The Mattlin PRIDE

In this issue:

The Front Page

Amplified Learning Math Challenge

1 1

@ Mattlin

Mr. Schwartz

Sling It!

2

2

What in the World?!

Mount Everest

Nepal

3

3

Business News

Bitcoin

Smartflash Sues Apple

4

4

Technology Fun

Emojis

Mobile Nintendo?

5

5

Health & Wellness

Healthy Choices

Notable Birthdays

Fitness Fault?

6

6

7

Sports

Islanders’ New Home

8

The Last Word

Math Birthday Challenge

9

Winter 2014-15

Amplified Learning

Did you know that you can now access the

full color edition of

The Mattlin PRIDE on the pobschools.org

website? Look for the link on the

H.B. Mattlin Middle

School page!

The kids in Mrs. Cohen’s and Mrs. Krowles’ classes are at a small cabinet, getting a medium-sized rectangular object with an orange cover. Then the kids turn them on. Could they be tablets? Yes, these are Amplify tablets. The fifth-grade classes have gotten tablets to help them learn. The tablets have “notebooks” where the students can receive and do assignments. There is a stylus to help to control the tablet if you don’t want to use your fingers. There are also keyboards to attach to the tablets to type. They have apps ranging from physics to math to social studies to science. Kids love games like Sandbox, Math hyper blast, and Simple Rockets. They can carry the tablets around and fewer books, instead of a mountain of heavy books that could collapse on a person or floor at any minute. But with tablets, you are most likely not going to drop them, and even if you do, they have very sturdy gorilla glass. Gorilla glass helps prevent damage and scratches. The tablets also have rubber cases to prevent possible damage. The tablets are built for a wide range of grades, starting from kindergarten to 12th grade. The company that created these tablets, Amplify, claims that they have educated more than three million kids in all fifty states. The teachers have been educated by Amplify staff, who have years of classroom

education experience. Here is how Mrs. Cohen responded to questions about the tablets:

When was your first look at the tablet? We got together with administration and the teachers from POB in the fall and looked at a few tablets, actually. All were nice, but we were looking for something else that would help our students learn more efficiently. It quickly became clear that the Amplify tablet would be the best choice for our students!

How did you learn about the tablets? We were trained by the Amplify staff about the different features of the tablet and how to do some of the things that we would need to do every day. However, once we had our tablets and had a chance to try things out, we began to learn very fast. We learn the way that most kids do: trying things out!

How do you think the tablets will help kids learn? To have the ability to gather information, and make meaning of it, in the hands of every single student is a powerful thing. We also love the idea that everything we share with students, whether it is a worksheet, document or internet link, stays in their tablets all year long, so there is no more lost work or missing notes! Each teacher will find new and unique ways of using it with students, so really, the possibilities are endless! By Daniel S. Research by Ella S. Mrs. Cohen interviewed by Noah Z.

Math Challenge: Can You Do This?

Here is a very simple, quick math problem: Add the numbers from 1 through 100. (1+2+3+4+5 and so on.)

There’s a time-saving trick! You can find the answer somewhere in the newspaper.

By Daniel S.

Spring 2015

Amplified Learning

Getting to Know Mr. Schwartz We asked Mr. Schwartz some questions and we decided we’d share the answers with you. Here they are:

“What do you like doing in your free time?” He likes jogging, hanging out with family, reading, and watching sports on television.

“Is it hard being an assistant principal?” Some days are harder than others when being an assistant principal. Recently it’s been much harder for Mr. Schwartz—it kind of varies, like the amount of homework you receive.

“What is it like?” It’s a lot of work and, according to Mr. Schwartz, it’s also a lot of fun. It’s an extremely busy job; there’s always a lot of paperwork to be filled out and lots of matters to be sorted. “What college did you go to?” He attended Indiana University for four years. “Did you always work in a school?” No. He actually used to work in a Stock House. “Did you teach in another school? Which one?” Yes. In New York City—in the Lynbrook Schools. *Fun fact: when the people of Brooklyn came here, they switched the name around: BROOK-LYN —> LYN-BROOK. “What are your plans for the future?” He says he intends to keep working. He likes everything the way it is. He gets to see

his family a lot, and he’s really happy with his job. “What would you get for the school if you had unlimited money?”

He would get air-conditioning. “What do you think about schools using tablets?”

He says it’s good technology. When he was a teacher he used chalk. Nowadays, we have Smart Boards, and we’re even going to be using tablets.

By Jessica K., Michael K., Daniel S., and Ella S.

Page 2 Mattlin PRIDE

Attention:

Are you a writer? Illustrator? Artist?

Then, Newspaper Club is for you!

Check the club calendar for details.

Sling It On March 6, 2015, three young girls pretended to be wearing a sling.

Why? So that they could make their friend who wears a sling feel better

about herself. The three girls are Alyssa R., Athena

P., and Leah D., and their friend’s name is Jenna F. It started when Jenna asked her three friends if

they wanted to know what it felt like to be in her

position. They immediately said yes. They put their

arms up in a painful position and said they would do

it for her. Period. The three friends said it was really hard. They

opened lockers left-handed, ate food left-handed, and

wrote left handed. They were all righties, so it was

hard for them. They said they immediately wanted to

give up, but they knew they couldn’t upset their

friend. At the end of the period, the girls dropped their

arms and stretched. When I asked them why they

did it, they said, “This is a great lesson because you never know how much

you need your arms until you can’t use one.” They all said it was painful but

agreed it was a good lesson to learn. Now we’re able to empathize with Jen-

na and everybody else wearing a sling.

-Alyssa R., Athena P., Jenna F., Leah D.

Page 3 Mattlin PRIDE

Mount Everest

Mount Everest is almost 30,000 feet high and grows a quarter of an inch every year. The first attempt to reach the summit was in 1921. Thirty-two years later, on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people ever to reach the summit of Everest. In 1978, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habler became the first to reach the summit without oxygen tanks.

If you want to climb Everest, you need to pay for a lot of things, like a flight to Nepal, climbing gear and equipment, and a climbing permit. You also have to have past climbing experience.

There are many dangers faced when climbing Mount Everest. For instance, there can be avalanches, which are huge masses of snow that slide down a mountain. Another danger is altitude sickness, which is caused by high elevations. The “death zone,” which is altitudes of 26,240 feet and above, is especially dangerous because of the lack of oxygen. There is 66% less oxygen in each breath on the summit of Everest than at sea level! Lastly, with winds of over 200 mph and temperatures of -80 degrees F, frostbite can occur when skin is exposed for too long.

Most people think Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world, but it actually isn’t. Its summit is the highest point on earth, but that doesn’t mean Everest is the tallest. The tallest mountain in the world is Mauna Kea, an inactive Hawaiian volcano. Its summit is only 13,796 feet above sea level, but it stretches 20,000 feet below the water’s surface, making it 33,465 feet tall. That’s almost a mile taller than Everest!

By Ella S.

Nepal’s in Trouble

AHHHHHHHHH! The roofs of the houses came down! Many people were trapped under tons upon tons of rubble! A landslide was triggered on Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, and one of the most famous ones. In the capital, shortages of food and water have forced thousands of workers to board buses and flee to their home towns and villages that were not destroyed. 6,204 people are known to have died in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, and 13,932 were injured. There has been growing anger at the government's response to the disaster, with a number of protests breaking out. A lack of buses and the slow distribution of aid have led battles to occur between protesters and police. Two weeks ago, The United Nations launched a large amount of money—$415 million to assist Nepal over the next three months—but Nepal has received only $5.8 million in confirmed funding. That was a small earthquake, compared to an earthquake call Valdivia that rocked Virginia in 1960. Valdivia had a magnitude of 9.5! Imagine what the damage would have been if an earthquake like Valdivia hit Nepal. Nepal would have been wiped out! -by Daniel S.

Bitcoin

The first online money currency, Bitcoin, was released in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. Satoshi is a 32-year-old male coming from Japan. Nobody really knows who he is. But he’s obviously very smart. The programming and logic behind Bitcoin is genius. Satoshi designed it so that all registrants have their own personal wallet. To keep the money’s value, Satoshi designed factories that had many strange looking machines. The factories don’t actually create bitcoins—they just pretend to make bitcoins. Why? Well, people are actually using bitcoins and almost half of all small companies except them. What matters is that people value them. That way this actually means something, but also this helps flight inflation. Inflation is when there’s too much money. It decreases the value of currency, making it almost worthless.

Also, he carefully made his way past America’s government. They have nothing to do with this currency and no control over it—while it isn’t illegal either. While some despise this, most actually have had problems with the government and can use this as an escape. Satoshi says that bitcoin can be used by the whole world, and that it’s quite a remarkable national currency. He thinks it will grow well, and he has the factories “storing” bitcoin way off until 2140. Many businesspeople have estimated the success of Bitcoin. They think it’ll replace credit cards, checks, and bills. They say that many other businesses have moved online, and almost of all of them have sold more in sales online than in stores. They’ve bought stocks-- in this case a percentage of the bitcoins being made-- and have requested to be employees of Bitcoin. They don’t just believe in Bitcoin; they believe in Satoshi. The world’s most professional, successful hackers can’t break into Bitcoin’s system, no matter how hard they try. It would seem infinite: the positive effects of Bitcoin. Like a credit card, everything is stored in one spot on your phone. You have an account that you can log into using only your information and your personal ID. A bitcoin can be broken down into eight places, very small. We can’t really predict what’ll become of Bitcoin. The money value is changing very dramatically, and that isn’t helping. Also, the system is so new that people just don’t trust it. Some people don’t want to work against government, either. We can only invest in it and delight in it, and we can hope that someday, it’ll prove revolutionary.

Smartflash Sues Apple As of February 26, 2015, Apple has been hit by three patents coming from Smartflash. The complaints mentioned digital copyright management, payment systems, and data storage. The first complaint had been filed in 2013. Since then, Smartflash has written out two more complaints, and all three complaints were taken up to Congress. Congress approved of all three, and Apple was charged over $900,000,000. Few, if any, people have heard about Smartflash. So who or what is this company that has been confidently competing with Apple?

Smartflash has no products and no reputation. Its only business is the patents it’s filed and the companies it’s sued. You’d be surprised. In the past, they successfully won patents they’d charged against Amazon, Samsung, and Google. Not one of these companies, including Apple, were able to prove the complaints invalid. Not once did Smartflash make a false patent they’d have to pay for. The companies didn’t believe it was fair or that Congress was making the right decision. They believed this was why Congress needed to form a better patent system. They believed Congress wasn’t putting enough thought into the complaints. Smartflash shouldn’t just be able to sue them. Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokesman said, “Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology that Apple invented. We refuse to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating, and unfortunately, we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system.” However, Smartflash’s lead lawyer, Mr. Ward, countered the statement and claimed that they were just building their new patents through the gaps Apple kept leaving out of their arguments. Congress, too, saw the gaps that they had used to charge Apple with. He said, “Smartflash is very pleased with the jury’s verdict in this case, confirming that Apple devices designed to use the Apple iTunes Store and App Store infringe Smartflash’s patents. Ultimately, the jury saw through Apple’s arguments and reached the right result.” Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if Smartflash continues successfully suing companies and filing complaint after complaint. But their actions against Apple will be hard to top! By Michael K.

Page 4 Mattlin PRIDE

Emojis around the World

Everybody is using emojis today. But what are they? And what does their use tell us about a person? Websites commonly say that emojis are “the ideograms or smileys used in Japanese electronic messages and web pages, the use of which is

spreading outside Japan.” It originally meant pictograph, but nobody thinks of it this way anymore— naturally. The first emoji was created in the late 1990’s by Shigetaka Kurita. AT&T was the first company that provided amenities like email and weather forecasts using little pictographs. Soon, more companies started adding on and making their own pictographs. Samsung smart phones have been using emojis, and you can install them on Apple devices. Studies have shown diverse uses of emojis in different countries around the world.

For example:

55% of emojis used in France are heart ideograms, as compared to only 8% in the U.S.

Canadians use extremely violent emojis; in fact, their emojis are 50% more violent than those in all other countries!

Arabic speakers use four times the amount of lady emojis.

Malaysia uses the most “sleepy” emojis

Americans use the most meat emojis.

The U.S. is #1 in skulls. If you ask us, that’s absolutely ludicrous! Can these results possibly mean anything? By Michael K. & Daniel S.

Nintendo is Making Mobile Games

Nintendo is developing some games for the App Store and Google Play. Nintendo is teaming up with DeNA, a Japanese mobile company, to start making games that you can play on any mobile device. There will be games like the ones on the 3DS and Wii U, featuring your favorite video game characters like Mario, Zelda, and Pikachu. They will be competing with games like Minecraft, Angry Birds, Clash of Clans, and Candy Crush Saga. About 4 billion dollars in sales are being made each year on Nintendo’s handheld devices. Will the mobile games be as successful as the handheld games? We’ll find out in the fall of 2015! By Noah Z.

VS.

Page 5 Mattlin PRIDE

Page 6 Mattlin PRIDE

Time to Make a Healthy Choice for You!

You drive down to McDonalds and order hotcakes with sausage and a hot chocolate. Do you have any idea

what you actually just ordered yourself? Hotcakes with sausage contains no Vitamin A or C. The best part is that it

contains 14 grams of sugar and 24 grams of fat. Wait—it gets better! The hot chocolate contains no vitamin C and it

contains 45 grams of sugar! Based on these two menu items alone, fast food restaurants should be required to serve

healthy food with more vitamins and less sugar and fat.

The average amount of calories Americans should have each day is 1,500 to 1,800,

and around 50 to 60 grams of fat. Ordering from a fast food restaurant can easily give you

1,000 calories. Fast-food restaurants’ food is highly processed and is filled with fat, sodium,

and calories. The FRAC, or the Food Research and Action Center, states that 68.5% of

adults are overweight or obese and 31.8% of children and adolescents are overweight or

obese. Fast food restaurants can lead to weight gain, which can lead to diseases you defi-

nitely don’t want. Heart disease or diabetes, anybody? There should be laws that limit how

much fat, sugar, and calories fast food can contain.

Fast food also leads to mood change. Sugar causes mood change by varying blood

sugar levels in the body. Gluten causes mood change by affecting the adrenal gland, which

produces a hormone called cortisol, which responses to stress. Processed food causes mood change too. Processed

food contains a substantial amount of trans fats, which puts a lot of stress on you. Stress is something you definitely don’t

want! Stress can affect emotions, behaviors, the ability to think, and physical health.

A lot of people would say that fast food tastes amazing and it’s perfect just the way it is! They should realize that

it’s also addicting, so I guess it’s not perfect if it’s addicting. But why is it addicting? Salivary response causes your brain to

crave a food. This happens when the food covers your taste buds. Receptors in your mouth and stomach tell your brain

about the mixture of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in the food you are eating. It convinces your brain that you’re

getting nutrition, but not enough to fill you up. Food that melts in your mouth makes you eat more of that food. This is

how you can swallow a fast food hamburger and still want another.

Because fast food is completely unhealthy and causes diseases, fast food restaurants should serve healthier food

with more vitamins and less sugar and fat. Fast food restaurants should do this to help decrease obesity in the U.S. and

to prevent deadly diseases like heart disease. Better yet, people should stop eating fast food and start eating homemade

and healthier food.

By Gregory P.

January 3

Eli Manning- NFL Quarterback, NY

Giants

AJ Burnett- MLB Pitcher, Pittsburgh

Pirates

January 9

Richard Nixon- 37th President of United

States

Bart Starr- Hall of Fame NFL Quarter-

back, Green Bay Packers

February 12

Abraham Lincoln- 16th President of the

United States

Robert Griffin III- NFL Quarterback,

Washington Redskins

February 17

Michael Jordan- Hall of Fame Basketball Player, Chicago Bulls

Ed Sheeran- Singer

March 2

Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss)-

Children’s Author

Jon Bon Jovi- Rock Singer

March 14

Stephen Curry- NBA Point Guard,

Golden State Warriors

Albert Einstein- Scientist

April 15

Leonardo Da Vinci-Painter

Seth Rogan-Actor

April 22

Marshawn Lynch- NFL Running back,

Seattle Seahawks

May 2

David Beckham- Soccer star

Paul George- Indiana Pacers

May 3

Noah Munck- (iCarly- Gibby and “The

Goldbergs”- Rob from JTP) James Brown- Funk Singer

May 6

Chris Paul- NBA player

Willy Mays- Hall of Fame MLB

player

May 14

Miranda Cosgrove- Actor (iCarly

- Carly)

Mark Zuckerburg- Creator of

Facebook!

June 5

Rick Riordan- Author

Joe Gatto- Comedian,

“Impractical Jokers”

June 8

Francesca Capaldi (Chloe-

“Jessie”)

Kanye West– Performer

June 9

Johnny Depp- Actor

Michael J. Fox- Actor &

Parkinson’s Activist

By Seth S. and Tyler K.

Fitness Fault?

Page 7 Mattlin PRIDE

There are two things health experts consider to be part of a healthy lifestyle: a healthy diet balanced with the right amount of exercise. Most kids, however, don’t get enough exercise each day. This is a huge problem in America, partly because of insufficient school exercise programs. Every state in America should create laws requiring schools to have a daily, effective fitness program. One reason a law should be passed concerns children’s health. If people don’t have enough exercise in their daily lives, they can become obese or overweight, even if they have an extremely healthy diet. To be overweight is to be 10% heavier than one’s age group’s average. To be obese is to be 20% heavier than one’s age group’s average. Obesity is already wide-spread in America because of two factors: fast food and lack of exercise. In 2014, more than 34.9% of all U.S. adults were obese, along with 17% of children ages two through nineteen. In addition, obesity is associated with lots of health problems, such as asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, high cholesterol, skin infections, and back pain. Obesity can even kill. If kids don’t exercise enough, these health problems could severely hurt, or, unfortunately, kill them. All the associated health issues can cause death, and it won’t take a break on the kids that don’t exercise. Another reason a law should be passed has to do with children’s moods and energy. Many kids that don’t exercise have problems with frequent bad moods. This is because exercising activates several brain chemicals that make people feel happy and more relaxed. Many kids who sit in front of their video game console or computer, playing video games all day, get extremely cranky from the lack of physical activity. Motion sensor games tend to be unpopular, and they don’t require much physical movement anyway. While kids may have bad moods, they may also have problems with energy. Many kids that aren’t physically active are tired, and barely make it through their daily lives. Kids who exercise improve their endurance and muscle strength, as well as delivering oxygen and nutrients to tissues, helping one’s cardiovascular system, the heart and lungs, work efficiently. This provides more energy to get them through the day. If kids’ lack of exercise continues, kids will become cranky and exhausted, barely making it through every day. Exercising a bit before going to

play video games, even if it’s just for fifteen minutes, can put kids in a good mood and energize them. This is in effect even if they lightly exercise for one hour every day, the recommended exercise time. Plus, it can be fun, calling over a few friends and playing a game of basketball, football, soccer, or any sport they want. Some people might argue that daily exercise in schools is not necessary, considering the amount of kids that participate in extracurricular sports activities. However, a lot of kids don’t participate in these activities. The ones that do usually don’t

participate in them daily. Some kids only have one or two activities that they participate in. Extracurricular sports usually have about two practices and one game per week. With the usual time of one hour for each, only three hours of activity per week without any other exercise. Kids should be getting a minimum of seven hours of exercise per week.

Therefore, the need for daily, effective school exercise programs is substantial. If kids aren’t getting sufficient exercise, they can have health, mood, and energy issues. Exercising is required, and even if people have an extremely healthy diet, they still must exercise. A law requiring daily exercise programs in

schools should be passed in every state in the United

States of America. Exercising is one of the most

important parts of a healthy lifestyle, for kids and

adults. Lack of

fitness can lead

to disease, bad

moods, and low

energy. We need

to take into

account that

extracurricular

sports activities

are optional, and

schools are children’s main source of activity. Illinois

is the only state so far that has such a law, and we

can all follow its example. In order to prevent the

problems that a lack of fitness could cause for kids,

it’s time to pass a law requiring daily and effective

school fitness programs!

By Evan H.

“Exercising a bit before

going to play video

games, even if it’s just for

fifteen minutes, can put

kids in a good mood.”

The Mattlin

Mattlin PRIDE

Rock This Barn, One Last Time

After 43 years of history and tradition, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, the New York Islanders’ only home, will no longer be the permanent home of the Islanders. The Isles will be moving to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The Barclays Center is the current home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. The Islanders first faced off in their home-to-be in a preseason game against the New Jersey Devils on September 21, 2013. The Devils won 3-0.

Now, the setup. The Barclays Center is

much smaller than the Coliseum. It was set up to be a basketball arena, not a hockey arena. Behind one of the goals, there is nothing but black. The scoreboard is not perfectly centered; it is just above the blue line. All of the Isles’ banners will be hanging from the Barclays Center rafters, just like they did at the Coliseum. This will be a change that Isles — and hockey fans— will need to get used to.

Page 8

There is too

much space

behind one

goal.

The score-

board is not

perfectly

centered; it

is just above

the blue line.

By Seth S.

Page 9

Mattlin PRIDE The Last Word

Awesome Math Problem Recently, the math problem below went viral across the whole U.S.A. It’s driving the country mad, but it actually

has a very simple solution. Check it out::

Albert and Bernard just became friends with Cheryl, and they want to know when her birthday is. Cheryl gives them

a list of 10 possible dates:

May 15 May 16 May 19

June 17 June 18

July 14 July 16

August 14 August 15 August 17

Cheryl then takes Albert and Bernard aside separately and tells them the month and day of her birthday, respectively.*

*respectively: (adverb) in the order given; used for saying that something happens separately to each of the

people or things mentioned, in the order in which they were mentioned

“Mary and Anne were 12 and 16 years old, respectively” means that Mary is 12 and Anne is 16.

Albert: I don’t know when Cheryl’s birthday is, but I know that Bernard does not know either.

Bernard: At first I didn’t know when Cheryl’s birthday is, but I know now. Albert: Then I also know when Cheryl’s birthday is.

So…. when is Cheryl’s birthday?

The authors were looking for something that went like this:

“Albert knows that Bernard can't know the answer just by knowing the day. So we

have to rule out May and June, both of which have days (the 18th and 19th) unique to

them. Knowing those months have been ruled out, Bernard's knowledge of the day

suddenly gives him the answer. How? Well, it can't be the 14th. It's the only repeated

number, and it wouldn't give him any information about the correct month. That leaves

only three choices: July 16, Aug. 15, and Aug. 17. Now we've exhausted all of Bernard's

information about the day, and we still don't have an answer. This is where some

people probably gave up and declared the problem a trick. Bernard seemingly doesn't

have enough information to answer the question. Hold up, though. Bernard knows one

more thing: that Albert got the correct answer by knowing the month. Albert couldn't

do that if Cheryl's birthday were in August, because there are still two August dates for

him to choose from. And that means there's only one possible birthday left: July 16.”

By Michael K.

The answer to “Can You Do This?” on page 2 is 5050.

Page 9

Can you identify

this—

somewhere in

the halls of

Mattlin?

Hint: You can

only see it at

certain times of

day.