The Instrumental and Choral groups of HHS got together for their annual Spring Collaborative Concert on March 19. This concert is meant to be a way for the community to hear what the groups will be performing at their adjudicated Festivals. The program for the concert and the video from Hanover CTV are embedded below.

Symphonic Band, Concert Chorus, Chorale, and Vox will be performing their selections at the Massachusetts Instrumental & Choral Conductors Association (MICCA) Festival the weekend of March 27-28. Jazz Ensemble participated in the Massachusetts Association for Jazz Education (MAJE) Festival and received a bronze medal.

Two weeks after MICCA, all of these groups will be traveling to Williamsburg, Virginia, during April Vacation to perform in another competition.

HHS Spring Concert from Hanover Community Television on Vimeo.

HHS 2015 Festival Concert (link to program)

Walking a mile in gym class can seem daunting on a rough morning, but walking 26 miles through the night around a track? I don’t think so! Or so I thought at first anyway. The Relay for Life is a huge undertaking but can be extremely rewarding. The good news is, you don’t actually have to walk all 26 miles, and you can stop to sleep for as long as you want, but more on that later. Let’s start with the big picture: what even is Relay for Life? In one sentence, this walk is organized by the American Cancer Society and claims the title of the world’s largest fund raiser. It generates the highest percentage of the Society’s funds, and unites people across the world. Walks are organized at the local level with just over 100 participants, but are also held at college campuses like MIT, University of Miami, and Stanford, along with huge cities including New York City, Washington D.C., and other sites around the globe. The first Relay for Life was held Tacoma in 1980, making the fundraiser older than any student at HHS! Since the very first event where just one man walked a high school track with friends who donated money to participate, Relay for Life has grown immensely. Every year, over 4 million people participate in 20 different countries!

So, how exactly does Relay for Life go? Well, the emphasis is on the relay. People form teams that fund raise as a group, with all profits going to benefit the American Cancer Society. The walks can last for up to 24 hours, but each individual team member can walk as much or as little as they would like as long as one person on the team is walking at all times. Now, you might think walking a track 104 times might get a little repetitive, but this isn’t the case; every few miles of the course is different in some way. The walk kicks off with a survivors’ lap, a time for past cancer patients to walk the track together and lead the battle against this terrible disease. After dark, a luminary ceremony is held with candles in paper bags around the track. Each candle represents a life lost to cancer. Finally, the fight back ceremony  involves personal pledges to fight back against cancer, not to mention doughnuts at 2 a.m., balloon animals, and glow sticks with blasting music!

I can’t wait for this year’s Relay for Life which will be held on Friday, June 19 through Saturday, June 20 at Pembroke High School. The walk is a local way to make a big difference, and requires just a fraction of the strength that cancer patients must constantly show. If you are interested in participating in this year’s walk, talk to Mr. Centorino or Mr. Hegarty, who have helped to coordinate the Hanover High School team.

For more information about the walk itself, visit:

http://www.cancer.org/involved/participate/relayforlife/index

To donate to the Pembroke walk, visit:

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLCY15NE?pg=entry&fr_id=65394

The Hanover school district is using a new method of reaching out to students, parents, and the wider community. That method is Hanover Community Television’s  new show Anchor TV.  Each school has its own segment in the show to highlight what is going on. New episodes are released roughly once a month, with the latest released on March 3rd. Episodes are broadcast on Channel 22 (Comcast) or Channel 37 (Verizon FiOS) Tuesday and Thursday at 7 pm or Friday and Saturday at 12:30 pm. Archives can also be found online at www.vimeo.com/hanoverctv.

The segment of the show about the high school is always featured first and prominently. Students from Mr. Patch’s advanced digital media class are the main producers. The latest episode interviews students on how they would describe the best principal HHS has ever had: Mr. Paquette. Seniors are also asked about their college plans;  I certainly know the stress of that whole process firsthand. Finally, Tyler Powers and Tom Martin were interviewed about their experience being on the hockey team all four year of high school and being captains this year. As we all know, the hockey team has had an amazing season and has made it farther in the tournament than any other sport here at HHS.

Later in the show, STEM Director Mr. Plummer is featured in the “Professor Plummer” segment where he dons a lab coat and invades Chem Lab 217 to do his evil bidding. Students from Center-Sylvester school explain who he is and the reasons behind his “evil” activities.

Anchor TV is just one of many ways that HPS district administration has sought to expand communication with the public. A team of digital media teachers from all of the schools and district central office staff meets once a week at HHS in order to plan their episodes and go over how their current episodes are received by the community. I personally think it is an amazing right now and it will only become better as it continues on the rest of this school year. They really make an effort to feature all of the notable events going on across the district and there is good chance that if you watch it, you may eventually find yourself in it! Everyone likes seeing themselves on TV, even if it just Channel 22.

The HHS STEM Fair: a battle of smarts and mastery of the properties of science, technology, engineering and math.

This year at the fair participants were scarce but the work was immense. Fresh foods versus frozen foods: who will come out on top? The Peppermint Effect: I don’t even know how this dope-ish idea works, but hell, it’s science. Hungry Venus fly traps: how do they eat? These were just some of the projects that students created and presented at HHS’ fair on Feb. 11

Ever have a tummy ache from too much scientific process? Well, junior Jill Drummy has the answer on which antacid is going to help you most.  Her project found that Tagamet  is the most potent and effective antacid because it comes in various forms: pill, liquid, and injection. It is also a prescription antacid which is why it is so powerful. So if your gourd’s in a knot, pop a couple of Tagament and you’ll feel as good as new. The worst, or least effective, antacid Drummy found is Rolaids. In addition to not doing the job, the brand has been recalled multiple times due to quality control, most recently in 2010. So don’t buy them basically.

The Peppermint Effect, a project by freshmen Michaela Murphy and Yasmina Burkat, tested human reaction time when smelling peppermint, with the theory being that people can react faster when they’re exposed to minty goodness. Freshman Sierra Little-Gill conducted an experiment on composting with worms, and junior Annika Rowland tested musicians’ perception of music.

Murphy, Burkat, Little-Gill and Rowland may advance to the regional round of the science fair, according to Ms. Emerson, anatomy and biology teacher and coordinator of the fair.

Besides dissecting animals, Ms. Emerson is also very good at dissecting my questions and giving me answers! Ms. Emerson thought the fair went very well, although she would have loved if more people participated (hint, hint). She loved the amount of support that the fair received from the community as well. Her favorite project was one on the Venus fly trap, which described how the carnivorous plant digests along with its other functions.

The HHS Robotics Club is going to be competing in the Botball New England regional competition at UMass Lowell on March 28. This year will mark our second year of participating in this particular competition. The goal of the competition is to use a standard robot kit in order to complete challenges that change every year. The hard part is that team members are not allowed to remotely control the robot in any way; the program has to be entirely autonomous. Speaking from personal experience, that task is just about as hard as it sounds. But it’s ultimately rewarding in the end.

Last year was a learning experience for Hanover’s nascent robotics team. We were only able to successfully complete a few of the many challenges that the competition required. Even without taking home a first place trophy, we were able to learn enough about how the competition worked to be able to be competitive this year.

This year, the robot has to complete a series of tasks that involve moving objects around a court made of PVC piping. It’s roughly the size of four classroom desks. The robot pushes around several colored pom poms and also has to move ping pong balls into a basket that is about a foot and a half off of the ground. As I’m sure you can imagine, the robot becomes very complex very quickly. Yet, there is no feeling like the feeling you get when it all finally works.

Now since competition season is upon us, Robotics Club is looking for new members to join. You don’t need to have any prior experience with robotics at all and we will show you everything that you need to know. Talk to Mrs. Borgeson in Room 116 or just show up to our meetings every week after school on Tuesdays. We’ll be meeting more often now that the competition season has begun.

Hope to see you there!

Who are the debaters? What do they do? Do we really care? After this article I can assure you that you will . . . maybe, sort of . . .I don’t know . . . just care, alright!

The debate team is an elite society of talkers, speakers and thinkers who specialize in systematically tearing apart other people’s opinions in favor of their own. While that may be a bit dramatized, it’s essentially what they do. The team is given one topic throughout the season to research, discuss, and eventually debate with other teams. This year’s topic is whether or not the U.S. government should increase its non-military exploration or development of the Earth’s oceans. There are two-person teams, one being the affirmative side, and the other being the negative side. The affirmative presents a plan that relates to the topic and argues why it’s a good idea. The plans can be as varied as arguing  we should explore the ocean to find organisms that might cure cancer or that development must stop because of overfishing or pollution. The negative side, which has no idea before the debate what the opponent’s specific plan will be, uses the research they’ve done to argue the plan is a terrible idea. Then once all the teams have had their chance to speak, they can cross-examine each other and offer a rebuttal. Basically the rebuttal is a chance for the team to counter any criticisms its opponent has raised.

Seems fairly simple, right? Wrong, son! This is debate team. They DON’T play around. Debaters must prove that their plan is relevant, addresses a need for change and solves an existing problem. Most importantly, they must explain why, if their plan is so great, no one has already thought of it. So buckle up your seat belts because it’s going to be a very slow, meticulous ride down research alley. Each debate usually lasts about an hour, and teams will have two contests at every meet.

The HHS debaters are led by word wizard Ms. Pavao and the team features some of the most savage cruel debaters such as Erika Nelson aka “The Iron Lady;” Maggie Fuller, otherwise known as “Deathsinger;” Peter Crowley, or as his slain opponents called him in their last breaths, “The Pistol;”  Abby “Lionheart” Lyons, Ava “Heart of Darkness” McWade, Taylor “Diablo Rojo” Grady,  Mary “Thrill Kill” Nevins, Mary “Walking Apocalypse” Mancini, Nicole “Black widow” Zaccardi, and Kelsey “Machete Fiend” Kosak.  Oh, and of course the “Trifecta of Terror:” Greta Barry, Jessica Gardiner and Courtney Ceurvels.

Erika Nelson says she joined Debate Team because she “enjoys public speaking.” Teamed up with “Thrill Kill” Nevins, Erika argues the affirmative side of their case, which she says requires a lot of preparation and revisions throughout the season.

Ms. Pavao says the team is doing really well in its first year, despite most members having never debated before.  “All of the members’ enthusiasm and talent has been exceptional, and I expect our record to only improve next week at our match at Hingham.”

So there you have it, friends. Debate Team is basically the Rough Riders and Mrs. Pavo is DMX. So if you ever feel the urge to stop, drop, shut em down and open up shop, join Debate Team.

Some of you may know my good friend Lia Ehlers. Ehlers might be part of the class of 2018, but she’s far from being the ordinary freshman. Some of you might know her as the girl who embraced the “freshman yellow” on spirit week by painting her entire face yellow.  Others might know her as the #1 ‘Hanover Superfan’ who would do anything to make sure she’s at every Hanover sporting event. But most of you know her as the girl who handed out a thousand papers with her Snapchat username. Ask yourself this question: “What if you, all by yourself, could make a difference in the lives of nearly every HHS student?” Lia Ehlers is trying to do exactly that.

On November 1, 2014, Ehlers was in gym class when she decided she wanted to meet some new people by getting them to add her on Snapchat. She took over 100 index cards, cut them in half, and wrote “add me on Snapchat @liaehlers” on each card. She handed them out, taped them up in the school, wrote it all over whiteboards, and got the word out about her Snapchat account. Before she knew it, all different people started adding her on Snapchat. Upperclassmen she had never even talked to were looking up her username on the app.

When I sat down with the legend herself for an interview, Lia told me that she has gained over 100 friends on Snapchat due to her advertising. After handing out and hanging up papers at school, Lia decided it was time to take her dream  of being “Snapchat-famous” to the next level.

Lia went to the local Hanover movie theater and made sure an “add me on Snapchat @liaehlers” paper found its way into the candy bar display. People from all over Hanover were seeing this name everywhere!

How could you not add this girl?! Thanks to some of Lia’s friends, papers advertising Lia’s Snapchat were being put up at local coffee shops and hangout spots around Hanover.

People were adding Lia Ehlers on Snapchat faster than you could say “add @liaehlers on Snapchat”! When asked why she ever wanted to start advertising her Snapchat to the whole school, Ehlers replied, “I just always wanted to be famous and I wanted everybody to know who I am.” Although she’s definitely made some progress toward achieving her goal, she hasn’t even gotten started in comparison to what she’ll do next. We can’t wait to see how far she goes!