![Adding a tray of canned corn to the pile, junior Michael Collop assists in transporting donations for the Holiday Food Drive. The event, hosted schoolwide from Dec. 10-17, raised over 5,000 food items to deliver to the Parkway Food Pantry, helping several families in need. [The drive] is a great thing for us to do because you're giving to those who are less fortunate, and it helps provide for people who can't provide for themselves. [The] competition is always fun, too. It was fun to be in [social studies teacher Jess] Chazen’s class, because he always gets worked up over [the competition]. He made it exciting, and was always convincing us to turn in cans for the drive,” Collop said.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/feature-photo-unsung-2.png)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
Tuesday, Nov. 5 was Election Day, and Duncan Middle School students got to vote.
While the General Election was taking place, DMS students were given an opportunity to participate in a mock election, hosted by the National Junior Honor Society DMS chapter.
The mock election is a program designed to teach students about how it feels to vote. The mock election is supposed to simulate how it’s like to vote in the real world but for students under the voting age of 18. This was done in Duncan Middle School where students could choose between Wonder Woman (Peyton Williams) and Academic Warrior (Parker Sanders).
Voting took place all day Nov. 5, and everyone sixth, seventh and eighth-grade student was given an opportunity to vote. In all, 624 people voted.
Williams is the current NJHS president, and Sanders is the president-elect for NJHS.
Sanders, posing as the Academic Warrior, took the overall vote, besting Williams as Wonder Woman.
“I wasn’t expecting to win, Sanders said of his victory. “I probably didn’t deserve to win because I didn’t have a speech, but Peyton did.”
Williams said she felt she deserved to win because she went full-out for the mock election candidate speech, including dressing up as the iconic character. She said she thought it was important to take part in the project.
“I wanted to raise school spirit,” Williams said.
Sanders said she the election was fairly done.
“Everyone had an opportunity to vote,” he said.
Mason Tincher, a sixth-grade student said he voted for Sanders and his Academic Warrior character because he knows Sanders on a personal level.
“I’ve known him for a long time,” Tincher said. “Also because he’s a warrior.”
The percentage of people who voted for Wonder Woman and Academic Warrior was pretty consistent across all grade levels.
In sixth grade, 117 students vote for Academic Warrior and 84 people voted (about 57 percent) for Wonder Woman. In all, 128 seventh-grade students voted for Academic Warrior (about 57 percent) against the 98 (or 43 percent) who voted for Wonder Woman. Eighth-grade voters elected Academic Warrior with 113 votes (59 percent) against Wonder Woman’s 79 votes (or 41 percent).
Overall, 358 students voted for Academic Warrior, which is about 57 percent, and 206 students voted for Wonder Woman, which is about 43 percent.
Following each vote, students received an “I Voted” sticker, similar to what happens when adults vote at their precincts. For this mock election project, each grade level was given a voting precinct and were able to vote with their social studies classes. Each student had to sign by their name before they were given a ballot to vote, similar to how a real election works.
This story was originally published on Demon Direct on November 18, 2024.
