Jr. Sr. High School – Page 19 – Fairbury Public Schools

Fairbury SkillsUSA Chapter Attends Fall Leadership Conference

On Sept. 24, 2018, the local SkillsUSA chapter at Fairbury High School attended the Fall Leadership Conference at SCC in Lincoln. This is an annual event. This year the Fall Leadership Conference was divided into two large groups. One half of the state held their conference in Lincoln while the other half went to Hastings. The purpose of the Fall Leadership Conference is to kick off the year for students in SkillsUSA. It is there the new officers for the state are introduced to the local chapters. This year there were six different breakout sessions at the conference. The sessions are set up to help students be better at what they do and to answer any questions they may have as SkillsUSA members. This year some of the session topics included: What is SkillsUSA?, The SkillsUSA Framework, Middle School Outreach, What to expect at the State Leadership Conference in April, job demonstrations, teamwork, fundraising for your local chapter, and discussions about the different SkillsUSA Industry Sectors in manufacturing, Energy and Transportation. In the past, students got to go on industry tours, but they tried something different this year. This year, they had the industry partners come to the conference and present to the students. All in all, it was a very rewarding day. Those students that attended the conference from Fairbury were:

1. Dalton Buxton

2. Makenzie Mills

3. Taylea Mills

4. Andrew Novotny

5. Joshua Robertson

6. Billie Sampley

7. Keely Schramm

8. Austin Massa

9. Zach Furrow

10. Caleb Trimm

Jr. High Students Attend Robotics Workshop

Seven Fairbury Jr. High Students attended a robotics workshop sponsored by the Electronic Systems Technical Program of Southeast Community College in Lincoln on October 11th. This was a one-day, hands-on workshop where they built and tested a Vex Robot and a simulated lie detector test which included soldering a circuit. They also received a tour of the technical areas related to robotics at the college including robotic welding, plasma cutters and small engines.

FHS Students Participate in Land Judging

By Kennedy DeBoer

Eighteen students traveled to Syracuse on Wednesday, October 3rd for land judging. At land judging, students go to four different pits and judge the quality and texture of the soil. Students also used their land capability chart to find the land capability class of each pit. This year Fairbury FFA chapter came home with two ribbons!! Freshman Brigham Scheetz earned a red ribbon in his first year of competing and Senior Delaney Miller received a white ribbon. All in all it was a great learning experience for all of the students that went, and hopefully next year we bring a couple more ribbons home!!

Josephine Blatny Qualifies for State Cross Country!

Congratulations to junior Josephine Blatny on qualifying for the state cross country meet. Josephine placed 7th at the district meet that was at Doane University on Thursday, October 11. Josephine will run at Kearney Country Club on Friday, October 19 at 2:00. Best wishes Josephine! Go Jeffs!

Geometry Students Put On Their Thinking Caps

When geometry students arrived at class on Monday, October 8th, they were able to pick a hat out of Mrs. Petersen’s collection. Inspired by these hats, students wrote conditional statements such as “If it is St. Patrick’s Day, then it is March 17th.” The interactive lesson continued as students studied converse statements where you switch the hypothesis and the conclusion such as “If it is March 17th, then it is St. Patrick’s Day.” To help them remember the importance of their new vocabulary word, converse, students took off their shoes and switched feet! The awkward feeling and connection to Converse brand shoes, will help students remember to switch the hypothesis and conclusion of their statements.

The parallel lines in Mrs. Petersen’s silly outfit was the next transition to conditional and converse statements. “If parallel lines are cut by a transversal, then alternate interior angles are congruent.” The converse is also true and allows us to prove parallel lines by using angle relationships. “If two lines are cut by a transversal and the alternate interior angles are congruent, then the lines are parallel.”

We have to be careful! Sometimes the converse is false! Such as “If it is Thanksgiving, then it is Thursday.” turns to a false converse “If it is Thursday, then it is Thanksgiving.” (Some of us would like to have Thanksgiving on Thursday!)

Wearing a hat and switching shoes will help these kinesthetic learners in the coming weeks as we learn more geometry statements – both conditional and converse.

FHS Students Visit SCC in Milford

September 19, 2018, Mr. Scott and ten FHS students had the privilege to tour Southwest Community College in Milford for their annual Career Construction Days. The group consisted of FHS juniors and seniors. Students had to sign up in advance online and request three areas of study that are offered at the college in Milford.

The day started off with Fairbury students and many other students from area schools all in a big gymnasium for an opening session where they listened to a guest speaker. They were all given a bag that contained information about the college. Next they were divided into roughly 28 different groups each containing a tour guide. There were teachers, students and volunteers there guiding the students from building to building.

Some of the areas of study that FHS students went to were Computer Aided Drafting, Auto body Repair, Construction, Masonry, Electrical and HVAC, Diesel Mechanics, Heavy Equipment Operation and Automotive Service and Maintenance.

It was a nice day and the weather was great. It was a rewarding visit and many found that the two year programs of study are what they really want today. Two year programs can land students great jobs. We even got to see a couple of graduates from last year on campus. Those students were nice to show us around and answer questions the younger students had.

STS Class Builds MouseTrap Vehicles

Students in Mr. Scott’s STS (Skilled Technical Sciences) class are busy making mousetrap vehicles. Students were given a standard Victor mouse trap and they have to design, build and test a vehicle that can go the farthest distance. This will test their problem solving abilities as well as working together with other classmates to accomplish their goal. Students could use about anything for materials such as wood, metal or plastics. They are realizing friction and weight are big factors. Students are also finding out that sometimes their first attempt is not always successful which is really how it is in making anything. Sometimes products must be redesigned and tested all over again. Just think how many times Edison attempted to make his light bulb idea work. Pictured with their cars are Leland Abbott, Juan Montes Lemus and Ashton Blobaum.

Jefferson County Spelling Bee

On Thursday, October 4th, the JH Spelling Bee team traveled to Meridian for the annual Jefferson County Spelling Bee. Placing for the Jeffs were Alekz Hunt 9th and Lillian Ausk 10th.

Students and Teachers Attend Digital Citizenship Symposium

Last week, Mrs. Carly Winter and Mrs. Karen Dux took two 6th grade and two 7th grade students over to the ESU in Beatrice for Digital Citizenship Day. These students were able to listen to speakers from KSB Law as well as the Nebraska State Patrol on ways to be successful and safe online. They also had time to create media tools to take back to their district to help educate others in on district. Fairbury students chose to create a FlipGrid with various topics discussing how we can be safe, kind, positive, etc. while interacting online.

Use the link below to check out the start of their project. The students who participated chose to share this out students in our district in hopes that others might add their thoughts and knowledge on the various topics.

https://flipgrid.com/bekindbesafe

The overall message we left with that day was “Be safe, be kind.” If we can follow these rules when interacting online, we might just be able to make our digital world a better place!