New Knoxville High School - Memoir Yearbook (New Knoxville, OH)

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Patriotism through knowledge This year, as in years past, jun- iors and seniors participated in the American Legion-sponsored Ameri- canism Test. Each year the tests are graded, and the top boy and top girl in each class is advanced to the county competition with the win- ners continuing in the state compe- tition. This year was without excep- tion, singling out Christa Henschen and Brian Lammers as the winners in the senior class and Lori Barber and Matthew Gilfillen in the junior class. But what exactly is the reason for taking the test? According to history teacher and administrator of the test, Mr. Charles Rowen, The purpose of the test is to give an indication of how much students know about American history and government and how well they un- derstand the Constitution. Also in- cluded on the test are questions concerning state symbols and flag etiquette. Although some students may feel that the test questons are not pertinent to life, they reestablish knowledge of American freedoms and of democratic justice. — Jenni Pierson Ohio Tests of Scholastic Achievement Row . Physics: Phil kuck; English 9-. Lori Piehl. Carrie Ruck (16 in district. Division III): English 10: Gina Lepinski. Beth Heidt (honorable mention in district. Division III): Chemistry: Beth Lammers. Row 2.- So- cial studies: Heather Wietholter: English II: Lori Barber (3 in district and 12 in state, Division III; 5 in district regardless of school size). Heather Coffin (15 in district. Division III); English 12: Laurie Merges (10 in district. Division III). Rachel Wilson; Chemistry. Lisa Wibbeler. Row 3: Social studies: Christa Henschen; Alge- bra I: Monika Renfrew. Paul Wilson (honorable mention in district. Division III); Algebra 2: Matthew Gilfillen (honorable mention in district. Division III), Chad Wyatt (honorable mention in district. Division III). Row 4: Geometry-. Matthew Condon, Ralph Wierwille; Advanced math: Mike Novean; Biology: Chad Thobe. Fred Homan. Not pictured: General science: Stephen Bargdill. Jon Lepinski. Achievement test gives challenge What makes students get up early one Saturday morning and lose some precious sleep? Ev- ery May high school students who are outstanding in one of sixteen subjects are bussed to St. Marys to take the Ohio Tests of Scholastic Achieve- ment. The subjects of these tests are in the areas of math, English, science, social studies, and foreign language and are sponsored by the Ohio Depart- ment of Education and the Divi- sion of Guidance and Testing. One question still remains though. Why? It looks very good on college applications when a person ranks in the state, commented Lori Barber who has taken the tests in English three years and placed in the state the last two years. I don ' t enjoy taking the tests, but I know that it ' s a good experience, and maybe I ' ll learn something, said Heather Wietholter. Social studies teacher, Mr. Charles Rowen, sees many ben- efits to the test. It gives the kids a chance to compete aca- demically with neighboring schools. — Jeff Lehman Academics 11

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Juniors Lisa Wibbeler and Beth Lam- mers both agree that chemistry is their Lunchtime cramming is a favorite pastime favorite class of the day. It ' s right be- for many students. Daniel Allen demon- fore lunch. strates how NOT to study for a test. 1 . mm ' r 1 w t =e5 1 Sophomore Matt Lammers explains the effects of alcohol to senior Brian Lammers at the local science fair. Matt went on to compete at the district level. See. it looks just like the real Stonehenge. Eric Gabel proudly displays his edible project in Mrs. Titus ' s fine arts class. It was made of brownies. 10 Academics

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Jennifer Wessel. Shannon Egbert and Stacy Tinnerman play Deutschlandreise in German II. The game is played by traveling through the country. The one to return first to his city wins. If language is no barrier, what is? As Americans, we tend to be very self-centered. We see our- selves as the most powerful country with the best way of doing things. This sort of patri- otism is one of our greatest qualities as well as one of our biggest faults. As tourists and even diplomats in foreign na- tions, we hold our host coun- tries and their language, gov- ernment, and customs in low re- gard. We expect others to un- derstand us when we make no effort toward understanding them. It is the goal of the German Club sponsoring Foreign Lan- guage Week to reverse this at- titude. Each year the German Club organizes a week of class- room activities and contests for grades K-12, which are gear- ed toward teaching students about the world around them. Some of these activities include announcements made in for- 12 Academics eign languages, costume con- tests, poster and essay con- tests based on the week ' s theme, and classroom time set aside for learning about foreign countries. So far Foreign Language Week has been a failure. The German Club had done every- thing in its power to increase participation, but to no avail. People just don ' t want to par- ticipate. Maybe next year we ' ll have to come up with some- thing else instead of a Foreign Language Week, said Mrs. Cheryl Davis. Could this be an- other example of the snobbish American attitude of superiori- ty? The idea behind Foreign Lan- guage Week is a very important one. If we fail to rise above our self-centeredness, America may be left behind in a rapidly growing world. — Jenni Pierson Scholastic team puts forth effort Faster than a TI-57, more pow- erful than a think tank and able to compute difficult math problems in thirty seconds — it ' s the New Knoxville Scholastic Bowl Team. Well, to be honest, as a member of the 1988 team, I can say we didn ' t quite meet those specifications, but participants put forth an honest ef- fort. The team of Laurie Merges, Ra- chel Wilson, Lori Barber and Heath- er Coffin competed against Bluff- ton High School on March 21 at the Wright State Lake Campus. Ques- tions came from the areas of cur- rent events, fine arts, English, histo- ry, science and mathematics. Each question had an answering time lim- it of ten seconds except computa- tional mathematics, which allowed thirty seconds. Despite a 20-10 loss to Bluff ton, eventual finalists in the competi- tion, the team felt competing was a good experience. I thought it was fun, said Heather Coffin, but sort of embarrassing. Heather would have liked more practice time in ad- diton to lunch period practices so that, . . . we would have known what they (the questions) were tal- king about. — Lori Barber P