CCSD District Newsletter            April-June  2008

Hugh C. Williams Senior High School           Mike Valley, Interim Principal

                               

Text Box: Page # Text Box: “Bear Brags”—Good News from the last several weeks of school that we’d like to share! Catherine Sheard has also been invited to take the American Invitational Mathematics Exam on March 18th because of her high score on the American Mathematical Contest held at SUNY Potsdam in February.  Catherine is the only student who qualified for the next round out of some 200 students who participated at SUNY Potsdam.  These mathematics contests are the preliminary exams for qualifying as a member of the United States team for the International Mathematical Olympiad. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Canton Central School District participates in a number of Math/Science initiatives with Clarkson University and the STEM Partnership. One initiative is the IMPETUS Program (Integrating Math and Physics for Entry into Undergraduate STEM). Canton has eight Middle School students and five High School Students participating in this program. Our High School team did independent research on the 5-second rule and how the type of floor influences the transfer of bacteria to food. The team’s poster depicting the research will be entered in a local poster competition. Clarkson recommended that our team participate in the State STEP Conference in Albany at the end of the month. The great news is that they have been selected to present their findings at the conference. Soooooo – more research is underway to expand their study. Word to the Wise – Don’t eat food off of rough, porous floors after 30 seconds!!!!! Model Congress. Canton High School hosted a Model Congress involving students from several High School classes, as well as students from the AP American History classes at Franklin Academy in Malone, NY.  The classes that participated included Mrs. Moreau’s Honors English class, Mrs. Ladouceur’s Government class, and Ms. Schmid-Doyle’s AP Government classes.  Members of the Model United Nations club provided much of the leadership, chairing several of the committee sessions, as well as dealing with many of the logistics. The event was held February 6th and despite a bit of snow, all went smoothly. The conference was essentially a modified Senate session in which students played the roles of lobbyists, press corps, and of course, Senators. In the morning, students were divided into committees, with a full floor debate in the afternoon.  The four committees and topics were: Environment and Public Works (Reauthorization of Nuclear Power Plants); Foreign Relations (Assessment and Recommendations on Iraq and Afghanistan); Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Terrorist Screening); and Indian Affairs (Prevalence of Violence Against Indian Women).  The latter also considered the issue of giving criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians to tribal law enforcement officials. Committee meetings featured guest speakers and panelists participating in the committee hearing sessions.  Speakers came from such institutions as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, SUNY Potsdam, St. Lawrence University, the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center, Community Energy Services, and faculty members from our high school.  Many thanks to the members of these institutions that spoke; we greatly benefited from the community support of our educational endeavors!

Catherine Sheard has qualified for the invitational round of the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad which will be held March 11, 2008.  During the initial round, Catherine ranked 8th in the U.S. out of nearly 800 students who participated.  Top students in the March round will represent the United States at the International Linguistics Olympiad, to be held during the summer in Bulgaria.  Contest problems require students to examine unusual languages for patterns using their knowledge of how languages are constructed and logic.  In the initial contest offered at Hugh C Williams Senior High School in February, students translated languages such as Apinayé, Hindi, Ilocano and Aymara.  No previous knowledge of the language is expected. Other students who participated in the contest were Mary Barthelme, Josh Buckman, Casey Caswell, Kate Gregory, Andrew Horwitz, Tyler Hudson, Brittany Jones, and Mark Shatraw. Students practiced after school for the contest using problems from previous contests.  Advisors were Meg Clemens and Carol Goldie. This is the first year Canton has participated in this contest.