Januarycryofthehawk21132nhhs

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Follow us on Twitter @HAWKREPORTER North Harford High School

211 Pylesville Road, Pylesville, MD 21132

410-638-3650

Volume 48, Issue 1

January 26, 2018

projects underway, NRAS students brainstorm: Capstone Seniors approach finish line AUBREY WILLIAMS Reporter

What is capstone? Capstone is the fourth and final year for the Natural Resource Agriculture Science (NRAS) magnet program. This year the class is composed of about 35 seniors from the natural resource, animal science, and plant science strands. In the Capstone class students spend half the year perfecting how to write a lab report and the other half of the year composing their final SAE ( supervised agricultural experience) project. Some of these SAE topics range from honey bees to photography to trees, but each and every single one of them require extensive amount of time and effort to build their final project. Senior Sarah Hendrickson a plant science student has been working the past 2 years with American Chestnut trees. Two years ago, North harford High was granted 50 American chestnut trees that were planted here on campus just below the turf field by students and teachers of the magnet classes. Ever since then, Hendrickson has been tracking their growth over time. Although not every aspect of her capstone project is already planned, “I haven’t figured out what my research question is” admitted hendrickson, she still

has been working with Flowers by Bauers to find the perfect height so that all the nutrients go to the bud of the flower instead of the stem to make it taller. One off Chaney’s favorite part of her project is being able to work with Flowers by Bauers. “Working with Flowers by Bauers is pretty cool because they use hydroponics so they don’t use soil, they use perlite to hold the roots in”. Perlite, is used in seed-starting and potting Students from the NHHS magnet program working hard on their individual capmixtures stone projects. Ag students have been anticipating their senior capstone project to lighten since freshman year. Photo credit: Aubrey Williams the soil to allow more air around the roots of plants and to help rerial infection that affects Ameri- on the height of sunflowers. “Every year since my freshman tain water. can Chestnut trees. Another aspect of working This study is very important years I have changed the amount because American Chestnut trees of growth regulator that I use”, with Flowers by Bauers as exonce dominating the eastern explained Chaney, “This year I plained by Chaney is that they United States has been in a seri- used 7000 ppm, parts per million, are very eco-friendly and Chesaous population decline since the and we had the best results this peake bay friendly. “They reuse all the water they blight fungus killed it more than years”. In her experiment Chaney has been collecting data for her project. Hendrickson has also been collaborating with the University of Kentucky and University of Maryland to diagnose the trees with any blight, which is a bacte-

a century ago, according to the American Chestnut Foundation. Natural resource magnet senior Abby Chaney has dedicated the last 4 years of her life studying and experimenting on the effect of the growth regulator, B-Nine,

have in the greenhouse so there isn’t really any pollution they are causing. Also, they reuse the perlite and they send it to other greenhouses and they use it for fertilizer because it’s full of nutrients for their farms.” Jenna Boyd, an Animal Science senior, has been working hard on her project since May of last year to study the effects of omega 3 supplements on weight gain and egg grade in speckled Sussex hens. In the experiment 3 different groups were tested as described by Boyd, “One group was fed a normal Purina layena feed without any added supplements, another group got a premium purina layena feed hat had omega 3 supplement within the pellets already, and the final group got the regular feed with ground up o-3 supplement mixed into the pellet feed.” To collect data for the project twice a week every week from may until September, she graded and weighed the eggs from her speckled Sussex hens. Unfortunately, most of the data turned out inconclusive as a result of her chickens becoming broody, where the chickens starve themselves and refuse to leave their nesting boxes) explained Boyd. However, that is what often happens to these senior who are dealing with animals and mother nature, sometimes it’s out of their hands.

French students take voyage to Montreal, Quebec City KATE MEAGHER Video manager

Photo credit: Pixabay In just a few weeks, many students from North Harford will be

heading to Montreal and Quebec, Canada to experience a weekend practicing French while participating in lots of cultural activities. Students will depart from North Harford High School on a motor coach on Wednesday, March 21 after school at 6:30PM, and drive through the night. The trip will be combined with students from Bel Air High School and C Milton Wright High School. They will arrive at their first destination, Quebec City, at 7:30 the next morning,

March 22. According to Arist, students will be involved in activities such as dog sledding, visiting Montmorency falls, snow tubing, and eating genuine Quebec food such as poutine. Students will also complete hands-on activities such as making maple syrup candy, participating in a Cirque du Soleil workshop where they will make “flower sticks,” and learning how to legally create their own graffiti from local artists. Although on this year’s trip students will not be visiting the Hotel de Glace like they did on the last Quebec trip in 2012, Arist has planned other activities for everyone to experience. “Snow tubing is definitely the highlight because it’s not like snow tubing

around here” Arist commented on the trip, “It is snow tubing with ski slopes. So imagine ski slopes, but you’re tubing...” “I want to learn about Canadian culture and get to see the world,” senior Natalie Mullen. Like many other students, she is expecting to learn about Canadian culture. Senior Sarah Ortt, who is also president of the French Club, says that she is excited to experience new things. “I’m expecting it to be cold, and I’m going to be sad, but I’m really excited for it to be a lot of fun with lots of activities...” Ortt added. “I am excited to talk to the people who speak French and try out my French on them and see if they actually understand me,” Senior Katherine Miller commented

on the trip. She is also looking forward to trying out genuine Canadian syrup as well as to improve her French. “I’m most looking forward to seeing my French students... using their French in a Frenchspeaking country,” Arist said, “I’m always excited to pick up new French materials when I’m up there, authentic French materials...” Arist added. She also wants students to take away the idea that America is so close to Quebec, a French-speaking part of the world. One does not have to travel to Europe just to utilize their French skills. All in all, the trip is designed to educate, make new friends, and to have fun in a new place.


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