I wrote an article earlier this year about music and all of its benefits — there are plenty such as helping your mood and relaxing your body. Two Hanover High students have found another good thing that music can do. By collecting used iPods for an organization called Music and Memory, seniors Ceara McLaughlin and Mike Vigneaux hope to help patients with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Founded in 2006, Music and Movement brings the donated iPods and other digital music players to nursing homes and care facilities across the country. They train caregivers to create personalized playlists for patients. A video clip of Henry, from a 2012 documentary called Alive Inside: a Story of Music and Movement, shows one of the residents reawakened by listening to his Cab Calloway favorites.

According to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America website, music can help patients in many ways. It can remind them of past memories, put them at ease and even motivate them to move their bodies or do other activities.  The music stimulates the brain and, although their memories are sadly deteriorating, the tempos and beats can keep them going through hard times. In late stages of Alzheimer’s, many people lose the ability to express love or affection for ones they hold dear, yet they can move to a beat until extremely late in the cycle of the disease.

Different music can have different effects on people, the website states. These effects are categorized as stimulative or sedative. Stimulative music promotes movements while sedative music can help for bedtime or during activities that cause agitation because of its relaxing properties.

Alzheimer’s and dementia are horrifying things: diseases which slowly deteriorate all that you have learned in life.  Emotions, movement, memories can all disappear. I think if you haven’t already donated an iPod, it would be a huge help to a patient in need.

“Nothing stops or cures the disease, but for some reason, music can be really helpful in bringing back memories,” said McLaughlin. “My grandfather was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, so it’s important to me.”

More than 20 iPods have been collected in the HHS drive.

For more information on Music and Memory or to make a donation, visit www.musicandmemory.org

Life is a big deal. I know you think you’ve been living it all this time but you really haven’t. You’ve been living with the training wheels of life and the idea that those wheels are stripped off the second you throw that cap in the air is horrifying. The idea of the Credit for Life Fair is to lessen the fear of that blow known as graduation and make things feel a bit more manageable.  Real life is still going to be tough, there’s no doubt about it. But from someone whose view on the world and his career afterward has been less than cheery lately, I feel a fraction better after attending the fair.

About 75 juniors and seniors from HHS took part in the third-annual fair, held March 16 at Cardinal Cushing School. Students imagine we are about 24 years old and have to manage our money on our own. Each student is given a portfolio and a career, plus the average salary for that career. (I was an actor, making $40,520 a year — this is before I become a big  star, of course). We also receive a savings account, credit score, and some student loan or credit card debt. Since all of this varies from student to student, some start out in better financial shape than others, which is unfortunate but also realistic. (I had $2,200 in savings and a student loan payment of $150 a month.) You then go to booths for various things such as transportation, clothing, nutrition, housing and other things of the sort. At each booth, business people from the community give realistic options for us to choose from, such as purchasing a flashy Mustang or a basic Honda, or a no-frills cell phone versus the latest smartphone. You can also get a part-time job which will increase your income and ability to spend on other assets, or a roommate to split expenses with. Isn’t life fun!!!?? Sigh. Spending money from a credit card is also another option but I always stay away from those.

At one booth, we had to go through a professional job interview. At another book we got a “reality check.” By spinning the wheel of chance, students might get a winning lottery ticket or big inheritance. But other things they can get are straight garbage, like a flat tire or medical expense, adding more costs to an already tight budget. I got hit with a $50 doctor bill.

Once you went to all the booths and picked all your choices, you got to sit down with a counselor who would tally up all your expenses and see if you broke even. If you didn’t, you’d have to look back on all of your choices and make changes, over and over again if necessary, until your budget wasn’t a bust. Luckily I broke even on the first try with $86 to spare.

“The fair was really eye-opening because I realized I’m probably going to be broke,” said junior Emma Riley.  “Thanks S Bank.”

Junior Angela Mirasola said the fair was very informative and “a great opportunity for all students.” The one thing she would change is the how deals were given. During the fair, a cowbell was rung for limited time offers, but people would rush to the booth and it would get chaotic.

Overall, the Credit For Life Fair was pretty realistic. There were some expenses we were required to pay that I wouldn’t have chosen in real life, such as a gym membership. And some students chose roommates that they readily admit they’d never live with in real life. But going through the process of making a budget and weighing expenses was extremely informative and very helpful.

The fair is organized each year by Mrs. Pereira, who teaches Accounting, Marketing, and Internship, and Mrs. Hansen, who teaches Internship, School-to-Work and Microsoft Office. Mrs. Pereira felt the fair was a fantastic interactive learning experience and she enjoyed how many students gained insight into adult expenses. She noted that many were shocked at how expensive everything was. Mrs. P loves the collaboration from both the community and school.

The musical ensembles here at Hanover High School participated in the adjudicated MICCA Festival March 27-28. The MICCA Festival is an opportunity for groups to perform in front of a panel of judges to receive feedback from a source other than their director. The judges are usually professors in prominent college music departments and they all have a great deal of musical aptitude and intelligence. In fact, after the performance, one of the judges will host a clinic with the group and give them tips on how to improve to the next level of play. In addition to a live clinic from one the judges, directors receive the taped commentary of the three judges along with any notes they took. As far scoring and medal placement is concerned, it is done against a standardized rubric used by all the judges and not in comparison to the other groups in attendance at that particular venue. The possible awards a group can earn include the Medal of Merit, Bronze Medal, Silver Medal, and the Gold Medal.

Symphonic Band competed Friday night at Foxboro High School. They performed the same three songs they did at the HHS Spring Concert and ones they have been working on since the beginning of January. First was the march Fairest of the Fair by John Phillip Sousa, next up was Loch Lomond by Frank Ticheli, and concluding the set was Themes from Green Bushes by Percy Grainger. One of the requirements of the MICCA Festival is to have a variety of different genres represented in your band’s repertoire which is something the Symphonic Band definitely accomplished. Ultimately, the months of effort put in was rewarded by the Band receiving a Silver Medal. The Band has not received Silver since 2009, in Mr. Ketchen’s second year as Band Director. It’s even more of an accomplishment considering the fact the Band has a new director this year, Mr. Harden.

Concert Chorus and Vox competed on Saturday afternoon at Norwood High School. Concert Chorus performed At The River by Aaron Copland; Danny Boy, a traditional folk song arranged by Julie Knowles; and Sing and We Chant It by Thomas Morley. Vox, the audition-based elite women’s choir of HHS, performed Didn’ My Lord Deliver Daniel, arranged by Jennifer Alsup King, Ave Maria by Franz Biebel, and Ching a Ring Chaw by Aaron Copland. During Ave Maria, senior Jaime Savage, junior Melanie Armstrong, and sophomore Katie Scott all soloed. Similar to the Band, Vox and Concert Chorus have been rehearsing their songs since January. Ultimately, Concert Chorus got a Bronze Medal, and Vox got a Silver Medal. The Choruses show much promise under the leadership of their new director Mr. Schnelle and we can only expect even better results in the future.

The next performance of Symphonic Band, Concert Chorus, and Vox will be at the Williamsburg (Va.) festival April 16-19. It’s the first weekend of April Vacation and is the Music Department’s biennial trip. It’s another adjudicated festival and the groups will be busy at work for the next two weeks polishing their repertoires to get ready for the competition.

On Saturday, March 28, the Hanover High School Robotics team participated in both the Botball Tournament and Botfest Exhibition at UMass Lowell.  Seniors David Raab and Nick Ricciarelli and freshman Spencer Kubicki represented the team at the Botball tournament.  At Botfest, a robotics exhibition, sophomore Matt Blanchard displayed his prototype for a high- speed Rubik’s cube solver with the help of Nao, Hanover School District’s humanoid robot.

 Botball Tournament

The theme of this year’s tournament was mining minerals in the Southwestern United States.  The goal was to design, build, and program two autonomous robots to collect randomly scattered ‘minerals’, bring them to specific areas of the board, and sort them by color. The items were at different heights and they were various sizes, shapes and colors.  Each match lasted two minutes.  David, who will attend Rensselaer in the fall and Nick, who will attend RIT, were in the pit.  The team was able to make it through the seeding rounds and enter the double elimination match.  In the first match, Hanover’s robot “Arnie” started too soon and lost to Chelmsford High.  In the second match, Hanover defeated Innovation Academy.  The third match was lost to Veazie High School after Hanover’s robot “Maria” got thrown off course by a bump in the arena floor.

It was great to see the engineering design process at work.  Each match led to design adjustments, refining of code, and improved performance.  David and Nick quickly analyzed each situation and reacted swiftly to fix any problems and increase their chances of success.     

The final results have not been posted, but the team clearly improved since last year’s first try at Botball.  Last year, the team was eliminated after the second game and this year they weren’t eliminated until after the third game.  Most importantly, the students gained valuable skills in design, programming, engineering, time management, teamwork, refining, diagramming, strategizing and project management.  Hanover High School was also able to acquire two new robot platforms and hundreds of sensors and motors that can be used by Engineering Classes as well as the robotics team.  The software is installed in the Engineering lab for any student with an interest.  Hanover High also received complete standards- based curriculum resources to use with all engineering students.

Botfest Exhibition

Last year, for the Botfest Exhibition, Matt Blanchard created a Lego robot that could solve a Rubik’s cube.  Matt continued his quest this year and began online communication with David Gilday, the principal engineer at ARM in Cambridge, England.  Gilday is the co-creator of the world’s fastest Rubik’s cube-solving robot, “Cubestormer III.”  The “Cubestormer III” can solve the Rubik’s cube in 3.253 seconds. 

The Rubik’s cube solution is an algorithm; therefore, a robot can be programmed to follow a specific pattern of movements to solve the cube after scanning each side and determining the original positions of the colors.  Matt began work on a prototype for his own high-speed Rubik’s cube-solving robot which he displayed at this year’s exhibition.  Matt hopes to create the fastest one in North America by the time he is a senior in high school.  Incidentally, Matt himself is also a competitive Rubik’s Cube solver; he can solve the puzzle in 18.68 seconds. 

Special Thanks

• For the second year in a row, the team received a grant from NASA and UMass Lowell’s Community Partnership Program that covered $1,700 of the fee for Botball ($2,200 total).  The fee covers all materials, robots, and tournament expenses.
• Grants from the Hanover Foundation for Educational Enrichment ($1,800) and Walmart ($500) allowed the purchase of seven EV3 Lego robots that were used to build a prototype for a high-speed Rubik’s cube-solver for the exhibition.  The EV3 robots will be also be used in engineering courses at the high school.
• The humanoid robot, Nao, which assisted Matt at Botfest, was purchased for the district by the PTO.