2003 Spelling Bee Takes Center Stage

By: Darell & Devin

The 2003 PTSA Spelling Bee was held in the Nome Elementary Student Commons on January, 16th. It had been planned that the two divisions, junior high and elementary, would be combined until there were two champions. Unfortunately, there was a large no-show in the junior high, it was decided that there would be two competitions.

In the elementary competition, the final three spellers were Darell, Jeremy, and Lauren S., all of ACSA. After agonizing rounds of words that would make the head spin, it was narrowed down to Darell and Jeremy. When Jeremy missed on the word spectacles, Darell took advantage of his opportunity. His winning word was “Camelot”.

The junior high had only three participants and it lasted only five rounds. Joshua’s winning word was “variation”. Darell and Joshua will represent Nome in the Alaska State Spelling Bee in Anchorage on February 20th and 21st. The 5th grade winner was Jeremy, the 6th grade winner was Darell, the 7th grade winner was Joshua, and the 8th grade winner was Roxanne.

Tears in Texas

By: Jessica, Jordan, and Nicholai

On the morning of Saturday, January 31st, 2003, the Columbia Space Shuttle blew up and fell on Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. It was many of the astronauts’ first time in space. Furthermore, it was our first time having an Israeli astronaut in space. It’s a shame it had to end in such a horrific manner.

Aboard the shuttle were Ilan Ramon, 48, Rick Husband, 45, William McCool, 41, Michael Anderson, 43, David Brown, 46, Kalpana Chawla, 41, and Laurel Clark, 41. Ilan Ramon was a colonel in the Israeli Air Force. Ramon was married with four kids. Rick Husband was a colonel in the US Air Force, a test pilot and he is a veteran to space flight. He was married with two children. William McCool was a commander in the US Navy, and a test pilot prior to the mission. He was married. Michael Anderson was a lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force, a former instructor pilot and tactical officer. He was a veteran of one space flight. Anderson was married. David Brown was a captain in the US Navy, a naval aviator and flight surgeon. He was not married and had no children. Kalpana Chawla was an aerospace engineer and an FAA Certified Flight Instructor. She was also married. Laurel Clark was a commander (captain-select) in the US Navy and a naval flight surgeon. She was a Mission Specialist 4 on what was her first shuttle mission. She was married with one eight-year-old son. All of the astronauts left behind a lot.

The cause of the wreck has not been positively specified. The cause of this catastrophe will not be known for a while. It will take numerous observations before scientists will be sure of the purpose.

Jump into the Future

By: Rachel

“I LOVE JUMP ROPING!” says Lauren S., 6th grade. I can say the same and I’m sure most the team would say the same, word for word. Our coach, Lisa Leeper, lives in town and helps to keep the team organized. The team meets every Friday to practice tricks, routines, and to find out the weekend/ weekly plan. Lisa’s Leepers like to perform during half-times of Basketball games and a few other places.

Members of the team that also attend ACSA include Rachel, Lauren S., Katie, Jeremy, and Kallie. Mrs. Leeper (our coach) is also our teacher, here at the ACSA

Some of the more trickier tricks are back-hand springs into double-dutch (double ropes), speed double-dutch (double ropes moving quickly with a jumper inside), cougar (an under-the-leg trick), can-can (can-can with a rope), and much, much more.

There are tons of different tricks you can do with a jump rope. One of the things I love is you can make your own tricks up, no matter the difficulty, weirdness of the trick, or the weirdness of the name. I like making up different tricks. I’ve made up at least 10 tricks this year, including the twister (an over the head trick) and the twisty tie (a foot trick). Jump roping is great and an easy way to have fun.

Stop Signs

By: Brett & Patrick

Another alien movie, but this one has Mel Gibson as a farmer? A boring, slow paced movie, he has two kids, just like in all the other sci-fi movies blah blah blah, his wife died. He has flashbacks of his wife dying when all the aliens are attacking. He finds out about the aliens when he finds crop circles in his field, (an alien tracking device), so when they attack the world they know where they are. They end up attacking and one of the aliens tries to steal Mel’s son and they kill the alien with water. It kind of melts the aliens like the Wicked Witch of the West. So if you are a scary sci-fi movie watcher, walk away quickly.

Viral Information

By: Kelsey & Katie

For the past few week’s at the Anvil City Science Academy, the majority of the students have been sick. Most people say that the symptoms they had were coughing, and sore throat. Some had bronchitis, and others were just diagnosed with a bad cold. Once one person got it, it spread like peanut butter. Over half of the students got sick, and some of them are still out with a cold. Some people went to the hospital while others sat home drinking flat seven-up to help ease their symptoms. Most people were better within a week.

The actual cause of the outbreak is unknown, but we assume that the source of the virus came from one of ACSA’s “innocent” students. Some people had worse symptoms than others, but all had similar things wrong with them. All of the students were back at school within a week. Jessica says, “The sickness is finally gone and we can enjoy our nice weather.” We hope that the ACSA will not have any more outbreaks like this one.

Outstanding Students Profiled

By: Banner & Kellen

December’s Students of the Month were Jesse and Charlotte. Jesse’s favorite class is P.E. He doesn’t know why he was picked, doesn’t know if he’s proud of his achievements, and doesn’t know if he deserves this award. Charlotte doesn’t know why she was picked. Her favorite class is P.E. and is proud of her achievements.

Congratulations to all the Outstanding Students!

Wacky, Weird, Winter Weather

By: Lauren S.

This winter there has been some weird weather in Nome. It has been fairly warm and we have not had much snow. Meteorologist Jerry Steiger said “Its been really unseasonably warm due to a ridge of high pressure across the pacific northwest. Therefore the warm air pushed north into Alaska over the ridge.” That is why the snowfall at the beginning of the winter has melted or fallen as rain. “Recently in January the ridge moved eastward allowing colder air to move into northwest Alaska giving us the recent snowfalls over the last 2 weeks. In contrast the east coast has received a lot of snow this winter.” Sad for snowmachine riders that there will be no more snow for a while because storms are to the south.

Super Bowl XXXVII

By: Stephen & Patrick

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Oakland Raiders were in Super Bowl XXXVII. They were battling to be the champs. In the first quarter the Raiders scored a field goal and Buccaneers scored a field goal too. It was tied for the first quarter, 3 up. Then in the second quarter the Raiders scored nothing and the Buccaneers scored two touch downs and one field goal. The score at half time was 20 Buccaneers, and 3 Raiders. During the half time show Sting sang a song and Shania Twain sang a song too. In the third quarter the Raiders scored a tough down and the Buccaneers scored two touch downs. The total score for the end of the of the third quarter was Buccaneers 34 and the Raiders 9. In the forth quarter, the Raiders scored two field goals and a touch down and the Buccaneers scored two touch downs. The total score for the forth quarter was is 48 Buccaneers and 21 Raiders. The Buccaneers won by 27. The Buccaneers where the camps, they won the Super Bowl. Dexter Jackson was awarded the trophy of the Most Valuable Player. Dexter Jackson plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.