score The DECA team displayed its strength on the subject [they] competed in.” when it took 41 students to compete at the In addition, students must receive state level. State competitions differ from at least a 70 on the test to advance. the average competition because they are Even with all the time and commitment more difficult. In order to get to the state DECA students put into preparing for competition, students “must compete at the tournament, they faced challenges. districts and…place there to advance to Allison recalled the most trying part of the
competition to be “being placed with the competitors before competing…because some kids have such good ideas and try to act like they got it in the bag before they even go.” Confidence is a crucial skill students need to have in order to be successful in their events. Allison mentioned that this year was less stressful for him because it was his second year and he had developed the confidence to make a clear and convincing proposition to the judge. According to him, it is thanks to Mosley’s coaching and supervision that his confidence and preparation ability has grown. Allison’s group completed an innovation plan detailing a solution to the real-world problem of environmental waste in the fashion industry. The plan included a product, called Two Soles, an explanation of the product, market advantages, target audience, and marketing strategy. DECA competitions offer numerous rewards for students willing to take on the venture. In addition to a vast increase in knowledge, social skills, and confidence, students develop business prowess, passion, and a consistent work ethics, all skills applicable to the real world. DECA pushes kids to find and understand practical solutions to problems they may very well encounter once they enter the real world.
McGregor receives grant to build a solar powered car By Troylon Griffin II Editor-in-Chief
Creek Physics teacher Michael McGregor has recently began a long planned project in which he will be designing solar powered cars after receiving a $10,000 grant. The money was obtained through a grant application and will be an ongoing project through the rest of the school year and throughout the summer. McGregor received the grant from Lyondell Basell, a company based in Houston, Texas and globally operated in London. The grant was specifically given to McGregor so that he and his students can construct a solar powered car and compete in a race against other solar powered cars. “The Clear Creek Education Foundation accepts grant applicants every year,” McGregor said. “We applied online, and then my students gave a presentation to the foundation.” The race will be held at Texas Motor Speedway in July 2017 and will be a four-day race. The other competing race cars will also be designed by high school students and teachers. “The race is spread out over four days,” McGregor explained. “It begins on Wednesday and ends on Saturday. The teams race for six hours each day, and there is a two hour break at noon for the cars to
sit in the sun and charge for a little while.” The project is being handled by two Creek groups: Mr. William Gibbs’ advanced machine shop class and McGregor’s AP Physics C class. “The students in Mr. Gibbs’ class are busy welding the frame of the vehicle together, and my students will be assembling the electrical aspects and installing the solar panels,” McGregor said. Gibb’s class is assembling the car, particularly handling the welding aspect of the cars. The welding process is the electronic fusion of two metals together. McGregor gave some insight into how the project came to be. “Last year, my Physics C class built a small wooden car at the end of the year and it crashed into a wall at the end of the hallway,” McGregor said. “Over the summer I pondered ways to repeat the project but make it better. I found the Solar Car Challenge online, and asked Majewski if we could participate. He liked the idea, and so we went with it.” McGregor and his students have been planning the project since last fall, but construction began to take place during the middle of January. “Welding is how it’s joined together and we use a mig welder, which uses electricity and gas to fuse the metals.” Gibbs said. Gibbs talked about how he came
to be involved in McGregor’s project. “He just came to me and asked if I’d help him and I personally have a background in cars,” Gibbs said. “I’ve built cars from the ground up.” He went on to explain that the experience is a good one for his students. “It’s a collaborative effort between the physics department and machine shop, so it’s been fun and good exposure for the students,” Gibbs said. “Plus we’ve built parts for the international space station and it’s gone into space, so I thought it’d be really fun for them to build the car. It exposes and prepares them for the real world and dealing with automotives.” Gibbs stated how his students building cars “adds another dimension to their experience.” “Machine shop is about being able to make whatever people need us to make, whether it be something for a house or anything else.” Gibbs said. Gibbs is quite excited for the project and he says his students are also enjoying it and consider it to be a “fun project.” McGregor gave his own thoughts
on
how Gibbs’ class is doing. “They’re doing a really great job,” McGregor said. “They taught me to weld a little bit too. The race takes place in July. We’re still on schedule to be finished in time. There might be a little more to complete in the summer.” McGregor is excited about the project and looks forward to getting farther into the project with his students. “This project is very rock and roll,” he said. “We haven’t even started putting the components on the car, but my students have already been tinkering with brakes systems, electric motors, different types of solar panels and steering set-ups.”