Dear NCHS Family,
Poetry Fest was held last night in the Wagner Room, with over 100 poets participating. This makes the 2024 Poetry Fest the biggest celebration of NCHS poetry to date! Congratulations to all the participants of last night’s event! A special thank you goes to our two Masters of Ceremony for the evening, Maddie Iulo and Alessandra Gass, who helped run the event.
Honorable Mention winners:
Radea Raleva
Niyathi Iyengar
Anna Vertin
Daniel Yoo
Elizabeth Cheng
Allison Stiles
Alexa Saridakis
Best Performance of a Poem: Nick Plasencia
Most Artful Use of Language: Sofia Brooks
Best Use of Imagery: Sebastian Gonzalez
Best Poem: Amy Meng
On Tuesday, April 30, at 7:00 PM in the NCHS auditorium, the NCHS Orchestra will perform its annual Spring Concert. The program has two works with Celtic roots or influences, “Celtic Air and Dance” and “Blue Ridge Reel,” which strongly tie to the musical tradition originating from Ireland and Scotland. Distinctly inspired by heavy metal, the orchestra will also perform “Fire In the Forge.” The final piece on the program is Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” While written by a rock group, it is operatic in nature. We enjoy exploring different genres of music at our concerts as each presents unique rewards and challenges. Hope to see you there~
On Thursday evening, some of the seniors in the NCHS Music Department showed their talent and years of work in the annual Senior Music Showcase. Congratulations!
On Friday, the StuCo class of 2026 hosted residents of Waveny Care Center for a delightful spring-themed game night. The residents and students truly enjoyed themselves.
GRADUATION LAWN SIGNS
Celebrate an NCHS Senior! Buy a graduation lawn sign to display on your lawn or as a gift for a family member or friend. Signs are $40 and include the stand. All proceeds will go toward the NCHS Scholarship Foundation general fund. Please click here to purchase a lawn sign and to learn more about NCSF.
SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT COLLEGE AND CAREER FAIR
The 2024 Spring Southern Connecticut College & Career Fair is a free event designed for high school students and their families and is the area’s largest college & career fair. Meet with over 175 colleges, universities, gap year programs, and businesses. Please find more information on the Student & Families section of the Southern Connecticut College & Career Fair website: https://www.ctcollegefair.com/students-families
Date: Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Time: 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.Location: Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater, 500 Broad St., Bridgeport, CT 06604
COLLEGE NIGHT FOR THE VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS
Monday, April 29, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. at the Westport Library
Celeste Jacobs (University of Connecticut, School of Fine Arts), Emma Davis (Manhattan School of Music), Lynne Porter (Fairfield University), and Chris Andersson (Founder/CEO of Nothing But Drama LLC) will join us to discuss choosing the right-fit college and arts program, the application process and timelines, portfolios and auditions, and what to expect as a college student majoring in the arts. There will also be a Q&A session with recently graduated art students.
Attention juniors, seniors, and parents: the Rowan Center Youth Board is hosting a Know Before You Go event on May 16th at 6:30 PM at the New Canaan Library. Gain insights from experts who educate across Fairfield County on crucial topics like sexual violence on college campuses, researching colleges, reporting sexual violence, consent, rape culture, victim-blaming, bystander intervention, Title IX, and the Cleary Act.
DEPARTMENT NEWS:
CTE:
Woodworking 1:
Students are currently producing their cutting board or set of coasters. After deciding which project they would like to work on, they then had to create a set of digital plans to outline the different components that would be required. They then could choose which types of wood they wanted to incorporate, which included white oak, red oak, Sapele, hard maple, purple heart, and cherry. We then discussed how to glue multiple strips of material together to create wider workpieces. Students are now reaching the stage where they use the router table to add an edge profile to their piece before sanding.
Woodworking 2:
Students are now learning to work with a more advanced joint, the mortise and tenon. In addition to all the other machines and techniques discovered in previous projects, students are now incorporating the mortise press to cut mortises, and using the table saw is a new way to cut the matching tenons. Student designs include a wide range of ideas, including, but not limited to, footstools, plant stands, and a small shelf.
HEALTH:
Junior health classes were fortunate to get their mental health unit underway. Martha Huitron (Teen Talk Counselor) visited and taught students about mental health and how to recognize and cope with staying mentally healthy.
PE:
The 9th and 10th grade Physical Education classes participate in the volleyball unit. After working on their skills, they are now in their class tournaments, with the winners of each class making it to the all-school tournament.
SCIENCE:
Students in Honors Geophysical Science are learning about our search for exoplanets and alien life. They have learned what makes a planet or moon “habitable,” including the need for an atmosphere. We went out to enjoy a nice day and used water balloons to learn about escape velocity, the idea that if a gas moves fast enough, it can escape a planet’s gravitational pull.
In AP Environmental Science, students explored the relationship between temperature and the solubility of gasses. Students connected this to warming the world’s oceans and described the positive feedback loop created by warming oceans and the release of CO2 from the water.
Students in Honors Biology explored biotechnology, using gel electrophoresis to separate DNA fragments to determine the relationships between different lemur species.
In AP Chemistry, students electroplated quarters with copper.
Students in Physics designed and prototyped structural bridges, focusing on tension and compression concepts when applying a payload to the bridge. The rubric included span length, payload capacity, elasticity, Architectural design, total mass of structure, safety, and functionality.
SOCIAL STUDIES:
Students in Advanced Placement US History engaged in round four of a simulation in which candidates Andrew Young, Betty Friedan, Phyllis Schlafly, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, and Tom Hayden debated the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, the leaking and printing of the Pentagon Papers and the struggle to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Following speeches, candidates discuss their positions on each issue with interest groups (below) ranging from Black Panther members, Washington Post editors, Woodstock Attendees, Georgia Veterans of Foreign Wars, Arizona Young Republicans, and the Illinois League of Women Voters.
In US History classes, students study the Space Race as a part of the Cold War Unit. Assigned to either a prominent American or Russian space program during the 1960s, students wrote a rap and pitted against the opposing program in a “rap battle” style when performing for the class. Students had to assess the goals and achievements of their program while incorporating connections to how the tensions between the two nations regarding democracy versus communism were heightened and tested during the Space Race.
VPA:
For Ms. Core’s Painting 1 class, PET and ANIMAL PORTRAITS are the subjects of this incredible group of art students working in acrylic paint on canvas to recreate either their pet or an animal that interests them. Students had to mix all colors with just the primary colors – red, blue, yellow, plus black and white. . . See for yourself!!!
LIBRARY:
NCHSWeeklyUpdate 