As part of his senior project John
Shaffer began a junior NFL (National
Forensic League) at the middle school
and helped prepare students for two
competitions. Working with the students
on the Great Debate, Shaffer’s expertise
helped lead the younger students to three
victories out of four debate pairs. Winners
were Claire Simpson & Julius McBride,
Jeremy Mauser & Sabrina Martin, and
Elizabeth O’Neal & Gillian Perez.
In the Student Congress event,
participants were given 12 bills to
research and prepared speeches as if
they were representatives in the US
Congress. With pro and con view points
and impromptu speeches as well as
formulated responses to the speeches
of other representatives — there were
many opportunities for students to speak.
After all speeches were exhausted, a vote
on the bill was taken. With the Congress
divided into junior and senior divisions,
GSMS students won the following honors:
in the senior division Claire Simpson,
Outstanding Speaker Award; Gaige Tarris,
Judges’ Recognition Award and in the
junior division Madison Rugh, Judges’
Recognition Award.
H MIDDLE SCHOOL TEAM WINS STEM COMPETITION
Given the task of designing an environmentally-friendly people mover that could
overcome a major obstacle, students from Mr. Nymick’s 8th-grade technology class
competed in the STEM Design Challenge held at St. Vincent College. Requirements
included creating a structure out of K’Nex that traveled at least 4 feet across a table,
answering narrative questions, creating blueprints for the people mover, and producing
a 2-minute presentation. The students had two hours to build their structure onsite
during the competition.
The team of (l-r) Lexi Heaps, Abbygale Andrasko, Brooke Dilascio, and Malaina
Pasko won first place with a people mover that would take tourists to the top of Mt.
Rainier. Their design took advantage of the glacial runoff for hydrodynamic power,
as well as the winds on top of the mountain. The students were judged on creativity,
teamwork, challenge success, design, and presentation.
H HIGH SCHOOL NFL
STUDENTS HEAD TO
NATIONAL COMPETITION
Justin Pellis, Fernando Soriano,
Paige Oswald, and Greg Smith
competed in the NFL student congress
district qualifiers at the Westmoreland
County Courthouse on March 1st.
Greg Smith qualified to compete in
the culminating NFL national event
in Kansas. Also attending the national
event is John Shaffer who qualified
for both the Lincoln-Douglas forum
and the public forum — Shaffer chose
to compete in the public forum with
his duo partner Steven Martz.
Greensburg-Salem | Summer 2014 | icmags.com 29
GRE E N SBU R G SAL E M SC HOOL N E WS
H NFL EXPANDS TO GSMS
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