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VOLUME 51 ISSUE 23 1015 Division St. Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613
Two juniors place high on national French exam Chandal Geerdes Staff Writer
The National French Exam is a test for any student that is enrolled in a French course. This year, juniors Hannah Dailey and Dylan Martin have both placed in the top 10 in Iowa. Dailey’s effort also earned her 6th place in the nation. They both will be taking the oral exam later this May. “It feels good to be good at something you love to do,” junior Dylan Martin said. In previous years, students have also done exceptionally well. Three years ago, graduate Ashley Sorensen was number one in the nation, and just last year, current seniors Magee Glenn-Burns and Shannon McClintock were both top 10 in the nation. “I’m totally proud of [my students]. I know it takes a lot of self motivation,” French teacher Anna Danforth said. Last year, every French
student was required to take the exam. This year it was optional, and six students participated. The exam is part written and part listening. Danforth will even admit that the exam is at a high level
“It’s like I have a light switch in my head and when I start thinking about French.” —Dylan Martin French Exam winner of difficulty. “[The exam] speaks strongly of the language program [at Cedar Falls High School],” Danforth said. Both Dailey and Martin are thrilled to be moving on to the next level of the oral exam. Although the girls did not do much to prepare for the written exam besides looking over a few grammar rules for the oral portion, they have to memorize a poem and respond to what the judges asked them
to cite. “It’s like I have a light switch in my head, and when I start thinking about French, it switches over, and I simply let French take over my speaking and thinking tracks,” Martin said. Although Dailey has not received much French culture in her past, she sees it in her future as a possible career since it’s something she really enjoys. “I just really like French. I think it’s a beautiful language.” Martin, on the other hand, spent part of her summer in Europe, including three days in Paris with her grandpa, aunt and sister. “[I think] it’s really cool. There’s really a whole nation out there that’s French. I could understand street signs and menus. It was interesting.” Like Dailey, Martin is hoping to major in French and teach either college or elementary children. She also hopes to live in France at some point in her life and teach her children to be bilingual.
Art Attack
Tracy Lukasiewicz Photo
Junior Austin Schaub admires one of the many student art pieces on display at the Hearst Center for the Arts. The collection includes works from students throughout the Cedar Falls School District and the show runs until May 22. The Hearst Center is closed on Mondays.
Robotics team makes quarterfinals in St. Louis Maya Amjadi Staff Writer
The CFHS robotics team, SWARTDOGS, made it to the quarter finals of the FIRST Robotics World Championships before losing to the top seeded team in St. Louis. The event ran on April 28, 29 and 30. Out of the 88 teams in the SWARTDOGS division, they were selected as the eighth alliance, just making the cut before elimination in the quarterfinals. Still, only 96 teams out of the 352 that made it to the World Championship got the chance to compete in the elimination round, and Cedar Falls was one of them.
The team did exceptionally well this year winning two regional competitions, which they have never accomplished before. Senior Dan Harter’s favorite part about being on the robotics team this year was the competitions. “You get to see all the different ways other teams have tried to solve the same problem,” Harter said. “We get to appreciate all the hard work that thousands of people have done in just six weeks and, of course, see how our robot stacks up against the others.” His main role on the team was helping build the robot, and during the competitions he has been on the drive team.
The task this year was a hard one. “This season, the game was very tough because it had multiple objectives,” sophomore Brandon Dix said. “This meant you needed to have a very mobile and multi-faceted robot, which isn’t easy to make.” The team had to create a 120-pound robot that could hang inflatable tubes on a rack of pegs in a specific order. Senior Ashley Brown said she enjoys all the problem solving that is involved in the robotics competition, including which design to use, what aspects to focus on and which materials to use. She said she liked seeing everything come together so well. Another big accomplishment came
from the autonomous period of the competition. For this mode, the robot is pre-programmed to complete a specific task to earn points for the team without the aid of the driver. This year the team made a game, Logomotion, in which the robot had to score ubertubes on racks in front of the drivers’ stations. “We knew we could score one, but after watching some of the other competitions earlier this season, we challenged our programmers to go for the double ubertube,” senior Emily Hurban said. “They got to work, and their efforts were rewarded at the ROBOTICS, Page 4