Weekly Cougar News

Good Afternoon, Cougar Nation!

As our students dismissed today, the weather temperatures reminded us that we truly are in spring.

Please see many brief stories below about some of the exciting things happening in our classrooms. Outside of the classrooms, some students have attended field trips to further their learning off campus. Some of these trips included the Youth & Government program who participated in the youth state government session at the State House in Concord, the New Hampshire All-State Music Festival that took place last weekend at the Capitol Center of the Arts in Concord, and ConVal's National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB) team who took a field trip to the New England Aquarium in Boston.

Next week is our last week of school prior to the April vacation. Please consider joining us on campus for our spring musical performances on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday prior to the break. Please also consider supporting our teams as they start competing. I enjoyed cheering on softball on Wednesday and look forward to attending the tennis match this afternoon!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Heather

• Upcoming Important Dates and Events
• Spring Musical Urinetown
• ConVal Summer Academy
• Classrooms at ConVal
• Applied Technology Center Programs
• ConVal Field Trips
• Athletic and Co-Curricular Updates
• April School Counseling Newsletter
• Featured Alum: Keenan Wilson (Class of 2019)
• Vendor/Craft Fair Space Available
• Breakfast and Lunch Menus
• COVID-19 Updates
• Peterborough Fire Department COVID Booster Clinic

• April 18: Return to Full Cafeteria Use
• April 18-20: Tech Week Spring Musical
• April 21-23: Spring Musical Performances
• April 25-29: Spring Recess

ConVal High School will be hosting Summer Academy again this summer! We are offering graduation requirement courses with a focus on hands-on, project-based assignments. Class sizes will be small, and students will have opportunities to be outside. Classes are free and will be filled on a first come, first served basis.

Here are the logistics:

Who: Students who struggled academically during the school year or who want to get a head start on the upcoming school year.

Where: ConVal High School

When: July 5 - August 4, 2022; Session 1 will run from 8-10 AM, and Session 2 will run from 10:15 AM-12:15 PM. Summer Boost will run Monday-Thursday, with the exception of the first week, which will start on a Tuesday.

How: Transportation and meals will be provided. Students will register for one or two sessions based on their needs. Buses will arrive prior to Session 1 and will depart after Session 2; there will be no mid-morning bus run.

Class descriptions and registration will be released next week, so be on the lookout!

Please direct questions to Mrs. Jen Kiley at jkiley@conval.edu.

Snapshots from the week

Sarah Gilpatrick and students in her Geometry class are measuring shadows. When the sun is casting shadows, it creates similar triangles which can be used to write and solve proportions to calculate the height of tall objects around the school.

Reviewing the material for an upcoming test, mathematics teacher Eric Saucier demonstrates to the students in his Algebra 1 Part 2 class how to simplify a mathematical expression. To goal of the simplified expression is to rewrite the expression with the fewest terms possible.

During a recent lab activity, Carol Young's Honors Chemistry students tested several types of solutions to determine pH — how acidic or basic the solutions are — and conductivity, i.e. how well the solutions conduct electricity. To do this, they used pH and conductivity sensors plugged into a Vernier digital interface. Students found that chemical compounds, such as salts, that form electrolytes when dissolved in water had higher conductivity and more acidic pH's. Compounds such as sugar that do not make electrolytes had lower conductivity and were less acidic. They were surprised to find that distilled water had a slightly acidic pH of 6 while hydrochloric acid was extremely conductive.

During a day-long, "in-school field trip," the students in Valerie Moran's Biology Honors Extended Learning Opportunity (ELO) class get to conduct an extended lab to test their own DNA for the presence of the TAS2R38 gene. The gene determines how sensitive a person is to the bitter taste associated with Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC).

The students in Greg O'Brien's Psychology class take notes while watching a TED Talk by psychologist Elizabeth Loftus. Loftus studies memories, more precisely false memories when people either remember things that didn't happen or remember them differently from the way they really were or can be planted intentionally. Her research raises important ethical questions that students have a chance to debate in class.

Students in Liz Concannon's German 1 class are currently learning about German-style board games such as The Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride. In a simplified variation of these games, students use a hand-drawn pathway and dice to randomize choices from an envelope which get them to conjugate present tense verbs. Students pick a verb from the pile, roll a die and then conjugate the verb based on the number of the roll.

Region 14 ATC students and faculty took center stage at Conant High School on Wednesday, April 13, sharing about the opportunities available in our CTE programs during their Career Day event. Instructors Sadie Cahoon, Deb Coyne, Sarah Grossi, and Lance Levesque each presented to Conant’s students about their programs; Mr. Levesque brought his three ConVal teaching assistants with him to share their own photography as well. Mrs. Grossi was assisted by some of her Conant students who are currently in Careers in Education. Conant and Mascenic High School students have the opportunity to take CTE classes at the Region 14 ATC through our regional agreement.

ATC teacher Sarah Grossi meets with her Careers in Education students to model effective strategies for morning meetings in elementary grades. Morning Meeting is an engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set children up for success, socially and academically. The sharing portion of morning meeting is highlighted by the "talking stick" that gives each student in this simulation an opportunity to speak and be heard in a give-and-take style conversation that builds conversational skills and perspective-taking.

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. has established the Rock the Trades Scholarship Program to assist learners pursuing an associate or vocational-technical degree or certification in an Energy, Manufacturing, or Construction trade including, but not limited to:

• Boilermaker

• Carpenter

• Electrician

• Heavy Equipment/Machine Operator

• HVAC/R Technician

• Mechanic

• Machinist

• NDT Technician/Industrial Inspector

• Plumber

• Sheet Metal Worker

• Truck Driver (CDL)

• Welder

Go to https://learnmore.scholarsapply.org/rockthetrades/preview to apply.

To get more information about career exploration fairs as well as upcoming events in the hospitality, education, STEM, manufacturing, construction, healthcare, and automotive industries, please click here.

In a further return to more normal conditions, students get to take advantage of field trip opportunities.

Students from ConVal's Youth & Government program participated in the youth state government session at the State House in Concord. It was a great session with many of the students' bills making it to the full House and Senate for debate. Youth & Government is a co-curricular opportunity with Chris Heider acting as the club's advisor.

The New Hampshire All-State Music Festival took place this past weekend at the Capitol Center of the Arts in Concord. The students who performed in this rigorous honors festival were: Zach Cassidy ('23, upright bass), Clara Christensen ('25, trumpet), Alissa Cutting ('22, soprano), and Rowan Davidson ('23, tenor).

Students of ConVal's National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB) team took a field trip to the New England Aquarium in Boston. The field trip was a prize for the ConVal Ocean Bowl Team who was the runner up in the final scoring of the 25th annual Nor’easter Bowl competition in February. ConVal's Ocean Bowl teams consist of Tom Sennett (Captain Team 1), Caitlin Beal (Captain Team 2), Maya Bennett, Amanda Bergeron, Maeve Finn, Violet Fletcher, Liliana Juarez, Leah Krason, Eva McCullough, Avery Pope, and Ryan Whitney. The students are coached by science teacher Anna Muncy and mathematics teacher Griffen Fletcher.

All of our spring athletic schedules & updates can be found on the ConVal athletics website. Please come out and support our athletes and their coaches.

Last Saturday, the ConVal Equestrian Team competed in the first show for this season. ConVal's team has 12 riders of varying grades and riding experience. The team captain is Anthea Curtis, a senior at ConVal High School; the other riders are: Emily Casey-Hughes, Abigail Hackett, Ryanne Hennessy, Delaney Ingalls, Lucy Jackson, Mariah Kiblin, Aubree Lamothe, Ellie Smith, Norah Smith, Rebekah Southwick, and Addison Traffie.

Congratulations to the following ConVal Equestrian Team members who placed in their classes:

• Emily Casey-Hughes, 1st place in 2'3" Equitation over fences
• Rebekah Southwick, 3rd place in 2'3" Equitation over fences
• Rebekah Southwick, 4th place 2'3" jumpers
• Emily Casey-Hughes, 5th place 2'3" jumpers
• Nora Smith, 2nd place WT Dressage Test A
• Aubree Lamothe, 4th place WT Dressage Test A
• Nora Smith, 4th place WT Dressage Test B

Freshman Isabelle Jobin represented New Hampshire at the 2022 High School National Powerlifting Championships in Illinois in March.

She placed 3rd in her division by lifting her personal best in the following categories: Squats (242.5 lbs) and Deadlift (259 lbs).

Congratulations, Isabelle!

Tickets to the ConVal Senior Prom/Masquerade Ball (see poster below) will be sold on April 5, 7, 12, 14, 19, 20 and May 3 and 5 during TASC in the English area outside of Room 224.

If you have any questions, please contact Director of Athletics and Co-Curriculars John Reitnauer at jreitnauer@conval.edu.

There are many free choices of donated dresses as well as men's shirts and ties available for senior prom in Ms. Knarr's office (Rm 417). Please feel free to stop by and view the collection. See also the related Monadnock Ledger-Transcript story here.

Please click here to view the April monthly newsletter from ConVal High School Counseling Department.

Please note the reminder that all scholarship applications by seniors are due in the School Counseling office by April 20.

Keenan Wilson is finishing a semester abroad study in Austria while completing his junior year at St. Lawrence University. "When I was a student at ConVal, I took two semesters of German with Frau Concannon," Keenan remembers. "Upon my arrival in Vienna, I was able to place into a higher German course, having taken none in college, due to my courses at ConVal." Next week, Keenan will run the Vienna Marathon to support Ending 68 Hours of Hunger at ConVal. To read more about Keenan and how ConVal prepared him for his experiences abroad, click here.

Here are the food services menus for the month of March, provided by Fresh Pick Café:

• Breakfast Menu
• Lunch Menu

Please note that all meals are served with assorted fruit and choice of milk.

Based on a revision to the ConVal School District reopening plan, the SAU is no longer sending daily emails regarding cases of COVID-19 infections. Please see this link to find data about our school. This is the data that is reviewed by the district Covid-19 Monitoring Team. For additional information, please see the NH COVID-19 Response dashboard.

ConVal Regional High School

Location: 184 Hancock Road, Peterborough, NH 03458 (map)

Phone: (603) 924-3869

Email: conval.highschool@conval.edu

Website: cvhs.convalsd.net