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by rosemary newsome In the hours leading up to Winter Formal,

many students’ schedules involved grooming, photo taking, dining out and spending time on a party bus. The party bus’ destination, how-ever, was not actually Winter Formal.

Oddly, the party bus was headed, instead, to the Cave--the Oread’s basement bar that occasionally hosts parties directed for high school students. “The Cave” is the location of dances that actually seems to bring excite-ment and pleasure to students. It is also the buzzword that has become the ruination of school dances.

Junior Molly McCord followed a similar schedule, one that revolved around a party at the Cave rather than Winter Formal.

“Nobody that I was with wanted to go [to Winter Formal],” she said.

However, McCord’s friends do not keep her from frequenting other school dances; she individually chooses not to attend those.

“There is nothing about [school dances] that I enjoy,” she said, “and nobody. It’s not very fun.”

While the school dances don’t offer any-thing for McCord, the Cave supplies a better experience for some students.

“More people go [to the Cave] and it’s a more fun atmosphere,” McCord said. “People are excited to be there; they aren’t excited to be at the school dances.”

Sophomore Geoff Peard, who organized a Winter Formal after party at the Cave last year, provided a party for students like McCord, who

sought a more lively atmosphere. “I just kind of wanted everybody to experi-

ence just a tight party, just wanted to throw something cool just for everybody to enjoy,” Peard said.

Peard also speculates that the Cave may appeal to more students because it doesn’t confi ne students the way school dances do.

“I feel like students don’t feel as trapped because they’re not at school,” he said. “[They are] not around the school environment, they

have more freedom.”The Cave also doesn’t infl ict constraints

that any school-sponsored dance does.At the Cave, there is no uncomfortable-

ness of having teacher-chaperones watch students get their groove on, there is no frantic search for a partner during the ever-awkward slow song, there are no limitations of who can attend and there are no breathalyzers.

Although he may be responsible for ignit-ing a trend of high school-thrown parties at the Cave that rally students’ genuine enthusiasm for dancing, Peard still attends the more event-ful school dances. He insists he doesn’t attend every single school dances because he’s busy.

Despite being required to attend Student Council sponsored dances as a StuCo repre-sentative, junior Bailey Sullivan sympathizes with students like McCord who don’t enjoy school dances.

“They probably hate dancing . . . [and] don’t want to hang out at the school for ad-ditional time,” she said.

The Cave proves that students who don’t attend school dances don’t necessarily abhor dancing. Rather, students just want an environ-ment other than a school cafeteria in which to let loose.

With rumors of Lawrence High’s supposed-ly highly-attended dances, Sullivan insists that, ultimately, students themselves decide whether the dance is gratifying or not.

“Everyone should come to dances,” she said, “because if everyone came, they would be a lot more fun. That’s probably why LHS’s are more fun, because people go. If everyone just developed a good attitude and got excited to go, it would be more fun.”

Perhaps the secret to success is not elimi-nating the competition or ridding protective measures, but adjusting the attitude in which students regard school dances in order for them to enjoy the iconic social event for high schoolers.

free press staff sam boatright- co-editor-in-chief katie guyot- co-editor-in-chief hannah moran- copy editorsarah whipple- design editorkimberly messineo-sports managerlogan brown- ad managerjacob hood- cartoonist maria carrasco- reportersean chilicoat- reporter kyra haas- reporterkerrie leinmiller-renick- reportersarah lieberman- reporter

ryan liston- reportermaria mckee- reporterbecca moran- reporter rosemary newsome- reportermorgan noll- reporter catherine prestoy- reporterhannah reussner- reporter ciara sayler- reporter gavin spence- reporter jake stegall- reporter riley buller- designerkristina foster- designer darian koenig- designer john mccain- designer

2012-13

The Free Press is an open forum that accepts letters to the editor and guest writings. They must include the writer’s name and telephone numbers. Articles may be edited due to space limitations, libel or inappropriate content. Letters may be submitted to Room 115 or sent in care of Free Press to Free State High School, 4700 Overland Drive, Lawrence, KS, 66049.

The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Free Press staff, the high school administration, nor that of the USD 497 Board of Education.

our mission

on the cover

cover by sarah whipple students’ technology overload is through the roof these days with thousands of apps available at their fi ngertips

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s january 31, 2013 page by sam boatright

the afterlife of school dances >students choosing parties over school dances

students’ opinions on

school dances versus private

parties page 2

the future of technology in

school and out: the evolution of

teaching with techpages 6-7FPth

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issue sixedition sixteen january 31, 2013

the two-sided selfi e: how tech-

nology makes people obsessed with themselves

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“People are excited to be [at the Cave]; they

aren’t excited to be at the school dances.”

>molly mccord, 11

freshman Dalma Olvera shows off her dance moves at winter formal as seniors look on, showing that this school-sponsored dance lives on. photo by megan haase-devine

in the crosshairs FP3

news

january 31, 2013 page by riley buller

global gab >know what everyone is talking about

Isreal- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party wins narrow majority in national election

United States- Obama is re-inaugurated, highlighting equality, the environment, gun control, political gridlock in his address

Algeria- At least 37 multinational hostages are dead after being abducted from a BP gas plant by armed militants

Syria- Russian citizens exit war-torn Syria in masses. Russia, a Syrian ally, declines to call it an evacuation

32

41

>gun rights, control advocates clash after year of high-profi le shootingsby maria mckee

The Second Amendment to the Constitution, which gives a U.S. citizen the right to bear arms, is always a heated topic.

In recent months, there have been pleads for action on gun violence after a series of horrifi c mass shootings, like the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin, the Aurora, Co. theater shooting, and the Sandy Hook school shooting.

As the country absorbs the news of these mass shoot-ings, Americans have begun speaking up, voicing their opinions, in hopes that change will come. Gun rights and gun control advocates alike have been trying to infl uence the actions of Congress for years to craft legislation in their separate interests.

Our culture of violence right now seems overwhelming to many. In 2012 alone, the country suffered from 16 mass shootings that left at least 88 dead.

Readjusting and confi guring gun control measures--ev-erything from banning assault weapons and strengthening background checks to improving the measure of our mental health system--causes controversy among many Americans, largely because citizens can’t agree on the central cause of the violence.

“I don’t think that you can [prevent future mass shoot-ings],” teacher Kim Grinnell said.

Grinnell grew up in a gun-friendly home of hunters and acquired her fi rst weapon from her father.

Like many Americans, she questions whether politicians’ current suggestions about redirecting our mental health system, providing gun education or regulating assault

magazines and weapons will prevent future mass shootings.“There is no foolproof way,” Grinnell said. “Criminals are

going to do criminal acts and they will fi nd a way to do so. It may not necessarily be with a gun, but people who are determined to do evil will fi nd a way.”

The current method of dealing with these crimes is to lock up the criminals after they commit acts of violence. Using mental health resources to try to predict such crimes before they occur may be more complicated than it sounds on the nightly news.

“If no one has gone in for treatment, there’s no way they will show up on a background mental health check either,” Grinnell said.

Gun owners should be taking precautions with their children. Any child who grows up in a gun-owning family could be in danger without proper knowledge about the works of weaponry.

Junior Thomas Muiller is a routine hunter as well as a competitive shooter. He spends a lot of his time around guns, as his hobbies would suffer without them.

“I defi nitely learned at a young age about guns and what they can do to people and how to be safe with them,” Muiller said. “It’s helped my life, just to be safe around them.”

The National Rifl e Association of America (NRA) has implemented gun safety programs for kids that aim to teach children what to do if they were to come across a weapon, without teaching how to use one.

“While [children] should be aware of what guns are and the consequences of using them, I don’t think that they

should be taught early on how they work or how to operate them,” senior Deena Rodecap said.

Rodecap is immersed in gun-related topics regularly, as her father is a police offi cer. She believes that it should be more diffi cult to obtain weapons, while also believing that handguns are needed in many ways.

Concealed carry is the practice of carrying an unseen weapon in public. Many pro-gun advocates believe that this may be the solution to high crime rates.

“There are certain situations where someone who has a weapon needs to protect themselves; [this way] they can,” Muiller said.

Fighting fi re with fi re is dangerous, according to Grin-nell. Many gun control advocates believe that allowing con-cealed carry may do the exact opposite and instead increase the amount of crime that occurs in society as it is.

“I’m not so sure that [concealed carry] really is as reliable as they’d like you to think,” Grinnell said.

School protection has become a major concern since recent devastating tragedies have involved students.

“The lockdown drill is good in theory, but at the same time having us sit in a pile in the corner of a room is basi-cally making it easier to strike someone,” Rodecap said. “I would suggest higher security in schools.”

Many communities across the country have pushed to put armed guards in their children’s schools for protection.

As viewpoints clash, Americans can agree that the safety of citizens is of the utmost importance. All sides of the de-bate can at least share the hope that the nation will soon be on the road to improvement.

387 school shootings in the United States since 1992 the ages of victims of school shootings shows high numbers for students between 10-19 0-6: 31

10-19 years old:

299 deaths20-29: 80

30-39: 28

40-49: 32

50+: 38

statistics from stoptheshooting.org

hometown hubby becca moran and kerrie leinmiller-renick

If the fi lm world consisted of desserts, “The Hob-bit” would be an ice cream sundae. Sprinkles, cherry, whipped cream, hot fudge and ice cream; fantasy buff or not, the fi lm has something for everyone. Even if you

are not versed in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, then never fear, you can still enjoy this unexpected journey.

The viewer follows the main character--a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins--13 other dwarves and Gandalf the Wizard, all who battle goblins, monster giants and other mythological characters.

If the viewer takes anything from Tolkien’s stories, it should be the underlying devotion to friendship. Off of the two other fi lms in production, director Peter Jackson was able to embel-lish the friendship factor by illustrating the characters’ struggles. Jackson does this by giving good fi lm time to each of the dwarves and fully expanding a challenge of riddles between Bilbo and the ring-obsessed Gollum.

Each rising action has its own twist of fantasy, yet still challenges the efforts of the different dynamics of the dwarf company. Enjoy the fl ow of visual, well-constructed cinema tech-niques. And around you, full in surround sound, is the marvelous music fl owing with the mood of the story that ends up being your sprinkles on top.

Jackson has something up his sleeve for the next two fi lms in “The Hobbit” series, but that will just leave moviegoers and “Hobbit” fans alike screaming for the future success of Bilbo and his friends.

talib kweli

“hubsessions”>what is your latest app addiction?

showing off what Lawrence does best

fl aunting the hall’s latest fads

Brooklyn native Talib Kweli is one of the most consistent forces in un-derground hip-hop. After

starting his career by collaborating with Mos Def to form critically-acclaimed Black Star in 1998, he continues to grow and improve. Kweli breaks the mold of most rap

artists today with his powerful lyrics about modern social and political

issues, great beats and lack of ego-tripping. Kweli makes you want to tap your

feet, question the world and ponder life, all at once.The Granada is not nicknamed the “Granas-

ty” for nothing. However, beyond the sticki-ness and grime, the Granada hosts a wide va-riety of well-known, high quality musical acts.

Financial Aid available to those who qualifyAccredited by NACCAS | Programs vary by location | Career Placement assistance for graduates

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“the hobbit: an unexpected journey”

“Snapchat”>emily vanschmus, 12

“I normally use Twitter and Instagram”

> geoff peard, 10

“Probably Twitter or Skyward”>trevor hillis, 11

“Twitter”

>$22 advanced >feb.22; doors @ 8:30

photo credit to didy bmod sun and cisco adler

On February 17th, Mod Sun and Cisco Adler take the stage. Cisco Adler is purely feel-good island vibes. He combines beach

music, reggae and a bit of hip-hop to produce highly clap-able and danceable songs. His music is the equivalent of a somewhat poorly-written beach read: light, easy and fun, but nothing to inspire revelations.

Mod Sun describes his genre as “hippy hop” and “an audible smile;” he injects absolute joy into almost all of his songs. His pants hang low, his hair stays wild and his smile never leaves. Mod Sun’s demeanor and philosophy are obvious in the title of one of his most popular songs, “Be F-ing Happy.” This show is guaranteed to make you just that: happy.

>$12 advanced >feb.17; doors @ 7

>abigale williams, 9

“I don’t allow a lot of apps on my phone because I

don’t want anybody toaccess my information without

my permission”>carolyn berry, teacher

photo credit to jessika brandt

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january 31, 2013 page by darian koenig

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>the dangers of online marketing

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click here to register*if you really clicked here, you have fallen for a scam

by sean chilcoatMoney is what makes the world go round--

the World Wide Web, that is. In the age of eBay, Craigslist and Amazon, anyone can sell their most prized possessions with just a click of a mouse.

Buying and selling online is easier than ever, and being able to sell and buy from thou-sands of miles away makes stealing easier than ever. Scams and fake money are very common in the process of online shopping.

Senior Connor Thellman sold his iPad on Craigslist for around $600. At fi rst he was not suspicious.

“I didn’t even think twice about whether or not the money was real after the sale. Why would I?” Thellman said.

Later he noticed something abnormal about about his newly acquired cash.

“After I recounted the money at home, I noticed something weird: a lot of the bills had the same serial numbers.” Thellman said. “I then checked for the watermarks. None.”

The buyer was never caught. “I decided to go to the Lawrence Police De-

partment the next day. Once there, they sent me to the Lenexa Police--the city where I had made the sale.” He says the police were very helpful but didn’t fi nd him.

Scamming comes from both sides of the bargain. While the buyer scammed Thellman, sellers can scam too.

Sending a check thousands of miles away

can be nerve-wracking. It’s hard to tell if some-one who lives across the country, or the world, will actually pay or sell what they said they would.

One can also be scammed beyond the buyer-seller interaction.

Scams of all different types are all over the Internet. If a site says, “YOU ARE THE ARE THE 1,000,000th, VISITOR CLAIM YOUR FREE IPAD!!!”, this doesn’t mean you actually won a free iPad. Anyone with a little common sense can recog-nize an internet scam. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

“It’s unrealistic, too lucky,” Sophomore Mackinzie Urish said.

Matt Gudenkauf, a computer programming teacher, says these websites won’t necessar-ily harm your computer, or steal credit card information.

“They try to get your information, in a legal way,” Guedenkauf said. “...[T]hey will try to get your email address or your home address and create a database out of it, which they sell to marketers. It’s worth a lot of money.”

These Internet ad companies aren’t too harmful to computers or users, but some might argue that they are invading privacy. (See “Catching Consumers” to the right.)

Stealing has been a problem since the fi rst humans walked the Earth, but with modern technological innovations, it’s becoming more and more diffi cult to recognize truth from scam.

frugal

by catherine prestoy Say a person just sent an email to their

friend talking about a new book they enjoy. Once they receive a response from the friend, a bunch of ads may pop up about the book. Information regarding bookstores that carry the book and additional information will fl ash across the screen. Personal advertising strikes again.

Personal ads are made in the hopes for a higher probability that users will click on them and are used by fi nding keywords in mes-sages. This is how freshman girls get their ads for makeup and adults get their ads for auto insurance. Google gets most of its money from advertising, so it understandably pours a lot of money into advertising research.

The result: advertisements tailored spe-cifi cally to a person’s preferred pastimes and hobbies.

However, it’s doubtful that there are little hobbit people behind computers keeping sur-veillance on your inbox deep in the catacombs of Google.

Personal ads are fi ltered through program-ming, not people. Although the program-ming is made by the people, it’s improbable

company workers sneak a peek into your email from time to time.

Companies fi nd key words in emails and tell advertisers that the person might be a po-tential customer. This is where the invasion of privacy issues come into play. “This customer” might change into “Catherine Prestoy” the next day. Companies will do almost anything to fi nd a customer and will keep advertising to that customer if it means business.

The truth about personalized ads is that they’re just made for an easier and quicker way for a person to access information. On the ad settings page on Google, they use the example of someone searching up the words “New York”, “Travel”, and “Hotels”. Google would take these keywords and show ads like “Hotels in New York” or “Travel to New York.”

Personal ads aren’t meant as an invasion of privacy but rather a quicker way for a person who uses Google to receive information or a quicker way for businesses to receive money.

To eliminate personal ads, go to your email and in the upper right-hand corner click “Why this ad?”, go to ad settings and opt out any unwanted ads to prevent them from coming back.

catching consumers >personal ads online pose problems for the consumer

want to read more of this story? check out fsfreepressonline.com

expires may 31, 2013

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feature

january 31, 2013 page by sarah whipple FP6

feat

ure

january 31, 2013 page by sarah whipple technical overload

810

122

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68

1012

>some apps designed by teanna totten

Nikon1

your day in apps start your day off right with the alarm clock app

and they’re all free

map out your day with google maps app

order some grub with the jimmy john’s mobile app

get short, effi cient workouts with the nike training club app

get fueled up after your workout with the snack app

put all your fl ashcards for school on your phone with the fl ash-card app

get quick answers for infi nite topics with the wikipedia app

curl up with a good book, only on your phone, with the kindle app

plug into your favorite TV show or catch a movie with the netfl ix app

if you don’t want to go outside, try the nasa app to get your fi x of the celestial bodies

by ciara sayler and katie guyot

When math teacher Danira Flores sees cell phones glowing on her classroom desks, she doesn’t confi scate them. In fact, she encourages them. That’s because she knows her Algebra and Pre-Calculus students aren’t zoning out on Pinterest or Ruzzle: instead, they’re using their apps to check their homework, answer her questions and brush up on the angles of the unit circle.

Flores is one of seven teachers in the Lawrence Public Schools who have volunteered to pilot an innovative sys-tem of teaching called “blended learning,” which combines traditional methods of instruction with new methods that incorporate modern technology, tailoring teaching meth-ods to individual students’ learning styles.

“The kids like it,” Flores said after her second week of the program. “My Algebra I students feel it’s easier. My Pre-Calculus students feel like they like the sense of indepen-dence they have.”Modern Methods

The math department isn’t the only area of the school accelerating into the 21st century. Using fancy iPads, techy laptops and Kindles, and even their

iPhones and smartphones, students across many subjects are learning their curriculums in much the same way that they

entertain them-

selves online and con-nect with

friends over social

media.In the English department, teacher Carol Spring and

program leader Kim Young have worked together to utilize the iLit server, a contemporary iPad app that allows students to read novels and document notes in a vir-tual journal to boost literacy. Spring uses the tool for her Literacy Workshop class, where students can enhance their literary skills by reading everything from basic passages to complex novels.

“[iLit] is engaging and has over 300 titles to choose from, so everyone can participate,” Spring said.

While the iLit program is rather new, Spring says stu-dents are getting used to the learning tool.

“For Lit Workshop, we use the iPads daily, so students are used to the drill and know what to do,” Spring said. “I think the newness has worn off.”

As more and more novels—some of which were origi-nally written on typewriters or papyrus—appear in digital form, the possibility exists that paper and pencil may soon become obsolete.

However, in Flores’ math classes, students still take their own handwritten notes over every chapter using the Cornell note-taking system, which makes room for notes, key points, questions and summaries. But after that, almost everything they need to know is stored electronically on Flores’ website and other online resources.

“[My website is] interactive,” Flores said. “If you click on that date, it brings up your lesson. This is what we’re cover-ing. These videos teach you how to do it. These are the questions that are essential. These are the problems you should work on.”Cooperation and Independence

When students come to class, they can choose whether they want to work on their notes, complete homework, do group work, watch videos (such as Khan Academy’s) or listen to Flores lecture.

Her classroom is set up to accommodate all of blended learning’s varied activities: a traditional lecture-style desk arrangement faces a wall that’s half white-board and half Smartboard (a touch-screen device that acts as both a computer and a whiteboard); roundtables dot the center of the room, perfect for students who want to work independently with laptops; and kidney-

shaped desks that seat fi ve students at a time surround big-screen televisions, where students can gather to work in groups.

“They get to choose how their class goes,” Flores said. “They can decide to go home [and] read, take notes, watch videos and take notes, and come to class to do the practice problems, or they can choose to read and watch videos in class and go home to do the practice problems. That’s their choice.”

Students can also choose when they want to listen to Flores lecture and when they want to teach themselves independently.

A few times a week, Flores tells her students, “I will lecture today. If you want to listen to my lecture, join me over there. If you don’t want to listen to my lecture, be-cause you’re a little ahead or your learning mode is better plugged in and watching videos, then you choose.”

Senior Addison McCauley, one of Flores’ Pre-Calculus students, says that, though he wasn’t too keen on the pro-gram when it was fi rst introduced at the beginning of this semester, it has made his notes more neat and organized.

“Initially I was pretty upset about it, honestly,” he said, “because I’m a senior, so I’ve been taking notes the same way for years.”

Now, though, McCauley could be called a convert. He has four apps on his phone that he uses exclusively for his math class. The one he uses most often, called Canvas, is the software Flores uses to

make her web-site interactive.

“That is the app he’s constantly going through on his phone to see, ‘Okay, what am I doing today?’” Flores said.

Another important app is Socrative, which allows students to enter answers to questions Flores asks in class into their phones or computers. These answers then appear automatically on the Smartboard.

Thanks to Socrative, Flores has seen a rise in classroom participation.

“I remember teaching in the traditional way and asking a question, and no one answering—or the exact same per-son answering over and over again,” she said. “…[Now,] if I have a question and they won’t answer, then I’ll say, ‘Let’s log into Socrative,’ and when I ask my questions, they’re all typing into their cell phones or laptops.”A Spreading System

Blended learning is one of many technological initia-tives that will appear on the April 2 ballot for the 2013 school board elections, included in a $92.5 million bond is-sue that combines improvements for school facilities ($80.5 million), career and technical education ($5.7 million), and technology ($6.5 million).

School board member Shannon Kimball explains that funding for technology comes from multiple sources. With the school now possessing 30 iPads, the iLit app is one of many changes the district wants.

“These varied resources include student funds (paid by students during enrollment) and district funds (general fund dollars to support staff and students, which come to the district from the state),” Kimball said in an email. “Capital outlay funds (local property tax dollars collected through a mill levy set by the board of education each year)

are among the sources as well.”

The bond will not require a tax hike: when current bonds expire this year, the district hopes to use that money toward the new $92.5 million bond instead of lowering taxes, thus maintaining the fi nancial status quo. According to Kimball, the district aims to use this money “to meet the

demands of a 21st century learning environment.” If blended learning ends up spreading from Lawrence’s

seven trial classrooms, Flores predicts the technological transformation will be gradual.

“I believe that the education system is moving in that direction,” she said. “However, as the change starts going I think individual teachers are going to have to decide what kind of changes they can do at this time. It’s a huge learn-ing curve…[B]ut I think it deserves a fair trial.” 2013 and Beyond

Senior Meg Russell transferred to Free State this semes-ter from a paperless school in Charlottesville, Va. that had already taken its own 21st-century learning plan far past the “fair trial” stage.

“We had tablets, and they were loaded with software where you could only go to where the teacher wanted you to go,” Russell said. “It took up a lot of time, and every class had to fi nd some way to use to them. Even the band teacher had to use them.”

Of course, the school had to deal with its fair share of technological glitches. Many students brought their own laptops to school if they could afford to do so.

“The tablets were pretty bad, and kids who didn’t have money had to use them,” Russell said. “They were slow and didn’t work a lot of the time.”

Unlike the school in Virginia, the future of band class here at Free State will not revolve around tablets. On the other hand, methods of taking a math quiz and turning in homework may change in coming years.

Flores’ Pre-Calculus classes took their fi rst quiz on Can-vas on Jan. 22. The program automatically calculated the number of students who came up with a particular answer, and Flores began class on Jan. 23 by going over the auto-mated bar graphs to work through widespread mistakes with the class.

Though taking the plunge into the district’s test drive of blended learning has taken a tremendous amount of her time, Flores says it will be worth it in the long run.

“From a teacher’s perspective, I love it,” she said. “I have watched my students do more work than they have in the past, collaborate, ask questions—they seem more engaged in the lessons.”

The school district will be watching these developments closely to determine its next step in the ever-evolving Infor-mation Age.

AP

ESPNESPNESPNESPNESPNESPNESPNESPN Skyward

>statistics provided by education.com and takepart.com

>school district working to upgrade technology, teaching methods for 21st-century learning

>how does technology help or hurt you with

your school work?

22% of students in the United States admit they’ve texted answers to someone else in class

in South Korea, all methods of technology are left with the teacher at the classroom door; test scores are much higher than those in the United States

in 2007, 1 million high school students in the United States took online classes of some sort

in 2010, the U.S. Department of

Education gave $7 million to programs furthering technology-based programs

there are over 3,400

education-based

apps on iTunes

“Well, it hurts because having the phone around you is always kind of distracting. But, in a way, it helps be-cause...with using the computer you can do research way easier and way quicker.”

>ashlyn evans, 12

“I think it helps your school work if you get stuck on something, because whenever I am stuck on a math problem and my teacher’s not around, I always go on the computer to look up formulas.”

>nick jacobs, 9

“I think it helps just because [students] have so many differ-ent [technological] opportunities that [they] can use to help with school work.”

>haileigh whitman, 11 >chaska rocha, 10

“I think [technology] helps just because we need more technol-ogy to help us work out more solutions... [to] problems.”

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grap

hics

january 31, 2013 page by john mccain

2012

#1the U.S.

presidential election

sandy hook school shooting

hurricane sandy

your year in review

this year’s biggest events according to the free state student body115 students polled

#3

#2london olympic games

#4

electionsandy hook

olympicshurricane sandy

other

35

4

34

19

8

under the hood

the year’s biggest events according to free state students; 115 students polled

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profi le

january 31, 2013 page by darian koenig

>student takes science to a whole other levelnoah’s kenn-istryby gavin spence

Junior Noah Kenn sees science everywhere.“Science produces all kinds of crazy stuff that’s in-

teresting,” Kenn said as he pointed out a window. “Those cars deal with science, these windows deal with science, and it is a never-ending process.”

However, Kenn has not always had a love for sci-ence. Up to the tenth grade he considered the subject boring, but his Advanced Chemistry teacher, Jordan Rose, changed the way he thought about science.

“Chemistry is a conceptual, challenging content area that can push students to a different level in their cogni-tive development,” Rose said.

“Noah’s intuitive nature and quietly engaged per-sonality are what sets him apart from his classmates,” she said. “He tries things on his own but has a willing-ness to ask questions when he needs to.”

Kenn thrives in AP Chemistry. “Science never really seems diffi cult to Noah,” fellow

Science Olympiad member Colin Dietz said.“He is in AP Chemistry, which pretty much gives him

a pure understanding,” Dietz said.As Kenn became increasingly passionate about

science, he joined the Science Olympiad, which is an extracurricular opportunity for students to engage in scientifi c competitions. In total, he has competed nine times and won three medals and a ribbon.

“Noah is very helpful to the team in that he is always willing to not only take the knowledge tests, but also construct the machines for the building events, such as Gravity Vehicle,” Science Olympiad sponsor Mike Colvin said.

A gravity vehicle is a car that is actually just a box with wheels attached that contains an amount of wound-up string. The vehicle has to make it to a certain mark and the string helps slow it down. To win, a group needs to make their vehicle stop the closest to a marked point.

“He cares about the science and cares about per-forming well and winning,” Colvin said. “He medalled last year at regionals. He’s been in Science Olympiad for two years now. He is one of the very few people who has never missed a competition.”

Fellow members of Science Olympiad recognize Kenn’s talents.

“Science Olympiad practices every month, Novem-ber through February,” fellow member John Ross said. “Noah never misses a practice or competition. He will defi nitely be at State this February.”

Science only becomes diffi cult to Kenn if he is deal-ing with unfamiliar science.

“At St. James Academy, where, for example, we com-peted on Jan. 19, he had to step up and cover events for people who could not attend,” Colvin said. “So he competed in Thermodynamics for the fi rst time and, of course, it was diffi cult to quickly prepare.”

Kenn would like to be a chemical engineer who solves problems using chemistry, biology and physics.

“It’s a good job with good pay and it deals with my big interest in doing stuff like that,” he said.

Kenn said he could never give up his love for sci-ence.

“It’s like asking someone to not breathe oxygen.”

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opin

ion

january 31, 2013 page by sarah whipple

by hannah moran I am me and you are you.I don’t know your life.But I can come pretty close. Thanks to Facebook, I know your friends

from Space camp miss you. According to your Tweets, I know “High School Musical” is your guilty pleasure. But, if I were just following your Instagram, I’d think you spent every weekend enveloped in a red-solo-cup-induced delirium.

And you’re just this one kid I brushed past in the hall the other day.

The crumbs, fragments and giant chunks of our lives that hide in the crevices of social me-dia are no mistake. We spend too much time creating photos in attempt to prove that our lives are more fabulous and fast-paced than those of our peers.

There’s a little too much emphasis on hitting all the bases on Winter Formal Bingo and not enough on appreciating the time with fellow Formal go-ers.

But that’s natural. We’ve failed if we haven’t stockpiled enough photos from this one eve-ning to create an entire Facebook album for all to see.

It’s the human condition--we inherently want to show that we’re better than those around us, whether it’s proving to be beer

pong champion or baritone section-leader.To apply a little AP Euro knowledge, our

new sense of, ahem...self awareness is similar to the cultural phenomenon of the 14th-century Renaissance.

We’re really no different from our ances-tors 700 hundred years ago, except we exalt ourselves by utilizing the iPhone’s front camera instead of by patronizing artists to build sculp-tures in our honor.

I am me, you are you, and we both think we’re pretty darn awesome.

As a culture, we are obsessed with our-selves.

This calls for a new chapter in the book of social etiquette. I do love to crash a good bath-room selfi e between passing periods. I am also fairly certain I’ve unintentionally photobombed more than one of the girls basketball team’s “game day outfi ts” pictures.

However, I am not above this obsession. On the days I actually bother to fl atiron my hair, expect more Snapchats from me. I admit, if I put the effort into my appearance, I absolutely want it documented.

If only everyone cared about my outfi t of the day (#ootd) as much as I did.

We are also obsessed with trying to make everyone else obsessed with us as well.

I continue to post photos, in fragile hope that one day, people will think my trip to Mon-tana was cool or fi nd my obsession with button downs attractive.

Let me know if you approve, folks, by simply clicking “like” on Facebook or double-tapping the photo on Instagram. Every time someone performs this action, I get far more excited than I should.

People are addicted to social media because it’s a way of seeing how people rate others’ lives. Five different Chipotle runs on Halloween=15 likes. A new puppy=31 likes.

I have devised a test to see if you’re one of the unlucky ones whose self-esteem is derived from the number of Instagram likes or Twitter followers.

If you look at food and think “Is this dish Instagram worthy?” before, “I wonder if this is delicious?” then you’re in dire need of a wakeup call. Do not spend parties or dinner with your friends thinking of how others would view your evening. It’s ok to eat Chinese food without broadcasting to the world, “Hey! This lo mein is fabulous!”

Separate real life from social media. Re-cently, a photo of cupcakes I posted received more “likes” than did a photo of the debate team winning the regional debate champion-

ship. Well folks, the “likes” have it. Cupcakes are offi cially more important than debate.

You don’t want to end up like the middle-aged ladies who share the same conversations that we do around the lunch table.

At a seafood restaurant in Kansas City, I overheard a group of women chat for ap-proximately two hours about their social media woes.

“Why did he friend me? We haven’t spoken since college!”

“I’m up to six likes on this photo.”“I can’t believe she unfollowed me!” If it weren’t for the wine glasses and $50

lobster, the same conversation could have oc-curred in the cafeteria.

This is why we obsess--we plant snippets of ourselves in the virtual world and they grow into Twitter pages, Instagram accounts, Face-book profi les.

So, kid in the hall, whose friends from Space camp miss you, I think I like Facebook you. However, I am worried that I will never get to meet you in actual human form.

People could like Twitter Hannah better than they like Facebook Hannah, or Instagram Hannah rather than Snapchat Hannah. But I quite appreciate those who like Actual Human Hannah. They are rarities these days.

>you love yourself. we get it. selfi e-absorbed

seniors Emily VanSchmus and Dante Colombo parody the idealized “selfi es” to show just how ridiculous people can get with their photo-taking

by morgan noll Our generation revolves around technol-

ogy. Social media is all the talk with a billion people on Facebook, over 500 million Twitter users and four billion views on YouTube per day.

A certain resentment is put towards our generation for being so highly privileged with resources. Kids are drilled with the, “When I was a kid...” speech as parents attempt to shift their children’s focus away from Twitter and towards the dinner table.

What the older generation isn’t consider-ing, is the idea that social media is helping us and bringing us together.

Social media brings about opportunities and conveniences that our grandparents could have never even imagined. Social media gives more of the dreamers a chance at their desired reality.

Without the aid of YouTube, “Bieber Fever” would just be two words that rhyme. Although I am not personally a Belieber, and would get by just fi ne without Justin Bieber’s hair fl ips and excessive use of the word “swaggie,” I fi nd his rise to stardom inspiring. Everything began when a few people watched his videos, those few showed their friends, and soon enough, R&B/pop sensation Usher was signing the boy with the multi-million views.

YouTube turned a boy from Canada into a pop sensation and the universally desired boyfriend across the world. Not to mention, Bieber has made history with accomplishments like selling out two concert dates for Madison Square Garden in 30 seconds.

Not only can individuals promote them-selves via social media, but businesses and organizations can use social media to their ad-vantage as well. Numerous websites and blogs

are dedicated to helping companies optimize their social media marketing. These include tips on how to interact with their audience and the best time in the day for maximum retweets.

To all the kids like myself who can never fi nd motivation to watch the eight o’clock news, social media helps keep us in the loop.

According to ProCon.org, social network-ing sites are the top news source for 27.8% of Americans. Certain events like Hurricane Sandy and the Sandy Hook tragedy were fi rst brought to my attention by scrolling down my Twitter timeline.

Through my Twitter timeline, I also heard about Zay Boldridge, a senior on the LHS bas-ketball team who had recently been diagnosed with cancer.

A name I had never heard before was fi lling my phone screen, and #PrayForZay was the new trending topic.This hashtag, along with

tweets informing students to wear the color purple in honor of Zay, turned the biggest ri-valry game of the season into a night of mutual respect.

In this web of social media, we don’t have to worry about being out of touch with those who are far away. The college kids living far from home can Skype with their parents when-ever they begin to get homesick. The proud moms and dads can share pictures of their children with all their relatives on Facebook. The star-struck teenagers can check Twitter to keep updates on their favorite celebrities’ daily activities.

As social media continues to become more interactive, kids will struggle to avoid being consumed. However, with a little self-discipline and some enforcement from mom and dad if need be, an occasional Twitter update or Snap-chat to a friend will remain harmless.

respect the tech >social media has its place in modern society

FP11

columns

january 31, 2013 page by katie guyot

dear free state free state free state to: teenage techiesre: another use for cell phones

The fi rst task I accomplished over winter break was to misplace my cell phone.

At least, I assume I lost it on the fi rst day of break. It could have been the day before, or the day before the day before, or the day before the day before the day before—though it couldn’t have been the day before the day before the day before the day before, because I actually sent out a text that day.

The text was to my mother. It read, “We’re out of Yoplait.” (That unlimited texting plan is really paying off—for the phone company.)

Given the bulk of yogurt-related texts that drip from my phone about as quickly as FroYo from a clot-ted dispenser, I estimate that I wouldn’t have noticed the phone’s absence until the morning of Jan. 3 if I hadn’t received an email from a friend wondering why I hadn’t replied to her text.

I emailed back that she would have earned a quicker response if she had tried to reach me via email, snail mail or carrier pigeon. She told me to go fi nd my #@!$ phone.

So I picked up the home phone and dialed the phone company to report a missing cell phone, and it was recovered in minutes.

If only.I actually dialed my own number and got ready to

play a game of Marco Polo, perking my ears for the low buzz-buzz-buzz that would answer my ring-ring-ring. I listened to the ring-ring-ring for a long time without the corresponding buzz-buzz-buzz. Polo never picked up.

After holding a brief funeral for my dead phone, I went off in search of its corpse, following the exact path I had taken when I had arrived home from fi nals: I walked through the side door, pantomimed throw-

ing my backpack across the room, leaned down to pet the air where my cat had been sitting the day before, grabbed some yogurt from the fridge, ate it, walked upstairs and tossed myself head-fi rst onto my bed.

I didn’t fi nd my phone, but my hunger and sleepi-ness were cured.

Upon awakening, I stumbled out of the mountain-ous piles of clothes in my bedroom to continue my top-bottom investigation downstairs, where walking is less perilous. My phone was not in the cookie jar (and soon, neither were any cookies). I then stuffed my head under couches and picked up every cat, rabbit and Guinea pig in the house to feel for phone-like rectangular objects in their digestive systems.

Several squeals and two cat scratches later, I was ready for another break. I collapsed into a chair and picked up the book I had begun reading the previous afternoon, which felt oddly heavy for a Hemingway novel. It was as if the deceased author had fi lled out his beautifully sparse prose in my absence.

But, thankfully for the literary community, this was not so: some bulky object serving as a bookmark was giving the book the illusion of dry density. I shook the pages over my lap and watched my phone fall right out of 1920s Spain and into the 21st century, where it rightly belonged.

At least, that’s where it would have rightly be-longed if I hadn’t also misplaced its charger.

Thirty pages of Hemingwayan bullfi ghting later, I stuck the dead phone back into the binding to hold my place. If nothing else, uncharged cell phones make for unfailingly reliable bookmarks.

Thanks for reading, Free State. Katie

I follow 664 people on Twitter and I’ve tweeted over 1,400 times. I have 234 con-tacts in my phone, most of whom I’ve never called, texted or talked to more than a couple of times. I activated my Twitter account my sophomore year; I’ve had my phone contacts since seventh grade.

In an attempt to expand our social net-works, to “meet” as many friends as possible and to gain as many “likes,” “favorites” and “retweets,” our social attentions have turned from building intimate, immediate relationships in real life to creating and valuing artifi cial and superfi cial relationships from behind the barrier of a few millimeters of expensive glass.

I mention my Twitter stats not to brag--even though they aren’t that impressive--but to give you an example of how I--and probably most of you--cultivate your social media pres-ence: through clicking a button. If you have a crush on someone, it’s much easier to follow them on Twitter, to request their Facebook friendship, than to muster up the courage to create small talk, let alone ask them for their number.

My “Followees-to-Contacts ratio” (pat-ented) is a perfect example of this modern-day enigma. We hide behind screens to tell people how we really feel. We covet Twitter interac-tions and we often talk to most people we

know over Facebook and Twitter instead of in face-to-face communication. Will we soon prefer “retweets” and “favorites” to a smile and friendly “What’s up?” in the hallway? Do we already?

According to a brilliantly insightful Forbes article written by Margie Warrell, recent studies have shown that those who use social media the most--those under the age of 35--are suf-fering from feeling alone more than any other age group.

This correlation seems contradictory to the aim of social networking, to connect people as opposed to isolating them. My number of Twitter followees can also correlate to the lack of time that I am participating in day-to-day life--interacting with friends and family--and to the unnecessary amount of time that I am shutting myself off from the world, most of the time on purpose.

In the previously stated article, Warrell writes that “social networking provides a means of escaping [from our “regular” lives]...” Although social networking started out as a way to keep in contact with our friends on a more “live” basis, it seems that it has, for me at least, become a distractor for everyday life, an upgrade to the mundane.

And, as if this column isn’t fi lled with enough irony already, this social media distrac-

tor only makes my life more mundane. It makes me wish I could constantly keep in contact with my friends in real life as I see people doing on Twitter and Facebook; it raises my expectations about daily life as I am spoonfed silly stories and anecdotes in the Twitterverse of what I wished happened more often in my life.

For people who already suffer from loneli-ness or depression, Twitter is an easy access into a world of bright-faced emoticons and superfi cial stories about crazy weekend fun, the fun that you may have missed out on. However, despite social media’s enthralling inclusive vibe that it puts off, it can actually have the reverse effect.

By regularly checking status updates and feeds, we parade constant reminders in front of ourselves of how we aren’t actually involved in those events, those friends’ parties, etc. This annoying and somewhat self-destructive reminder can cause people to dive into deeper bouts of loneliness and persist a feeling of rejection, even if it is unintentional.

I know this because I’ve been experiencing it fi rst-hand.

This winter has been a particularly rough time for me--I’m saving you the details so I

don’t sound like a soapbox. And as November and December progressed, I noticed myself relying on my smartphone apps to keep me company. I noticed my more-than-regular checking of Twitter and Facebook. This was all a way for me to escape from the emotional stress and drama that I didn’t want to or know how to confront.

Secretly, I was hoping that these social media sites could help me feel more linked in (pun intended) to a world I so desperately wanted to be a part of; in reality, I was shutting myself off from it.

Since then, I’ve been able to start con-fronting and defeating some of the emotional stresses I’ve been dealing with. This column is a step in a forward direction for me, a direc-tion that relishes time spent with friends even more than before; a direction that encourages changes to our daily routines that may be more malignant than we realize. I hope that with this column, I can continue to sus-tain the positive outlook on my life that I want to build upon.

uncoveringuncovering sam boatrightboatrightboatrightboatrightboatrightboatright

looking through the glass

katie’s guide to fi nding four other commonly misplaced objects

iPod: The cat stole it. Earbuds pro-vide endless feline entertainment.

Graphing Calculator: Ended up in the fridge when I grabbed my mid-math-homework snack.

Glasses: They’re usually on my face. I fi nd them when I look in the mirror.

Car Keys: Still in the car. Too bad I don’t have a spare set.

read the full story at fsfreepressonline.com

by sarah lieberman

Sports require amazing amounts of dedi-cation, commitment and unfavorable sleep schedules.

Senior Ben Sloan is in the pool practic-ing for swimming eight to nine times a week for approximately two and a half hours each time.

“It’s taught me so much about myself and about self-discipline,” he said.

No matter an individual’s dedication to a sport, hearing that alarm clock go off won’t always be easy. But staying devoted to practicing allows the athlete to reap many positive benefi ts.

“Getting up for practices in the morning before school, it’s a lot of self-discipline to do that, so it’s made me who I am today.”

Countless homework assignments, clubs, jobs and parties leave most teenagers sleep deprived and emotionally drained. Add-ing daily sports practices to the mix can be unbearable.

Senior Logan Hassig is involved in both volleyball and track.

“I’ve invested a lot more time into volley-ball...But I do like to run a lot as well,” Hassig said.

Even though track and volleyball fall in different seasons, Hassig found her sports schedule stacking up and causing her anxi-ety.

“Last year when I was playing club volley-ball and running track it was really stressful, and I felt like I wanted to pick one or the other,” Hassig said. “...But I was kind of stuck doing both so I just had to invest as much

into

both of them at the same time that I could.”

Injuries from one sport, while usu-ally minor, can sometimes put students on the bench for extended periods of time. Sophomore Laura Corliss knows this well.

“I played soccer, basketball, a little bit of tennis, and I injured myself in track,” Corliss said.

A track injury kept Corliss from continu-ing to participate in soccer, basketball, and tennis, affecting all teams.

“In the seventh grade I had dislocated my knee, it fl ipped over and went to the back of my leg,” Corliss said. “After they popped it back in they kinda just told me to go, but it kept happening.”

As her knee injury worsened, Corliss was forced to eliminate sports that strained her knee.

She has not been able to participate in sports for three years.

“I’m still in physical therapy, and I will be there for a while,” Corliss said.

While sports may cause anxiety and injury, many students see sports as their identity. The more time invested, the more person’s life becomes immersed in athletics.

“Growing up it’s all I’ve known,” senior Chelsea Casady said. “...I see myself being athletic my whole life.”

Sports teams at Free State act like fami-lies.

“I just feel like I belong there,” Freshman Mika Schrader said. Schrader plays both soc-cer and basketball.

Relationships formed through sports prove to be incredibly strong. The time spent together brings them closer, but not as much as the pain, sweat, and joy shared. The

time spent as teammates is what changes people from friends to family with insepa-rable bonds.

“Most of the time I was always really fortunate to be on teams with people that I really got along with, and so those relationships really formed who I am,” Hassig said.

Often coaches are a key element to the success of the athlete. Free State is

extremely lucky to have so many involved ones.

“Barah, he gets to know each one of us personally, and I think that we grow as a

team because of that and individually,” Casady said.

Having a coach that sincerely wants an individual to not only succeed, but be happy and proud of what they’ve done, is extremely helpful in making the most of an athletic career.

“The coaches here have really helped me not only through sports but in life as well,” Casady said.

The effects of playing any amount of sports is demonstrated to be in most cases a very positive aspect of a person’s life. Athletes make new friendships, learn from adults and teammates amazing lessons, discover more about themselves, and make memories that they’ll carry far beyond high school. Playing on multiple teams doubles these opportunities.

FPspor

ts

january 31, 2013 page by john mccain

sports t ckert ckerupcoming upcoming

varsityFS vs. Leavenworthgirls @ 5:30 p.m.

boys @ 7 p.m.@FSHS

2/82/82/52/52/52/5 2/72/7games

doubling up>free state students get involved in multiple sports

12

varsityFS vs. Olathe SouthFS vs. Olathe South

7 p.m. @FS@FS

to put it in perspective...The Free State boys basketball junior varsity and varsity teams practice about 2 1/2 hours a day. Since there

are about 64 days of practice in one season, the teams practice approximately

160 hours

and that’s not even including the time for games...

source: free state boys basketball website

boys varsity swim meet4 p.m.@FSHS

senior chelsea casady makes a pass to a fellow teammate at a home soc-cer game last season. photo by amanda schaller

senior abbey casady dribbles past the competition at an away game last season. casady will suit back up for soccer this year...once she’s fi nished with basketball. photo by catherine norwood

senior chelsea casady defends at a recent home basketball game. once the season is over, casady will trade her tennis shoes for cleats to play soccer photo by jody willmott