ts during B blocks
NEWS
After recruiting, we’ll reply to their emails, and a big thing is that midway through HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE their projects, they have to send us a sumPLANNING COMMITTEE? BACKSTORY mary so we’ll look over them and grade Last year, as a freshman, during the As an eighth period committee, the them based on that to start our rankings. 8th period signups, I saw this club and I Mythvestigations team works through[thought] that sound[ed] so interesting. out the year to plan and prepare for an WHAT MAKES MYTHVESTIGATIONS Sometimes the name of the club is a little invitational science fair held at Jefferson. UNIQUE FROM OTHER SCIENCE FAIRS? misleading because it sounds like we’re The group, including sophomore Serena I think we really try to instill this idea of busting myths, but we’re actually creating a Xia, promotes the Mythvestigations scian independent research project in whatscience fair for middle schoolers. ence fair to middle school and elementary ever field they’re interested in, and if they school students around Fairfax County to need any help, they can email students HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR MYTHVESfamiliarize younger students with serious from TJ to give them an idea of what a TIGATIONS? scientific research. This year the Mythvesscience project is. When they present it, [First] we’ll usually send out emails to tigations science fair was held on March we make sure to give them a thorough elementary schools and middle schools to 18. rubric that’s really similar to what teachers either put it on their morning announceat TJ actually tell us. ments or to flyers to tell them to join.
Natalie Homnyom || STAFF WRITER
Samantha Yap || STAFF WRITER
BACKSTORY Jefferson’s annual hackathon, HackTJ, provided an intensive nights of coding for its fifth year in a row. This year’s hackathon, held on March 25-26, featured the projects of over 450 students -- only seventy percent of which hailed from Jefferson. Jefferson’s Coding Lady Colonials (CLC) and their teacher sponsor Ria Galanos organized the event.
ing in around 450
: A copy of Chidanan-
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APR 5, 2017
Ashley Huang || STAFF WRITER
BACKSTORY Sophomore Yukta Chidanandan won a Gold Medal for her personal memoir “A Second Chance.” The memoir was about Chidanandan’s grandparents, and how her grandfather was a major in the Indian army, and how her grandfather and grandmother had an arranged marriage.
Java - a lot of the times when they come DID YOU FACE ANY CHALLENGES to HackTJ they learn how to make an WHILE PLANNING THE EVENT? Computer Science teacher Ria Galanos: app that might be more user friendly. Well, surprises. The play went on at WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF the same time, which just presented new HACKTJ? challenges, like roping off parts of the Galanos: building, and dealing with parking for No question, the enthusiasm the two large events, and we were happy to students exhibit when they’re working on share. Challenges always happen, but kind of makes planning an event exciting. their projects. As a classroom teacher, I have lovely students every day who seem interested in the material, who chat with WHAT DO STUDENTS LEARN? me, who are excited about their work. It’s Junior Sherry Xie: a whole different level at the hackathon; A lot of people learn how to use the level of passion, determination, different APIs, because a bunch of our excitement, urgency, enthusiasm is unpar[sponsors] are tech companies, so in the alleled. For me, it literally is the highlight real world they’re selling their product. of my year. Especially people who are mostly doing WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE “A SECOND CHANCE”? While my grandfather was in his final days, the relationship that my grandparents shared became really visible. It was the hope and the love that they showed that made their story really moving to write about. The memoir talks about how they worked together while my grandfather struggled with cancer. He died after I submitted the essay and before we found out that it did well in the competition. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO YOUNG ASPIRING WRITERS?
Writing is about your views as much as it is about communicating. The best kind of writing happens when people don’t worry about how they “should” write, and just focus on putting their experiences and thoughts down. WHAT DID YOUR MENTOR JENNIFER SEAVEY DO DURING THE WRITING PROCESS? Writing the essay was something I did by myself. Mrs Seavey did me the favor of being my second eyes, but any edits she did suggest were very minor. The memoir reflects my own words and feelings about the situation.