Latest news with #StillwaterJuniorHigh
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Stillwater and Morrison students win multiple awards at Oklahoma National History competition
Among the dozens of Oklahoma students who won awards at the Oklahoma National History Day in May, Stillwater Public Schools and Morrison Public Schools students stood out. Held at the Oklahoma History Center, the competition split students into two categories – sixth-eighth grades and ninth-12th grades. Students qualified for the state competition by winning one of seven regional competitions across Oklahoma, according to a press release by the Oklahoma History Center Museum and the Oklahoma Historical Society. Stillwater Junior High student Leena Atiyeh placed first for her paper titled 'The Palestinian Catastrophe of 1948: How the Palestinians Lost Their Lives, Land, and Rights,' and Stillwater junior Abigail Norwood won second place in the same category for 'The Boston Massacre: The Colonial Responsibility to Fight Against the Infringement of Rights.' Stillwater Junior High student Sara Roberts placed third for her individual exhibit titled 'Braille, A Revolutionary Touch to History.' Morrison Junior High students Lexi Kruse, Daydree Horne, Olivia Ross and Levi Brixey won first place for their group performance, 'The Great Dust Storm: How Drought and Devastation Influenced Responsible Farming.' In the junior group documentary category, Stillwater Junior High students Isaac Ringsmuth, Charles Hardy and Ian Bidelspach placed second for 'The Indian Salt March: Gandhi's March for Freedom.' Emmy Xiang of Stillwater High School won third place for her senior paper, 'A 'King Tut' Tomb: The Looting of Spiro Mounds.' Morrison High student Emma Haken won second place for her senior individual exhibit 'Ten Days in a Madhouse: The Illustrious Career of Nellie Bly,' while Morrison High student Emily Woodring took third place for her senior individual documentary 'The Angels of Auschwitz.' Morrison High students Ariana Briny and Kynzi Kelty placed second for their senior group website 'Whispers of Motherhood: The Untold Stories of Maternity Homes,' and Morrison High students Rebecca Taylor, Ava Williams and Aubrey Grim placed third in the same category for their website 'Sowing Seeds of Change: The Women's Land Army of America's Influence on Rights and Responsibilities.' In the senior group documentary category, Morrison High students Taleah Williams, Annie Kelly, Piper Roberts and Sydney Morgan captured first place with their documentary, 'Chilocco Indian Industrial School: A Rationale of Rights and Responsibilities.' Stillwater High students Kody Veal and Alexander Peetoom placed third in the same category for their documentary 'Beyond the Blast: Insight to Engineers' Rights and Responsibilities after the Challenger Disaster. In the Special Prizes categories, Morrison Public Schools also won the Sweepstakes Winner for the senior division. Some of the winners from the May competition will compete at the national competition in June. 'National History Day is a highly regarded academic program that is student-driven and allows students to learn about civic engagement while analyzing primary sources,' according to the release. 'The cross-curricular program meets Oklahoma standards for social studies and other subjects.' OkNHD implements 'project-based learning,' focusing on historically themed topics. Students dive deep into primary and secondary research, using libraries, archives, museums and historic sites. Upon analyzing and interpreting their sources, they are required to draw their conclusions about the topic's significance to history. Then they present their work through 'original papers, exhibits, performances, websites and documentaries,' according to the release. Students enter their projects into spring competitions at regional, state and national contests – and professional historians, educators and community leaders evaluate them. This year's theme was 'Rights & Responsibilities in History.' The Bezos Family Foundation provided a grant to partially support the competition, which also covered NHD programs and professional workshop development for teachers. The history center is a division of the Oklahoma Historical Society, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, National Archives and an accredited member of the American Alliance of Museums, according to the release. Its mission is 'to collect, preserve and share the history and culture of the state of Oklahoma and its people.'
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
SPS robotics program highlights need for more space
Stillwater High sophomore Barbara Laxton isn't afraid to speak up about the Stillwater Public Schools robotics program – whether that's to members of the Board of Education or to friends or anyone else who will listen. But she has a bigger goal in mind – someday she wants to win a free ticket to the VEX Robotics World Championship held in May in Dallas. Robotics competitors can either win an award at the state championship or complete an online challenge to win a free ticket. Online challenges include activities such as building an instruction guide, a community challenge, a drone career readiness challenge, a game design challenge, marketing, STEM research and more. Students are graded on a rubric system, and if they become a finalist, they have an interview with VEX robotics program coordinators. Laxton chose the STEM advocacy challenge, and has spoken twice at an SPS Board of Education meeting to bring awareness of the program to the district. Along with two teammates, Hunter Scott and Addy Welch-Britton, Laxton advocated again for space for the Stillwater High School robotics program at the March 11 board meeting. '(In the challenge), we talked about how we have a ton of kids and no space,' Laxton said. 'And that our room does not really fit the amount of people we have.' The program is housed at Stillwater Junior High, with both SJHS and SHS teams meeting after school in SPS STEM and Computer Science Educator Rebecca Palmatary's classroom. Although Laxton and her fellow students didn't place as finalists in the challenge, she's not ready to give up advocating. Getting her team in the door at Worlds costs $1,800. 'And that's not any of the other fees like hotels,' Laxton said. Her team qualified for Worlds at the state championship, and now her goal is to raise $4,000 so the five-member team can travel all-expenses paid. A growing need There were 11 robotics teams from Stillwater High, Stillwater Junior High and Stillwater Middle School that traveled to the Oklahoma 2024-25 VEX Robotics-High Stakes MS State Championship in Muskogee on March 13-14. Stillwater students racked up multiple awards, with 8 out of 11 teams qualifying for Worlds. At SHS, every team won an award, and 4 out of 5 teams qualified for Worlds. At SJHS, 4 out of 6 teams qualified for Worlds. The competition is sponsored by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging students to get involved in science, technology, engineering, math and computer science through 'hands-on, curriculum-based robotics programs,' according to the VEX Robotics website. The competition sees more than 14,000 teams from 53 countries that play in more than 1,300 tournaments. Palmatary previously told the News Press that last year the Stillwater district had two high school teams, and this year, there are five. The SJHS team grew from five to six. As students began moving up to junior high and high school, there was no program in which they could compete. Palmatary took on the challenge. SMS has had a solid robotics program for years, but for the upper-level classes, the program is in its infancy. The junior high school program started in the 2022-23 academic year and the high school program started in the 2023-24 academic year. Space for the robotics program has become a major issue for the teams, Palmatary said. Two robotic fields stay set up all day, but with only one room to practice in – which is also her classroom space – students have to get creative by practicing in garages or living rooms. 'We have parents who have opened their homes to lots of teams so that we can get in those extra hours,' Palmatary said. Although not a perfect scenario, it's worked, for now. 'In the ideal world, we would have a robotic center, and we would host all of our middle school, our junior high and our high school together,' she said. 'That way, they could collaborate, use that vertical alignment.' Palmatary said she would love it if space could be made available at the new high school where students could program their robots or practice with adult supervision. 'Hopefully, whenever the new (high school opens), maybe there's going to end up being an open space somewhere that we can repurpose,' Palmatary said. 'But those are kind of my hopes and dreams.' Repurposed spaces has been a topic at previous school board meetings. 505 Architects Coordinator Brian Thomas, whose team is building the new high school, said some larger rooms might work for robotics spaces. It's a topic that's concerned Barbara's mother, Stacy Laxton, who has spoken multiple times at school board meetings, urging board members to consider room for robotics in the new high school. Laxton said her engineering degree has helped her in her current job as part of a supply chain. 'I still use all of my engineering skills in supply chain – it's still STEM skills,' Laxton said. 'So, whether you get an engineering degree and become an engineer or you get a skill set – I still consider myself a lot more successful than somebody who doesn't have this skill set. 'We're not asking for (attention) to be taken away from athletics or arts or any other thing, we're asking just to give robotics a fair chance. Because I'm sure we'll find some company to help us donate stuff. Give us an open space, we'll figure out how to get it done.' Palmatary said there will always be a need for engineers. 'There's always going to be a need for those problem-solving skills,' Palmatary said. 'That is a growing industry, and the more we can support that, the better off we are.' Palmatary teaches at Oklahoma State University summer STEM camps, offering classes in coding and advanced coding. Last summer, she taught a basic directional coding camp for first- and second-graders. The explosion of SPS robotics programs mirrors what's happening in the 21st century, she said. 'Think about it – when (I was) a kid, there wasn't a computer in my back pocket, but we're carrying one around today,' she said. ' … Technology is growing, so AI is growing, the robotics, the problem-solving – it's all just exploding and we can't keep up.' Stillwater High School awards – Excellence Award, 74074R Revenant – Tournament champs, 74074Y Bamboozled – Tournament Finalist, 74074X Nexus – Design Award, 74074Z Zenith – Build Award, 75075D Oasis Stillwater Junior High School awards – Tournament finalist, 74074V Oblivion – Tournament finalist, 74074A Paradox – Design Award, 74074A Paradox – Amaze Award, 74074 B Brainstorm – Inspire Award, 74074S Seismic – 'Wildcarded' for Worlds, 74074E Eclipse
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Stillwater families try to find something to salvage in fire-ravaged homes
STILLWATER, Okla. (KFOR) – The City of Stillwater said more than 75 homes were destroyed during Friday's wildfire outbreak. Many of them were damaged in the connecting neighborhoods of Crosswinds and Pecan Hill. 'We sifted through things and everything that we found is damaged,' said Gayla Tierney, a homeowner who lost her home of five years. She and her husband, Rick, went by their home on Monday for the final time. They made a promise to never go back. 'Hopefully we'll be able to find (a new home) quickly and move forward,' said Tierney. A few doors down the street, the Cuellar family said it planned to rebuild their two-story home which was nothing but a pile of bricks now.'I'm grateful that the most important things were out of the house already,' said Jacob Cuellar, talking about his wife and two children. 'But to look back and see all of your life possessions are right there.' Cuellar is a teacher and coach at Stillwater Junior High. He was emotional when talking about mementos that were now among the ashes of his home.'My team pictures of all the teams that I've coach that they were in there,' said Cuellar. 'Birthday presents from like my parents, they're gone.' Luther family saved by Edmond Fire Crew #5 His father died in 2020. The gifts he gave Cuellar were irreplaceable. Both families evacuated and watched their homes that were swallowed by flames through their security cameras. The city opened the Stillwater Armory over the weekend. It has been used as a drop off and pick up location for donations for families impacted by the fires.'Many of these families are our friends,' said Brad Moore, Stillwater City Manager. 'I'm trying not to get emotional. These families are super close.' He said the donations were what made Stillwater Strong. He said it was the community's way of helping families who were coping with a massive loss. Some of the families KFOR spoke to said they have been able to find housing using AirBnB locations but will be displaced for several weeks in the coming months due to already planned events in Stillwater. Many of the AirBnB reservations have already been secured for Cross Canadian Ragweed concerts in April and baseball weekends and graduations at Oklahoma State University in May. The impacted families said they would have to find a solution for those said his home could be replaced but it was what happened inside the crumbled walls of his home that were priceless.'That's probably the hardest part. The memories,' said Cuellar. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
