How long has it been since you ventured to the back of the refrigerator shelf with your hand to find a jar of jelly, but instead came across something gross and slimey and quickly withdrew; pledging to be forever content with plain old butter? Today’s the day to reverse your promise; to brave the odd smells and strange growths; to rescue the forgotten jar of peanut butter; to restore order to your ‘fridge. Written by: Lucas Levieux
High Tech High North County’s Model United Nations team not only left last weekend's tournament with awards in their hands, but the desire to change the world around them. Over nine-hundred delegates from school’s all around Southern California came together to debate and solve topics ranging from deforestation and ocean pollution, to education equality in India and female infanticide. This weekend at Edison High School in Huntington Beach marked the first Delegation Award our team has won. Our delegates worked hard to win the Outstanding Delegation Award for a Distinguished Small School by writing papers, debating in class, and spending two days during their weekend to resolve issues that affect the world and the people that live in it. In addition to the award HTHNC’s MUN won as a team, Leelee Nunn became the first female in the team’s history to have won an award. Our team’s Secretary General, Ryan Gardiner, told Raptor Report that “Edison was a little strange for us because we were put head to head against seasoned MUN delegates that get a class grade for their performance and have been doing this non-stop for four years. Even then, through hard work, dedication, and commitment, we were able to bring back HTHNC's first ever delegation award.” He added, “For all of the effort our team put in, I am extremely proud. Myself along with all the other members of our team are looking forward to our next conference later this year.” However, as enjoyable and empowering as they was, students did not spend the whole day in committees. The evening was spent exploring Huntington Beach’s gourmet waffle eateries and learning how to ride a Nexboard. In December, the MUN elective will be holding a conference for high school students around North Country. If you’re interested in helping out during the North County Village Conference (NCRC,) join us in December. If you want to join them as they take on the role of diplomats, please join the Model United Nations elective next trimester, and join us for NCRC. These delegates are not only changing the world one speech at a time, but also proving to us that MUN is indeed FUN. Written by: Leily Rezvani
With such a diverse student population at our school, it comes as no surprise that there is an equally diverse list of available clubs! Unfortunately, with so many clubs available, it’s almost impossible to determine once and for all what clubs are out there. Especially if you either missed club rush, were manning another club booth, or didn’t get a chance to see everything for another reason. To combat this problem, Raptor Report has tracked down the list of clubs that are at the school. If any of this information is out of date, feel free to email us at [email protected].
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D8NVG0CttOoEypoqsd1uKUbys5q2EpcIXN5AlPhMadI/edi It’s time to get spooky for the first, Halloween themed, Spirit Week of the year! On Tuesday, dress up as your favorite Superhero. On Wednesday, it’s Moody Middle! Dress in your moodiest orange and black clothes. Next, on Thursday, it’s creepy twin day. Dress up the same as someone else in the school, and don’t forget: there’s a pizza party for the best dressed pair! Finally, on Friday, it’s Halloween costume day. The team with the most participation gets a pizza party as well! Don’t forget, though, all costumes must be school appropriate. No blood, weapons, or masks. But, most importantly, have fun! Go Raptors! Written by: Kirsten Zornado
Written by: Leily Rezvani
Photos by: Christian Tamayo The first annual High Tech High North County Village Fest was nothing short of a success. With creative, colorful booths, entertaining lip sync battles, and hard-working volunteers on hand, students, teachers and their families and friends had a chance to explore all of the excitement on the North County campuses. Each booth was available to attendees with a few tickets they could use to play games, enter raffles, or buy a snack or or a drink, among many other options. Students from kindergarten through twelfth grade could be seen chatting with friends and making the most of the wonderful weather the North County Village was given on the first day of May. Written by: Robby Ackles
High Tech High North County hosted its annual North County Village Conference with nearly four grades, 400 enthusiastic delegates, 22 amusing Chairs, and eleven fascinating committees. The Food and Agriculture Organization discussed the difference between apples and oranges, while the Commission on Drugs had an interesting debate, to say the least, about the Mexican Drug War. The Economic and Social Council debated on drones and the champions league as the Third Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural committee discussed human rights issues that many delegates were very passionate about. Leading up to the conference, the M.U.N. elective was a little chaotic. Students were organizing placards and credentials, folding flags, grading Position Papers, searching for lost gavels, reviewing lesson plans, writing Background Guides, and arranging rooms. When they were not in Mrs. Howard’s room to prepare for the conference, students were teaching other students how to write Position Papers, speak with correct U.N. language, and debate topics such as M.U.N. being taught in high school. We would like to thank Mrs. Howard for making the whole conference possible, students for chairing and teaching, and teachers for their cooperation with our club. Please join the Model United Nations elective for much more M.U.N. fun including debates on persisting issues you care deeply about. Despite how hectic teaching, chairing, and writing Position Papers were, everyone did their best to put the FUN in M.U.N. Written by: Leily Rezvani
At the Valley View Casino Center, on the morning of April 3rd, the atmosphere was hectic. With the music blaring, the arena packed with kids, and the enthusiastically loud announcer, it would be easy to think you were at a concert. However, if you had thought that, you would be mistaken. What was taking place was the 9th annual San Diego Regional Robotics Competition - a collection of STEM nerds and robot builders from all around California, who had come to participate in competitions between their robots. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and it represents what FIRST robotics, the company that puts on the competition, is all about. High school students who participate are given a task every year - to collaborate on building a robot that could complete in a specific game. This year, the game was called Recycle Rush. In order to gain points, teams had to work together to pick up storage totes using their robot, and stack them systematically. On top of the stacks, you had to place a cylindrical recycling container, which multiplied the points gained by the stack. The 70+ teams in the Regional competition all addressed the problem in various ways, but High Tech High North County’s team, the Top Hat Technicians, chose to use a chain based conveyer system. It had hooks to pick up both the storage totes, and the recycling containers. It seemed to be an effective design, since there were similar ideas used by a lot of the other competing teams. Schools were all given only six weeks to design, prototype, and build their robots, so they all had small kinks to be worked out. The Top Hat Technicians, however, were faced with one of the biggest “kinks” of them all. One of the chains that connected a wheel to its motor consistently fell off, leaving the wheel unpowered. After about five matches with a constantly broken chain, the team made a unanimous decision: Just take the chain off, it’s not worth it. By the final matches of day two, the team had fixed the chain, but, sadly, they couldn’t recover from the low scores they had earned previously. The team faced many challenges; pairings with other teams who were also struggling with their designs/mechanical limitations, their own broken wheel, chain and other problems, they didn’t have the chance to raise their rank higher than a 55 out of 60. In the end, though, the team learned a valuable lesson. It didn’t matter that they had come out so close to the bottom of the ranks. They had learned about the teamwork and collaboration necessary to build the robot in the first place. Written by Kirsten Zornado
Intersession was a great time of year for almost everyone. Students and teachers alike got to explore something they loved, or in many cases, something totally new. People never really got a chance to see what the intersessions they weren't in did, though. Luckily, students from a few of the intersessions were generous enough to share their experiences! Here they are! Beautifying the Boulevard Intersession Ryan Ackles In the “Beautifying the Boulevard” Intersession, each student was first assigned to come up with a hero or inspiration from the San Diego County area. Further steps to reach this final goal were designing an eye-catching image of your hero through Photoshop, tracing this image onto the magnet, and painting the magnet. Our end goal was to paint these heroes on magnets that would stick onto many of the utility boxes lining San Marcos Boulevard in an attempt to brighten up our community. Through peer feedback and help from a professional, students in this Intersession were able to create beautiful work and that will be placed on the utility boxes this week. Coast to Crest Intersession Sarah Olson The Coast to Crest intersession spent their week hiking the San Diego "Coast to Crest" trail leading from the top of Julian's Volcan Mountain to the San Dieguito Lagoon. Rangers led the intersession through hikes and into museums to explore the natural history of San Diego and glimpse the lives of humans who lived here up to 10,000 years ago. The students got up close and personal with animal tracks and the animals themselves, including catching rattlesnakes and lizards with a herpetologist at Lake Sutherland. Other activities included experiencing life at the Sikes Adobe Homestead in Escondido, where students churned butter, hand-washed clothes, and planted a garden like the original farmers from the 1800's. The Gentrification of San Diego Intersession Robby Ackles For the week of Intersession, I explored culture around North County by going on trips to Oceanside, Escondido and walking about the streets of San Marcos to learn about gentrification. According to the dictionary, gentrification is “the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper- or middle-income families or individuals...” This basically means that a neighborhood is getting a makeover. To highlight some of our experiences, we had to write in a journal, so here is an excerpt from one of my pages. “Based on my observations, it seems as if gentrification is already in the process of happening in Oceanside, or has mostly already happened. All of the shops along the coast by the beach in Oceanside have been recently renovated, or they have kept the tradition that existed a while back. Because of the beach access near the Oceanside streets, it has been imperative that the businesses reflect the ocean. However, I believe that in Escondido, gentrification is yet to occur. While many of the companies are nicer, there seems to be a greater gap between the low-income and the wealthy. This could be shown through the abundance of homeless people around town.” Foodies for Change Intersession Diana Rothman The Foodies for Change Intersession, mainly freshmen with four sophomores, one junior, and a senior, started off watching a documentary covering the modern face of hunger in the U.S. While this may not have been the original plan, it inspired a four day food drive from March 24th to the 27th. Throughout the week, students worked on an affordable, international cookbook. Recipe's total costs approximated to ten dollars or less. Other endeavors included a guide to affordable, healthy restaurants, local food banks, and planting in the garden. Cooking demos were given first thing, with teaching students a variety of techniques from cubing onions to cutting basil (chiffonade). An ounce of fun: “checking” if the capellini was cooked through, or, in other words, throwing strands of pasta at the wall. The majority was saved for eating. Competitions between student groups were held daily, starting Tuesday. Group names were Salami, Fabiiiiii, Rainbow, Eyebrows, Univision, The Cardoons, and Little Einsteins. Acknowledgments were for taste, affordability, nutritional value, presentation, and creativity. A final competition, reminiscent of popular TV show "Chopped", was planned for Friday. A trip to the Oceanside Farmers Market was set up for Thursday and collaborating with the elementary became a capital goal. Students gained experience in cooking, group work, and planning, and most importantly, they got to eat. I don’t think a “foodie” could have been happier. Creative Writing and Storytelling Intersession Kirsten Zornado In the Creative Writing intersession, led by Mrs. M and Mr. Gooch, members wrote creative nonfiction stories about themselves, then said them out loud during a Friday afternoon trip to the Old Cal Coffee House. You may have seen members of this Intersession typing on computers in Mrs. M's room, practicing reading their stories aloud outside, or walking to the coffee house. Serving San Diego Intersession Leily Rezvani Doctor Cate and Doctor Cochran led a group of heroes without capes to serve the community. Students cut trees in Elfin Forest while others preserved them by Batiquitos Lagoon. Other activities involved students helping the elderly order at In-N-Out, worked with Coastkeepers to clean Moonlight Beach, and made and delivered lunches to immigrants along with the Border Angles. These Raptors gave back to the people who gave to them in the Serving San Diego Intersession. Compiled by Kirsten Zornado
February’s spirit week was loud, to say the least. What with all of the tourists, workers, and time travelers, it was hard to break your eyes away from the crazy clothes! Written by Kirsten Zornado
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