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Eighth grade science classes start year off with labs

9/18/2015

 
Story by Zach Waters

As the smoke clears after the lab, Mr. Mark Weaver's classes are starting the year off with many fun things while in science.

Before September hit, they had already done four labs: the Skittles Lab, Makerspace, Frog Lab, and the Car- Building Lab

Emily Devir, eighth grade, said her favorite lab out of the four was the car lab.


In the car building lab, the students had to build a car that would go one meter without the students pushing them, stopping, breaking, or tipping over. The students were only given a certain amount of materials to use.

“It made you challenge yourself and your mind. Makes you think outside the box,” Devir said. Devir also said that the lab took two class periods to finish.​

The purpose of the Makerspace lab was to use the scientific method to create something to move air, to communicate with, or make light. The students got to pick their own groups to work with.

The Skittles lab was a lab to try and make the students use the scientific method to make observations and inferences. After that they graphed their results.

The frog lab was called a dry lab because they already had the information in front of them, not an actual frog.They had to pretend they were back in the research lab to figure out which one jumped the highest.

“The students are engaged in the labs,” Weaver said.

Preparations begin for fall musical Peter Pan, Jr. 

9/18/2015

 
Story by Annie Walters 

Every year, Clay Middle School puts on a show for students and teachers alike.

Peter Pan, Jr. which will be premiering November 5, 6, and 7th,  is this year’s annual musical. Including 66 roles and 15 stage crew members, this year’s musical is sure to be a blast.

“There were so many people that auditioned. I wanted everybody who auditioned to be in the musical, but unfortunately we can’t do that,” Mrs. Miranda Susie, choir and musical director, director.

During the audition process, everyone sang and practiced speaking parts, then the audition committee, which included Mr. Evan Williams and Mr. Patrick Anderson, decided if a certain person seemed like a certain character based on their voice and acting ability. 

To audition, Piper Williams, eighth grade, who is playing the lead role of Peter Pan, said that students had to sign up for one of the three audition times. 

“You just went in and sang the song,” she said.

Kim Rhea, eighth grade, who is playing the part of Tinkerbell, explained that she didn’t let her nerves overtake her during the audition, and gave it her all.

Rehearsals for Peter Pan Jr. are on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays until five, where all the people who will be in the musical will practice speaking and/or singing their parts, dancing, and learning where to walk and how to interact with things on set. ​

Some people don’t have to show up for rehearsals on certain days depending on what they’re working on during that rehearsal.

“We have mermaids, fairies, and lost boys,” Susie said excitedly. 

Susie said Peter Pan Jr.was chosen to be this years school musical because: “It’s fun, we have the right number of people, and [it] has lots of parts.”

The system of preparing for the musical involves making the list of songs, scenes, characters, dances, and blocking.

“And then we start putting it all together and it’s really fun,” Susie said.


Additional reporting by Tessa Collinson

Eighth graders learn about colonization through Discovery simulation

9/18/2015

 
Story by Allie Painter
​
You live in England and you are thinking about getting a ticket to America and drag your family and friends across North Atlantic sea by a ship. What if I told you this was all a simulation in a classroom called Discovery?


In Mr. Chad Carr’s social studies class, they are working on the Discovery simulation inside of their classroom. They have to move from England to America by making step-by-step choices on their way there.

Six teams will be traveling across the North Atlantic ocean with their own different ways and strategies. The class will be working with their teams on the strategies they will use to travel from England to America safely off and on.

Carr thinks his students will like the simulation because it teaches them the hardships of colonizing, as well as learning how to build wealth from nothing. They will also create flags with their teams.

They will travel by ship across the North Atlantic ocean to reach America with their groups, Moore said.

According to Grant Moore, eighth grade, Carr is teaching them this so they learned how hard it was to set up a colony. The Discovery Simulation will not be graded until all the ships have either docked at America or there is one ship left afloat.

This week in sports: week of 9.14.16

9/14/2015

 

Clay Challenge 2015

9/3/2015

 

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    All stories, photos and video footage by the seventh and eighth grade newspaper students. 

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Clay Middle School
5150 E. 126th St.
Carmel, IN 46033


Todd Crosby, Principal
Mark Smith, Assistant Principal
​Brooke Cole, Assistant Principal
John Corcoran, Jr., Activities Director
Michael Beresford, Superintendent
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