Region II Science Fair Winners

By: Langdon Warner, Ph.D., Research Instructor

      

It is with great pleasure that we announce the (16 Honors Research) award winners from the  Region Two Science Fair at the University of South Carolina.  Three of our students won major awards at this regional competition and will advance to international science fairs in Houston and Los Angeles.

Ben Gustafson and Tyler Smith will be competing in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in California.  This is the oldest and largest Science Fair in the country.  Past winners of this competition include Nobel Prize winners and even Natalie Portman.  Ben and Tyler will be competing against 1600 students from 60 countries

Aysha Mushtag will represent South Carolina at the I-SWEEP Olympiad in Houston, Texas.  She will be competing against 500 high school students from 70 different countries all of whom have projects designed to protect the environment.

Other winners at the Region II Science Fair include Emilee Pence, Chris Hennigham, Gloria Wang, Tasneem Dossaji, Tyler Vincent, Jillian Cothran, and Avni Dalai. 

We remain extremely proud of these students and their teachers who worked diligently with them in preparing for this event.

Rock the Vote Launches ‘Democracy Day’ at Dutch Fork High

By Kelly H. Payne, Social Studies Teacher

Rock the Vote Launches ‘Democracy Day’ on 3/23

In partnership with the National Education Association,

educators around the country commit to teach Democracy Class.

WHAT: On Democracy Day in every state[1] across the country more than 800 educators will commit to teaching Rock the Vote’s Democracy Class lesson plan to students in a massive push towards civic engagement. Democracy Class is a one-class-period program that uses pop culture, video, a classroom discussion and a mock election to teach young people the skills to navigate the elections process and engage as active citizens. (www.democracyclass.com)

The Democracy Day launch coincides with the 40th anniversary of the passage of the 26th Amendment, which gave 18 year olds the right to vote. Educators and students worked together and in doing so, they amended the Constitution and empowered millions of American citizens to have a say in our democracy.

WHO: Democracy Day is a partnership between Rock the Vote and the National Education Association, enabling educators, student organizations, youth groups and after school programs to bring this curriculum to Irmo.

WHEN: 1:15 – 2:30pm

WHERE: Dutch Fork HS  1400 Old Tamah Rd Irmo, SC 29063

BACKGROUND:

Democracy Day is a partnership between Rock the Vote and the National Education Association, enabling educators, student organizations, youth groups and after-school programs to bring Rock the Vote’s Democracy Class program to young people across the nation.

The first annual Democracy Day launch marks the 40th anniversary of the passage of the 26th Amendment, which gave 18-year-olds the right to vote. Educators and students worked together, and in doing so they amended the Constitution and empowered millions of American citizens to have a say in our democracy.

Please RSVP in advance to maegan@rockthevote.com.

For more information: www.democracyday.com/ www.democracyclass.com

About Democracy Class

http://www.blogger.com/www.democracyclass.com

Rock the Vote's Democracy Class program is designed to educate and excite high school students about voting, elections and governance. This non-partisan lesson plan uses music, pop culture, video, classroom discussion and a mock election to teach young people the skills to navigate the elections process and engage as active citizens. In 2011, which marks the 40th anniversary of the 26th Amendment that gave 18-year-olds the right to vote, Rock the Vote is working with national and local partners to announce Democracy Day asking educators and organizations to bring Democracy Class to students. For more information visit democracyclass.com or democracyday.com.

About Rock the Vote

www.rockthevote.comRock the Vote

Rock the Vote's mission is to engage and build political power for young people in our country. Using music, popular culture, new technologies and grassroots organizing for more than 20 years, Rock the Vote has registered more than 5 million young people, including a record-shattering 2.5 million registration downloads in the historic 2008 election. In 2010, Rock the Vote logged more than 300,000 voter registration downloads as part of the largest midterm election outreach strategy in our organization's history. As the tidal wave of Millennial generation voters continues to establish its power at the polls, Rock the Vote will register millions more young people and make their voices heard. In 2011, Rock the Vote will lead the charge toward making our electoral process more accesible to young people through our high school civics program, Democracy Class, by rallying young people to stop unfair registration laws, and educating prospective 2012 candidates on how to incorporate young people in their campaigns.


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BATTLE OF THE BANDS 6-9 pm @ DFHS March

Revelations, the Dutch Fork High School Literary Magazine, is hosting the second annual Battle of the Bands this Friday, March 18, 6-9 pm in the commons courtyard. Three student led rock groups and two student led hip hop acts will vie for the title of best musical act in the school!  Students who wish to perform at Open Mic Night, will be able to perform between sets. The cover charge is five dollars and food and tickets to vote for your favorite band will be available for twenty-five cents. Harry Potter inspired t-shirts and sweatshirts may also be ordered for $18.00 and $35.00 respectively. Concessions will also be available for purchase, and, as always, we will also be accepting donations. All are welcome! Come help us celebrate our talented students and their art!

-Revelations Staff

Interested in Palmetto Boys' or Girls' State?

By: Laura Dilworth, Guidance Counselor

Juniors who are interested in being considered for a delegate position to Pametto Boys' State or Girls' State should pick of instructions in the guidance office.  Completed packets are due back to guidance by March 21.  Boys' State will be held at Anderson University the week of June 12-18 and Girls' State will be held the same week at Presbyterian College.

Journalism Staff Earns Statewide Acclaim

By: Debbie Gascon, Russel Young, and Amy Medlock-Greene,

      Journalism Teachers

This past weekend Dutch Fork High School’s publications were honored with awards at the annual conference of the Southern Interscholastic Press Association (SIPA).  All DFHS publications staffs were represented at the conference:  the literary magazine, Revelations; the newspaper, The Renaissance; the broadcast program, “The Silver Screen Report” and the yearbook, The Legacy.  Current and former Dutch Fork students were honored.  Whole staffs took home some of the highest ratings SIPA offers.  Both The Legacy and Revelations earned All-Southern ratings and each was named Best in the State.  “The Silver Screen Report” earned a Superior rating and the newspaper staff won Best Overall in the newspaper Writing, Editing and Design competition. 

During the annual conference staffs attended sessions on design, photography, videography and writing.  These sessions were taught by professional journalists as well as nationally acclaimed journalism teachers including Dutch Fork High School newspaper and broadcast adviser Amy Medlock-Greene.  Individual student awards went to Dutch Fork alumni Matthew Koon-Stack (Literary Magazine: Best Non-Fiction Prose), Megan Grant (Literary Magazine: Best Poetry), and current students Morgan Holton (Broadcast: Best Sports Story), Davis Tuggle and Austin Lewis (Broadcast: Best News Story), and Charmaine McKinley (Broadcast: Best Feature Story).  Senior Diana Barahona completed her tenure as SIPA President and junior Morgan Holton was elected as next year’s Member-at-Large. 

This is the first time adviser Russell Young’s literary magazine has taken home Best in State honors; this is the second consecutive Best in State win for yearbook adviser Deborah Gascon.

Visit http://www.foxfusion.org/ to view current and archived issues of The Renaissance and episodes of “The Silver Screen Report”.  Yearbooks and literary magazines will be distributed on Tuesday, May 17^th from 6-9pm—be on the lookout for more information in the weeks ahead.  Next up, the publications staffs will be attending the first-ever Journalism Day at Carowinds in April and the South Carolina Scholastic Press Association (SCSPA) conference in May at the University of South Carolina.

Dutch Fork High School advances to state mock trial competition

By: Molly Dawson, Social Studies Teacher

Dutch Fork High School has advanced to the S.C. Bar State High School Mock Trial Competition March 11-12 at the Matthew J. Perry Jr. Federal Courthouse located at 901 Richland St. in Columbia.  

Participating students include Elaina Boncorddo, Alex Brunson, Alex Cone, Supriya Juneja, Sterling Lecy, Taylor Lucas, Tanner McLeod, Kaity Nisbet, Zack Nisbet, Cierra Stanislaus and Chase Toler. The teacher coaches include Molly Dawson and Laurie Humphrey. The attorney coach is Tommy Evans.

Students will portray the roles of attorneys to present the plaintiff and defense sides of a fictitious case before a panel of local volunteer lawyers and judges. Additionally, students will fill the roles of the defendant, witnesses, bailiff and timekeepers. Each team will be judged on its presentation skills, rather than the legal merits of the case.

This year’s fictitious civil case, Addison Neeson v. Town of Butler, involves the death of Addison's son, Christopher Neeson, which occurred when the Butler Police Department recklessly pursued a minor traffic offense and his car was struck in an intersection. Addison Neeson alleges the reckless pursuit caused Christopher's death. For more information on the mock trial case or program, visit www.scbar.org/lre.

The mock trial program is sponsored by the S.C. Bar’s Law Related Education (LRE) Division, which was developed in 1976 to improve the ability of teachers to instruct law related education.

 The mock trial program is made possible through an IOLTA grant from the S.C. Bar Foundation and additional funding is made possible by the S.C. Bar.

The South Carolina Bar, which has a membership of more than 13,500 lawyers, is dedicated to advancing justice, professionalism and understanding of the law.