Venango Christian High School - Saga Yearbook (Oil City, PA)

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What’s New About the New Biology? An interview with Sister Miriam, O.S.B. SISTER MIRIAM WITH REPORTERS NANCY PETULLA AND DIANE WIL- SON: Progress is an expensive luxury. Q. Can you give us an example of the instruments that are contri- buting to these costs. Sister? A. Well, the new dissection micro- scope used for viewing opaque or non-transparent objects was pur- chased for the lab. A regular micro- scope can be used only for viewing transparent objects. The new instru- ment cost about $300.00 alone. Q. As a whole, how do the ma- jority of students react to this course in comparison to the tradi- tional? A. As far as liking the course, the students quite naturally prefer it to the traditional because the lab work makes it much more appealing. It is, however, very time-consuming. Q. Does the course require much outside work? Biology, the once dead study of dead organisms, is being approached from A. Outside reading is required in a new angle in today’s high school laboratories. order to prepare the students for the Exactly what is this course? What is its purpose? Why is it changed? lab. Specimens must also be collec- Sister Miriam, head of the Biological Sciences Curi culum Study at VCHS, ted by the students for their indivi- describes the course and gives some interesting information and insights into dual experiments, these questions. Q. Would you explain what the B.S.C.S. biology course is? A. The Biology Sciences Cur- riculum Study covers fewer biolo- concepts than the traditional course, but each one is viewed at a much greater depth. Q. What is the most important difference between the traditional and the present course? A. The most important differ- ence in the approach is that now the laboratory is the integral part of the course. Before it was a matter of memorization and de- scription. Now, however, the stu- dents realize it is lab centered. Q. What is the purpose of the intensified lab program? A. Ironically enough, the tradi- tional course approached biology, a study of living things, by exam- ining dead organisms. In this pro- gram the experiments are called ’open-end experiments because each one is to lead the pupil to new discoveries. Q. This course is referred to as a three-track program. Exactly what does that mean? A. This is called a three-track program because there are three different approaches to the course. They are equally difficult and cover much of the same work, but the actual attack is different. Q. What are these programs? A. The yellow program approa- ches biology from a cellular level, the blue from a molecular level, the green from the standpoint of ecology. Q. Which program is operating at Venango? A. Venango is using the yellow program at present. Q. What are some of the disad- vantages of the course? A. The important disadvantage to the course is the cost of the program. There are no disadvantages to the program educationally, but the cost of setting it up and maintaining it poses a serious financial burden. Q. What schools in this area have adopted this course? A. Cathedral Prep in Erie and Franklin High School are two of the very few schools which have adopted the course. Right is right when nobody’s right, and wrong is wrong when everybody’s wrong. COVER STORY The BARQUE photographer found freshman Timothy Walsh engrossed in his drawing board. It was one of those moments which, when seen against the mountains, proves that VCHS has a heart as well as a head. It was one of those moments that are part of the Viking legacy. 3

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 4c RaAtj ue VENANGO CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL “Let the word go forth that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans. VOL. II, NO. 1 FALL, 1963 Table Of Contents School Life: WHAT IS THE NEW BIOLOGY?.................... P-3 By Diane Wilson and Nancy Petulla ONCE UPON A SCHOOL DAY.....................P -6 By Stephen Szalewicz WHERE THE GRADS ARE ........................ p.9 By Michael Yaeger THE CLASS OF '67: LEAVEN...................p .ll ROVING REPORTER: IS THE DAY TOO LONG?.... p.14 By June Woods Feature: SMILE AWHILE.................................p.4 By Daniel Goodman EINSTEIN, DON’T WORRY....................... p.4 By Patricia Breen GRANDMA’S CHERRY TREE........................p.9 By Suzanne Marshall SNIPS AND SNAILS AND PUPPY DOG TAILS........p.15 By Joyce Walentosky ACCENT ON YOU...............................P-14 By Daniel Goodman Sports: COLOR IT BLACK AND BLUE......................p.5 By Michael Y aeger THE SIDES AREN’T MATCHED.....................p.5 By Michael Y aeger Fiction: LITTLE BOY ALONE.............................p.8 By Ann Logue Poetry: WAR GAMES...................................p.9 By Michael Fletcher Editorial: HAIL TO THE CHIEF..........................p.16 THE BARQUE QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF VENANGO CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL 1505 W. First St.Tel. 64-61264 OIL CITY, PENNSYLVANIA Editor-in-Chief.............................Daniel Goodman Executive Editor............................Flrank Shialabba Managing Editor......................................Nancy Petulla Copy Editor................................kfichael Yaeger Sports Editor..................................Gary Hawk Photography.................................Stephen Szalewicz Art Editor..................................Karen Blumensaadt Exchange Editor.............................DmnaPedorek Circulation Manager.........................Pamela Eckert Production Editors................Ann Whitcomb. Patricia Kleck Varitype Operators................Ann Whitcomb, Patricia Kleck Reporters............ Kathleen Rice, Diane Wilson, June Woods, Rhea Ann Stevenson, Jean Mahaffey, Karen Burke, Carol Eng- lish, William Walenia, Allen Stempin, Joseph Novicki, Terence Rodgers, Walter Moran, Thaddeus Szalewicz, Christine Cartwright. Headmaster........................ Rev- L. J. Antoun Advisor................-.... Sister Mary Peter, O.S.B. 2

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By Daniel Goodman Some people chink of a high school as just a warehouse with a gymnasium, a storage place for desks, books and teen-agers. This is not true in our case. Our school is an independent community. We have a restaurant, Y.M.C.A. style,a hospital, the one room type, and a book store. You can see that we have everything that is necessary for survival. The cafeteria is the finest eatery in the school; it is also the only one. The cooks are famous for their foreign cooking: pizzas, ravioli, and that famous old Irish dish, glomkis. They do have a little bit of trouble when it comes to arranging the meal however. Take for instance the day we had canned corn, corn muffins, corn meal mush and corn flakes. The head cook realized the mistake before it was too late though and to everyone’s joy substituted the corn meal mush with com fritters. She knew that too much starch would make us sleepy. SO MAYBE our cafeteria isn’t the Waldorf of Oil City, but we have one of the finest book stores in the world. The only problem is that they don't sell books in it. They are sold in the cafeteria. You can buy just anything else though. They have paper, pens, folders and other stuff that is just as easy to borrow from someone else. Not everyone can borrow unfortunately so for the ones that must buy they have lowered the prices. A baker’s dozen of those little two-tone erasers is only twenty-five cents. YOU KNOW, those are the ones that are supposed to erase ink as 4 well as pencil marks. Are they kid- ding? When they make an eraser that works like a wet finger then they will have something. Anyway, at those prices you'd think they would go bankrupt in no time. Not so. Every business has it’s secrets. They sell beautiful cartridge pens with two free cartridges for a dime. When the two cartridges are used, you return for more and then they tell you that those messy little in- ventions go for a buck a pack. Don’t waste your tears on the bookstore. Even though you don’t see many people making purchases just re- member that nine out of ten are bor- rowers. One guy is really buying for nine other people. In close affiliation with the book- store are our bus token machines. Those little baubles are now selling at the rate of two for twenty-five cents. You were probably patting yourself on the back when your first two-bits yielded three shiney tokens instead of the customary two. Good. Just don’t be surprised if the next time you get nothing but a low gur- gle from that one knobbed bandit. NEXT comes VC’s answer to Bellevue. In this spotless room one cot by a box of bandaids wide, you can be treated for any- thing from a cut finger to a dis- arranged mind. There’s a story a- mong the freshmen these days that’s interesting in a morbid sort of way. It seems that there was a young fellow who hurt himself in gym class. He managed to limp to the healthroom where he was told that he needed a permit from the office. With much effort he crawled up the hall to the office where he was informed that he could not be treated unless he carried school insurance. He has- tily filled out the form for the in- surance, received his permit and headed in the direction of the health room. They say he never made it. At VC we receive more than an education. We learn how to fast, beg, and suffer pain without com- plaining. BILL WALENIA: This school is getting so crowded I opened my locker and found a classroom. EINSTEIN, DON'T WORRY By Patricia Breene Allow me to define something which, unfortunately, I know very little about, despite the efforts of the American educational system over the past twelve yeass. It may be the only successful thing I do in the field. 1. Mathematics, you are one of the easiest ways to confuse me: the number of your rules is as infinite as numbers themselves. 2. Mathematics, the best purpose of the large slide rule in room 203 is to write notes under to your friends in the next class. The small ones are to test your eyesight. They are best read with a microscope. 3. Mathematics, the most potent danger to your image in this school is the class in which 1 attempt to learn your principles. Worse, every- body else is almost as bad off as I. (Ask Sister...Rather, ask Herby Heher.) 4. Mathematics, to me you are the organized study of the unnecessary. What cook (except my father) has to measure out to the gram the ingredi- ents of her concoction? Once, at a racetrack, my grand- mother won a fairly large amount of money by choosing the horses with the prettiest names. My grandfather, who studied racing results and forms and speeds and pace lengths for a week ahead of the day, didn’t pick a single winner. Mathematics, your graphsand sine curves intrigue me. They all look like snakes, but if you connect the dots right you can even make other things. My teacher says I’ve found more ways to do things wrong than anyone else she's ever taught. And every- time a new one says that it makes a bigger number. But, Mathematics, I would like to pass your classes. I want to graduate.