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La Vida
Page 3 Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Tech Starcraft Team competes in Final Four Staff Writer
Starcraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game created in 1998 and has been the grassroots of online gaming and competitions since it began. T h e Tex a s Te c h S t a r c ra f t Te a m c o m p e t e d i n t h e S t a rcraft Final Four competit i o n S a t u r d a y. Jason Bohenek, a second year biological sciences graduate student from Scranton, Pennsylvania, said Starcraft is a game that practically launched competitive gaming into the mainstream world. āStarcraft is like Chess on steroids,ā Bohenek said. āOur players have to be analytically strategic in their gaming in order
to win or move on to the next level. It gets pretty intense.ā He said he did not know if he was going to be able to find enough members to participate in the league, since most of the members from last year either quit or graduated. Because no one was taking the initiative to make another team, Bohenek said he decided to make one himself. āI didnāt know how strong the team would be so I put us in the D2 division,ā Bohenek said, ābut we have turned out to be a really strong team with some amazing players.ā He said their team has been undefeated in the regular season, and that is what led them this far into the playoff brackets. He said the playoffs were similar to playoffs such as the
NCAA, where they start off one is online at the same time with 16 and go down to the in order to play, he said. final four. āWe get to know who we are āBeing in the final four is playing ahead of time,ā Bohenek very upsaid, āso we sit down lifting and I am very and analyze what proud of my teamwe need to mates,ā Bodo in order to come out henek said. He said on top. Beeach team ing able to member hone our plays anabilities to the match other indiBRITT DANZER vidual from really helps SOPHOMORE another prepare us MARKETING MAJOR school and for what to depending expect in on the game outcome, the win- each match.ā ner will keep moving forward. Nathan Walker, a sophoThe hardest part about com- more management information petitions is making sure every- systems major from Austin, is
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I honestly donāt see the difference between video games and sports.
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By TAYLOR PEACE
one of the members of the Starcraft team and said although they lost, he felt they gave a great effort. Everyone kept their head in the game in order to come out on top, he said. āI wasnāt really nervous because I thought we were fully prepared for this tournament,ā Walker said. āWe have been practicing all semester, and our team is pretty strong.ā Britt Danzer, a sophomore marketing major from St. Louis, said this is the first time he has been part of Final Four Series. Known as the āAce Playerā for the team, Danzer said he was not nervous for the game this past weekend either. āI felt we were fully prepared and have been doing so much practicing and strategic analyz-
ing of our competitors that we shouldāve been fine,ā Danzer said. āIām super excited to see the turn out of next year.ā Danzer said he has been playing sports all his life, such as hockey and baseball, and believes Starcraft is right up there next to sports. He said although Starcraft is more of a mental game, it still is considered a sport with all of the practice and hard work each player puts in, especially if they are in the pros. āI honestly donāt see the difference between video games and sports,ā Danzer said. āYes, sports are more physically active, but video games require one to be mentally active and thatās half the part of a sports game is the mental mindset.ā ā¤ā¤tpeace@dailytoreador.com
US teachers nowhere near as Tech Activities Board to diverse as their students host Rest, Relaxation Night WASHINGTON (AP) ā U.S. teachers are nowhere near as diverse as their students. Almost half the students attending public schools are minorities, yet fewer than 1 in 5 of their teachers is nonwhite. New studies from the Center for American Progress and the National Education Association are calling attention to this ādiversity gapā at elementary and secondary schools in the United States. The groups want more to be done to help teachers more accurately mirror the students in their classrooms. Teachers are always pushing their students to excel, said Kevin Gilbert, coordinator of teacher leadership and special projects for the Clinton Public School District in Clinton, Mississippi. It becomes easier for students to believe āwhen they can look and see someone who looks just like them, that they can relate to,ā said Gilbert, a member of the NEAās executive committee. āNothing can help motivate our students more than to see success standing right in front of them.ā More than minority stu dents would benefit from a more diverse teacher corps, said Ulrich Boser, the author of the centerās report. āEven in a place like North Dakota, where the students a r e n āt p a r t i c u l a r l y d i v e r s e relative to the rest of the country, itās important for our social fabric, for our sense as a nation, that students are engaging with people who t h i n k , t a l k a n d a c t d i f f e rently than them but can also be just as effective at raising student achievement in the
classroom,ā he said. There were about 3.3 million teachers in American public elementary and secondary schools in 2012, according to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics. It said 82 percent were white, 8 percent were Hispanic, 7 percent were black and about 2 percent were Asian. Students are a different story. In 1993, minority students made up 31 percent of the public school population; it was 41 percent in 2003. The Center for American Progressā most recent statistics show 48 percent of the students in public schools are nonwhite ā 23 percent Hispanic, 16 percent black and 5 percent Asian ā and that percentage is expected to continue to increase. āWe project that this fall, for the first time in American history, the majority of public school students in America will be nonwhite,ā Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last week. Hispanics have passed blacks as the largest minority group of teachers, just as there are more Hispanic students than African-Americans in the public school system. This tracks with the increases in the number of Hispanics in the United States, with Latinos the largest minority group in the country and the fastest-growing. Jan Alderson, a science teacher at Shawnee Mission South High School in Overland Park, Kansas, saw the changes at her school. āWe have very few teachers of minority background yet weāve gone to about 40 percent minority population,ā said Alderson, who was inducted into the
National Teacher Hall of Fame this past week. āItās a beautiful blending, itās just teachers who donāt have that cultural background, I think just that there are more issues.ā Teaching used be one of the only professions African-American college graduates could aspire to and make decent money, said LaRuth Gray, scholar-in-residence at the Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools at New York University. But as the county integrated and other professions opened their ranks, education lost its ācachetā and fewer African-American students thought about becoming teachers, she said. āItās not seen as the ideal careers to have, and so therefore our youngsters, our black children tend to move in other directions,ā said Gray, who also serves as a government liaison for the National Alliance of Black School Educators. It will take political will to change those numbers, advocates say. Most states already have programs and policies intended to increase the number of minority teachers, ābut the yield of new teachers of color is disappointing,ā the NEA report said.
Finals are stressful, as any student knows, and sometimes students need an outlet to get away from their studies for a while. Tech Activities Board will host Rest and Relaxation Night from 6-9 p.m. May 6 in the Matador Room of the Student Union building. āItās always a good event,ā Mckenzie Hopson, a junior public relations major from Gatesville and special programs coordinator for TAB, said. The event will feature snacks and massages, she said, as well
as some simple games. āWe try to keep it simple,ā Hopson said. āNothing you have to work too hard at or think too much about.ā There will be free scantrons and blue books given out, she said, as well as a few prizes that will be raffled off. Barnes & Noble will have a booth set up as well, Hopson said, to give students an overview of their services. āThere is more interaction on their part,ā she said, ābecause we are trying to make the event bigger this year.ā
The purpose of the event is to give students a break from their studying, Hopson said. It is not fun to sit there and stare at the same piece of paper over and over again, she said, and try to hammer it in. āItās good for students to stop and go eat a little bit of food and have a little bit of fun,ā Hopson said, āand then get back to their studies.ā The event is open to all Tech students and everything will be free, according to TechAnnounce. ā¤ā¤hhipp@dailytoreador.com
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