State Representative Foster Visits ACSA

By: Kellen & Daniel

Students of ACSA were surprised to be excused from their morning classes on Monday the 16th . They had a visit from Alaska State Representative, Richard Foster.

Mr. Foster explained how a bill goes through the House and Senate. He did this by giving students titles and committees and using Darrel Tweet’s idea for a bill, mining in national parks, as an example. “I like the way he explained it,” says Banner Romenesko. “It was interesting.”The students enjoyed the visit a lot.

Becka Baker, who works at the Nome L.I.O. , the Legislative Information Office, set up Mr. Foster’s visit. “I enjoy working with him a lot,” she says. Photos taken during the talk were published on the National Conference of State Legislatures web page from Washington DC.

The students seemed to like the visit a lot, and maybe we’ll be surprised with another soon

Peers Strike for Justice

By: Jessica & Banner

Nome Youth Court (NYC) is a restorative justice program run by youth attorneys, judges, and jurors.

Karen Musich is the NYC Administrator. Meetings are held every Thursday at four O'clock. Youth Court is a great program for Nome’s youth to get involved in.

In NYC, the Juvenile Probation officers will refer a specific case to youth court if they believe it will benefit the offender. The qualifications for an offender are that it is a Misdemeanor (A,B, or C) or a C Felony and it is their first offense. Nome Youth Court’s job is to restore the offender back to the community. Every case that the Nome Youth Court hear is real. The offenders are real, the judges are real, the attorneys are real, and the jurors are real.

The youth attorneys get involved in youth court by attending meetings and studying for the Bar Exam. The Bar Exam is a test that each student will take to become a youth attorney and be inducted into the Bar Association. Once the student passes the Bar Exam, they may be in the hearing with the position of Prosecution or Defense. NYC does not give trials, they only do sentencing hearings. Once the defendant has been given their sentences, they must complete the sentences without getting in trouble with the law again. Karen Musich will follow up with each defendant. If the offender does not complete his/her sentences, they will be sent back to Juvenille Probation.

Nome Youth Court is a benefit to many people. “It is a good deal all around,” Says Karen Musich. It will restore the defendant without having the charges on his or her record. The youth attorneys are also getting involved in something that will help them throughout their lives, especially if the student would like to pursue a career in law.

The Best of the Best

By: Kara & Lauren S.

Jonny and Kara got the honor of becoming the outstanding students in the month of October 2002. Mr. Hindman and Mrs. Leeper chose Kara and Jonny based on their academic achievements and their citizenship.

Jonny is our returning ACSA student. When asked why he thinks he received this honor, he modestly replied, “I’ve been quiet.” But according to Mrs. Leeper, Jonny has done a bit more than that. “Jonny has been a good role model for our new students. He also has made a lot of progress over the last year. Jonny does very careful and thoughtful work,” she said proudly.

Jonny is 13 years old and in the 8th grade. He enjoys playing games in his spare time. His favorite color is green, his favorite food is nachos, his favorite animals are cats, and his favorite subjects are Language Arts and Reading. Jonny was reffered to ACSA by his sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Smith. Now you can see why Jonny is an outstanding student. Keep up the great work Jonny!

Kara is certainly an outstanding student. Kara is 11 years old and in the 6th grade. Her favorite hobbies are basketball, singing, and writing stories. Her favorite color is purple and her favorite food is corn. She also has a favorite animal, the giraffe. Kara said she probably got the outstanding student award because “I got one of the neatest work awards in Mrs. Leeper’s class.” But Mrs. Leeper says something different, “I choose Kara because she has already learned the rules and procedures and follows them. She also does neat, quality work and is nice to everyone.”

Kara came to ACSA because she heard good things about this school and one of her best friends, Jessica Ford, is here. Her favorite subjects are Language Arts and Reading. Wonderful job Kara!

Ready, Set, Learn!

By: Rachel & Lauren O.

It’s the beginning of a bright and friendly new year! The new school year at ACSA has gotten off to a great start. In addition to new students, we have new student council members, a new math system, and more!

This year we have a new math system called Cognitive Tutor. This math system is a little different than Saxon in many ways. One is that it uses the computer to help with our education. This math system is for the Algebra and Pre-Algebra students only. The problems in this book are different than Saxon. The problems are more puzzling, they make you think harder.

Another thing that is new this year is where we took our annual camping trip. This year we rented the Nuuk Camp from Norton Sound Health Corporation (NSCH). ACSA students had a fun time on our two-day trip to the beach. Students learned about ATV’s, HAMM radios, orienteering, and more.

We also had a cool contest called Microwave Madness, which the student council sponsored. The contest was to see who could guess the amount of candy that was stored in the microwave. Erik won the competition; all the 6th graders got 98 pieces of candy each. They split the 1,189 pieces of candy that was in the microwave evenly between the 6th graders. The 6th graders were all very happy with their prize.

Along with all the new things at ACSA there are also some old things, like returning students. “I think it’s the same as last year,” says Jessica, 8th grade student. “The same thing I’ve been going through since 5th grade. I’m both sad and happy that it is my last year here,” she continued.

We have also taken our annual hike to the top of Anvil Mountain. The trip was uneventful, but we did have a few laughs. At the top we took our class picture. We had to have a silly picture, though, for all the boys who couldn’t help making funny faces. They made funny faces in every picture, but one, when Mr. Hindman threatened to take away Moose Nuggets (reward money for students).

Students Elect Representatives

By: Katie & Devin

The student council has recently added 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade representatives. The representatives are elected to represent their grade levels in the student council. There are 5 representatives (there are co-representatives in the 6th grade) and 4 officers, treasurer, secretary, vice president, and president.

In the 5th grade race, Mason said that he thinks being on student council would be fun and that "I was a little worried about the competition."

For the 6th grade, oddly, Rachel and Darrel share the position of 6th grade representative. When asked about the race, Rachel said, “I would not have minded if Darell won ‘cause he’s a nice guy.” If the elections were still going she said, “You should vote for me because I’m organized, a nice girl, and I’m smart.”

The representative for 7th grade is Brett. He was running against peers Natalie and Nicholai. Natalie shared her dissapointment, “I am sort of disappointed because I have been here for a year already and Brett just moved here. I knew that Brett was gonna win when the elections started because all the boys were gonna vote for him.” Brett says, “I have been a representative before and I’m new here so give me a chance.” I’m sure we all will.

8th grade representative Jessica says, “I have experience with student council and I’m a good people person.” She was running against fellow 8th grader Melozi. Melozi says, “I’m happy for Jessica.” The eighth grade elections had a little twist though, there are only four people in the eighth grade, two boys and two girls so the competition was a bit stiff.

ACSA is Invaded by New Students

By: Jesse & Mason

The new students of ACSA include Mason, Jeremy, Jeremy P., Charlotte , Taylor R., Brett, Daniel , Kara, Jode, Darell, Lauren O., Willow, Kallie, Cord, Steffen, Lucas, Hilary, Colton, Adem, and Sheikea. We sat down with a few new students, Jeremy, Charlotte, and Lauren, and here is what they have to say. Jeremy is a 10 years old and he is in the 5th grade and his favorite subject is P.E. and he likes to be a new student because he only has to pay one moose nugget to get out if class. Charlotte is a 10-year-old 5th grader, her favorite subject is social studies, and she likes to be a new student because it’s fun. Lauren O. is another 10-year-old 5th grader, her favorite subject is art, and does not know why she likes to be a new student.

Students Have Fun At Nuuk

By: Brett & Stephen

A.S.C.A went to Nuuk camp for their yearly school field trip on September 19 and 20. We left school for the camp at 9:00 A.M. Everybody was excited about the big camping trip.

At camp, we had guest speakers. One guest speaker was Reggie Bright from the National Guard who taught team building skills. Randy Romenesko, the city manager talked about maps and compasses. Nate Perkins came to talk about hamm radios. Boogles Johnson arrived to showed us some Eskimo games and Berda Wilson came to tell us stories about Nuuk a long time ago.

We played tackle football when we weren’t supposed to be playing tackle. The teams were sometimes fair and some times not. Banner said that, "It was [the] best, playing tackle football." He was capatin once or twice and he never cried.

The cabins at night were fun, we stayed up late and played blackjack and poker. Jesse said, “There were two loud people that wouldn’t shut up.” He liked playing games and he thought it was fun.

The A.C.S.A enjoyed the camping trip to Nuuk. Everybody had fun at the camp. Nobody was injured.

Camp... The Fun Continues!

By: Natalie & Melozi

On September 18th, 2002, the Anvil City Science Academy headed out for Nuuk in two small buses and in a few cars. We headed out on the camping trip expecting torture and thumbscrews, but instead, it turned out we were there to have fun. This newspaper story is about some of the fun things we did at the camp.

After the Spaghetti dinner Thursday Night, a few of the students and teachers of ACSA started throwing gobs of seaweed at each other, starting the “Great Seaweed War.” Everyone ran around picking up seaweed and tossing it every which way. Some people even got a little personal. “I shoved some [seaweed] down Patrick’s boxers.” Brett Merboth reported, but don’t worry, Patrick said he still had fun. It seems as if Jessica, Mr. Hindman, and Mrs. Leeper were the favorite targets amongst the students. But the war wasn’t over after bed, no, far from it; it seems the girls got revenge on Jeremy Perkins by putting seaweed in his bed.

At around 9:00 PM the kids and adults headed out to the tundra after the refreshing seaweed fight. Some of the students and teachers were Mrs. Romensko, Mr. Babcock, Mr. Hindman, Mason, Jessica, Charlotte, Stephen, and Jeremy P.. They headed out and played Sunset Softball. Mr. Hindman got hit with the ball twice to prove our PE teacher isn’t that great. “We just played until we were done,” Jesse said. Charlotte commented, “It was fun.” But there’s a debate of who would have won, Stephen said his team would have won.” While the other team says they would have won.

So, the ACSA students headed out on this fun filled trip, dreading the worst possible, but had one of the best times you can have at ACSA.

Running Cross Country!

By: Jeremy H. & Nicholai

The Nome Beltz Cross Country team began in August. Ms. Miller, the coach is keeping the kids busy with practices every weekday at 5:30 PM before school began and when school started practices were every day after school. Practices were held in many places, such as behind the Nome Beltz High School and at the Nome Recreation Center. All the practicing paid off, though, the kids are doing great!

The first meet was in Kotzebue, where most of the team competed. Nome Beltz placed first in the meet for the boys’ division, while the girls’ highschool team placed second in the meet. The Jr. High girls placed first. There was no boys’ Jr. High team. The next meet was ACS Palmer. The only Beltz students competing were the High School runners. The third meet was the Nome Invitational. The high school boys won this meet. The Unalakleet girls won also. There were no team awards for Jr. High.

The last meet before the State Competition was regionals. This competition showed whether you were able to go to State or not. Two highschool boys and two highschool girls made it to state, Zac Olson, Mike Oliver, Reba Lean, and Kelly Wongitillon were the four that qualified.

The final meet was State, held in Palmer. The top finishers for Nome were Zac Olson and Reba Lean. Zac placed 48th and Reba place 58th. There were approximately 100 runners in each event.

Josh Head says that he thinks there will be fewer people in cross-country next year because kids don’t run as hard as they would if they are not forced to. He says that he will do Cross Country next year and he also says that this was his first year, and his best time for a 5k is 25:19. The final day for Cross-Country was September 27th.

National Guard Invades Nuuk Camp

By: Jordan & Patrick

ACSA went on a camping trip on September 19th and 20th. One of the skills that we were worked on was teamwork. The directors for the activity were Mr. Reggie Bright and his co-worker, Sargent Peterson. Both Mr. Bright and Mr. Peterson arrived in a SUSV, to help out with the ACSA’s campout.

For the team work activity we had to put together our own team, with a captain. When every team was put together, each team got a notebook. We also got a paper that told us what supplies to get from each arkio sled. We had to find everything that was on the list.

It was a race to see which team would get everything off the list into the arkio sled. The object was to drag the arkio sled with all of the supplies and one injured participant back to the SUSV. If the team did not get the correct supplies, Reggie would send them back to the field to retrieve the right ones. Once we completed the mission, Reggie checked each arkio sled to make sure that all of the items were there. Then, we went back to see how we did. The students all did a wonderful job.

Teachers Tell Students To Take A Hike

By: Kelsey & Charlotte

On Monday, September 9th, the class of ACSA went on their annual hike to Anvil rock. The class went because they had to get a class picture to put on the school’s website. We also went up the mountain because we wanted to get some fresh air, and excersise. We got up to Anvil Rock using the mountain trail.

Some interesting things happened on the hike, for example, some people almost fell down the mountain. Jeremy went the wrong way, he made it to the Glacier Creek road, then he had to run back up the mountain and catch up with the rest of us. This year, people ate blueberries instead of eating spiders and grasshoppers, like last year. Ew!

So, it was a very interesting trip, and very fun. We all hope that we can do it again next year, if no one gets lost, that is!