Tuesday, February 21, 2017

What to consider before taking AP Psych

Shayna Berman and Laura Nagg
Staff Writers

With course selection coming up, there are some things to be taken into consideration before taking certain AP classes. AP Psychology is one of the most popular and enjoyed APs to be offered at New Hope. Taught by the one-and-only Ms. Anderson, students will explore and discover why we think and act the way we do. It is a “conversation about what it means to be human” according to Anderson.  With all of these aspects in mind you must also be aware that AP Psychology is a very demanding course and you will drown if you are not fully committed. Here are a few things that you might want to keep in mind.
 To begin with, you may hear students’ complaints regarding the summer assignment. It will be assigned before the school year is over. There are three separate (but doable) assignments, and there is a check in date mid-July to make sure you are actually keeping up with your work. As long as you don’t wait until the last minute, the summer assignment should not be a problem, and Anderson checks her email often if you have any questions.
 With consideration that Ms. Anderson needs to finish content by mid-April, you must keep up and be dedicated with the note taking in class and sometimes out of class. This kind of rigour requires a certain amount of initiative which is essential to be successful in the class. They will seem tedious and long at the beginning, but just chipping away at them each night working up to the test will save you in the end.
A student’s first mistake in the class is falling behind. You don’t learn how to ride a bicycle the first time you try- you need fall a couple times. The same thing happens with AP Psych. You need to get adjusted to the class and the expectations. You need to learn how to take notes quickly, and what questions to ask at the right time, and when you should seek extra help. There are going to be nights you stay up until 2:00 am trying to finish the notorious concept maps (not as bad as you may think). There are going to be grades that don’t fit what you expected. After your first mistakes, this won’t happen any more, and the class will actually become easy.
Use other classmates; you are a team! Your classmates are studying the same stuff, making the same mistakes, confused on the same material, and want to succeed just like you. Create study groups to meet in the library before a test. FaceTime someone while working on concept maps for terms you don’t know where to put. Find people that will help you succeed in projects, as there are a few a year. Using each other for support can only be beneficial for your AP Psych success.

 The course goes by so quickly, and will be over before you know it. So make sure you absorb what you can. Make sure you take a step back from the work every once in awhile and realize that the content is actually fun and interesting. You’ll have fun in the class- listen to Anderson’s stories and share your own. Take advantage at everything given to you. Choosing AP Psychology is a gift to yourself, you will be enlightened to your world around you, how you function and behave, and how to survive in this crazy world (shout-out to the one and only Ms. Anderson!).

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Driving into surreal history: The inauguration of Donald J. Trump

Danny Doherty Features Editor My junior license permits me to drive when the sun comes up. But on this day, taking to the roads at two in the morning was the least essential necessity that needed to be completed. For months, I had anticipated the day when someone I felt hopeful for, dedicated my time towards, and had some similar ideals to me would take the oath of office. Before the election, in the first brisk days of November, I wrote up an email to the (former) Congressman Fitzpatrick, requesting tickets to the Inauguration of the 45th President of the United States. No matter the outcome of the race, taking in such an historic day would be something I could not seize to miss out on. Rather than responding promptly to my email, his office promptly returned my message by phone, several times, over several days, all while I was at school. I will not skip out on school to listen to an outgoing Congressman’s staff tell me that I will be placed in a lottery for ticketing. So that is what happened. For two months I patiently awaited an email or phone call, eventually hearing good news that my brother and I had secured tickets to the event. Finally, just a week away from the 20th of January, that email came. How exciting it all was. The drive to D.C. had taken my family about four hours the previous time we trekked down, but to our luck (and speedy mindset) it took only two and a half hours to get down, all while picking up some free Dunkin Donuts thanks to being early birds. We pulled into our reserved parking that we had booked days before, about two miles outside of the Capitol. Walking around the nation’s centerpiece at five in the morning, with roads mellow and quiet, creates somewhat of a nostalgic feeling. This escalates when you take into account that most roads are blocked off, and military is patrolling every corner of every street. Wherever you lean on the sphere of politics, a genuine, good-natured sense of hope is uncanny and cannot be matched. Two miles later, our majestic feeling of getting there seven hours before the Donald was sworn in went sour, as thousands were already crowded around the entrance. Surprisingly, security for such a large event was swift and harmless, the crowd was pleasant, and protesters did not come in till later on. We took our places behind the Capitol water feature and packed tight for the next few hours. That hopeful feeling stayed strong within the fenced off area, but outside protests began. “No more entry in, the inauguration is cancelled,” yelled protesters, some physically beating down women specifically blocking off admittance into the event. This only lasted minutes, as the thousands of patrolmen got a few of their best to break it up and arrest violators of the peaceful protest. When the day really kicked off around 10 a.m., the mood was as vibrant as I have ever seen an event. The speeches got old fast, but once prominent men and women of government began to come out to the procession and get announced over the loudspeaker, emotions came out. To just about everyone’s delight, crowds roared for Obama, and nearly every Democratic politician (of course some Republican ones as well). Hillary Clinton, and pretty much only Hillary Clinton, received the largest collective boo I have ever taken part in. Trump closed the day with an uplifting speech, and Jackie Evancho bolted out the best rendition of the Anthem I have ever heard. Overall, the day ran incredibly smoothly and was something I will never forget.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Dissecting the APEX experience

Brooke Black, Caroline Maloney, and Jacqui Vergis
Staff Writers

As the second semester of the 2016-2017 school year begins, seniors are starting to prepare for our senior project. Recently, the grade gathered for an assembly that outlined the process of this project. We learned that it is basically broken into a ten step process, leading up to our three week, real-world experience and school presentation. APEX, an acronym for what advisors have coined the Active Personal Educational eXperience, is an opportunity where seniors are able to explore career fields and personal interests by briefly working in a setting of their own choosing. The school district implemented this program with the hope that students might learn more about themselves and what they may want to pursue outside of high school.
 Many seniors are either anxious or excited about this process. Anxious because it’s our first chance to do something that we could be doing for the rest of our lives, and excited because we get to leave school three weeks early and explore our creativity. In the past, seniors were required to do a cumulative project based on a specific career path that they worked on for almost all of high school. Last year, New Hope-Solebury made the switch to the APEX project so that students were able to experience their interests first hand. One of the most interesting parts of this project is that we are able to travel outside of our “New Hope bubble,” within reason of course. For example, last year two seniors, Aaron Nagg and Lucas Ebeling, decided to travel all the way to Zimbabwe, Africa, where they were able to experience the culture and get an idea for what they wanted to do with all that they learned. This year, some will stay in New Hope and some will travel all the way to Africa again.
 Leading up to the project, seniors are required to finish assignments that will ask us questions about our APEX decisions, such as where we want to spend the three weeks, and who we are working with. We will be able to meet with our APEX advisors a few times before the internships begin so we will be well-prepared. Once the project starts, advisors will be coming to our workplace a few times over the 3-week period to see how well we have been working and how much progress we have made. By the end of the three weeks, seniors will have accumulated a ton of information to be turned into a presentation for our advisors, who will give us a pass/fail grade, and our younger peers, so that they can get an idea for what is expected of them in the coming years.
 The APEX project is only in its second year at New Hope-Solebury High School, but it looks as if it will stick around for quite a while. Even if the students from last year’s class did not like what they decided to do for the three weeks, many reported that it helped them make conclusions about what they may actually enjoy. This year, we are excited to see the outcome of the project so that each of us can get a better understanding for what career path we want to take in life. We are all very happy to be a part of such an interactive senior project.

Razer Creates Design First Ever Triple Monitor Laptop

Rhys McCollum
Staff Writer

Project Valerie: this is the name that Razer, a company that manufactures custom mice, laptops, desktops, and keyboards, has chosen for its new built in triple monitor computer system. Not much is known about this new system, but Razer seems to never fail at pleasing their customers.
 When getting down to the specifications of the computer, it becomes much more impressive. First, when comparing its size to other 17-inch computers, Valerie is much thinner. This is because when the computer opens, the three different monitors come out of the main middle monitor. When it comes to graphics on the system, not much is mentioned. The only two pieces of information on this topic is that each monitor will have a 4k display and that an Nvidia GTX series graphics card will be used. This may not seem like much information, but it is enough to predict how expensive this computer may be. Pairing the information of three 4k displays and Nvidia GTX series graphics cards, it can be concluded that some of the highest end of graphics cards will be used or in other words the GTX 1080. This is a very expensive graphics (around $700) card that will definitely deliver in terms of computer graphics. This graphics card is compatible with virtual reality games and videos. Finally, we will try to determine what processor will be used in this computer. With all of the power and speed Razer speaks of it can be determined that an i7 processor will be used. Since this computer requires such power, it may sport a Intel® Core™ i7-6970HQ Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.70 GHz) or something even more powerful. Go to https://www.razerzone.com/project-valerie to sign up for updates about Project Valerie.

 

Superbowl LI halftime show asks fans to read between the lines

Alexandra Buchler
Staff Writer

On Feb. 5 the Super Bowl LI aired at 6:30 p.m. with the New England Patriots facing the Atlanta Falcons. Every year, people gather around their televisions with friends and family to not only enjoy the game, but to laugh at the commercials and watch the halftime show. This year the halftime show featured the singer/song-writer Lady Gaga. Gaga shocked us all, starting her performance by leaping off the roof of the stadium, falling to the stage. She appeared in a diamond bodysuit, and jewels across her face. However, some people were so blinded by her glittering ensemble that they missed the message she was trying to convey.
 Many people watching did not realize that the song, “Born This Way” is designed for the LGBTQ community. If you have been to a march in the past four years, the “Born This Way” song is infamous for people dancing to the lyrics, surrounded by a ton of glitter, bare skin, and glorious, rainbow solidarity. Gaga faces much backlash for this especially risky performance. To make matters worse, Mike Pence, one of the most anti-LGBTQ politicians today sat in the audience, especially when it contains lyrics like "No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgender life." According to USA Today, that was "likely" be the first time the word "transgender" was said onstage at a Super Bowl.

 This year, Gaga allowed her music to express a political issue in America, and let her act become activism. She played it out with confidence and did not let people with opposing views bring  her down. Gaga left it up to her audience to read between the lines.