At Springville Junior High School, students had the opportunity to learn and experiment with well-loved milk chocolate. On Monday, November 8, Mr. David Kindrick’s eighth-grade science class made chocolate molds to experiment with the physical properties of matter.

The purpose of this experiment was to help students understand and witness these physical properties. Mr. Kindrick wanted his students to see the changes from solids to liquids to gas. He chose chocolate to work with because it can go through each phase without adding or taking away a large amount of energy. Mr. Kindrick said, “Chocolate is also a tasty treat that you can get to solidify in a timely manner.”

Ever since 1957, Springville Junior High School has celebrated the Christmas season through song. This year, on December first and third of 2010, the SJHS choirs will be carrying on the tradition. 

There are four choirs that will perform in the concert.  The Master Singers (ninth-grade integrated choir), The Journeymen (eighth-grade mens choir), The Apprentice Singers (seventh-grade integrated choir), and The Knightingales, (eight-grade women’s chorus). On December third at 7:30 pm., the Master Singers and Journeymen will put on the “Candle Light” concert, with a special appearance from the Knightingales.

Students at Springville Junior High are participating in a Creative Sewing class. Creative Sewing is an enrichment option for Quest Time. Creative Sewing is a class where students come to work on sewing projects or learn new sewing skills.

Claire Bunnell, eighth grader at SJHS, said, “I think it’s really fun and gives you a break from school.”

Creative Sewing is in the foods room (36) on Mondays and in the sewing room (room 35) on Fridays during Quest Time. Mrs. Luke teaches on Mondays, and Mrs. Bird teaches on Fridays. 

All eighth-grade health classes at Springville Junior High School have been working especially hard this past week because they are designing a theme park. According to Mr. Ryan Chambers, eighth and ninth-grade health teacher at the junior high, the difference between a theme park and an amusement park is that an amusement park has random rides and attractions that don’t tie into anything, and a theme park all has rides and attractions based on a specific idea. In this case, the theme is the digestive system. Mr. Chambers said, “I have the students do this activity so that they can associate things that they are not familiar with, like the digestive system, with something that they are very familiar with like a theme park.

In Mrs. Mary Rice’s eighth-grade English classes, the students have started reading a book called Skeleton Creek. Mrs. Rice, eighth-grade English teacher and ninth-grade Honors English teacher at SJHS, said, “Skeleton Creek is a multi-genre book about a gold mining mystery. Some of the genres featured include: journal, videos, meeting minutes, newspaper articles, emails, graphs and charts.” Mrs. Rice started the books with her classes about the end of October and they will most likely be finish around the 22nd of November.

Springville Junior High School is having a Talent Show.  Auditons were held a couple weeks ago, and many students showed up. Now they have chosen a date for the assembly; it will be on the 23rd of November. There will be two assemblies for the students during school to let everyone have a chance to see all the different types of talents that students are best at. Some examples of the talents students will see are a stand up comedian, singing, dancing, and many more different talents.

For the last few weeks, boys and girls have been playing co-ed volleyball in P.E. at Springville Junior High. Three boys and three girls are on each team. Students must be in a boy-girl order; it helps make the team fair.

Springville Junior High School’s seventh graders got loud on October 13.  All seventh graders attended the boys vs. girls assembly, complete with ice cream sundae relay races and pudding eating contests. Teachers and students alike had plenty of fun. Emo Apaui, a seventh grader here at SJHS, said, “Heck yeah, I was screaming at the top of my lung’s cheering on the boys.” Mr. Trent Mikesell, creative writing and seventh-grade language arts teacher, said, “The assembly was tons of fun. It was a big rush, and there was a lot of energy in the room!”

The yearbook class is unlike any other. Let’s start at the beginning of yearbook, the yearbook staff. The students in the class are Jen Bate, Tyler Oman, Celeborn Stringham, Payton Acor, Stacy Stapel, Kara DeMelo, Zach Droubay, and Austin Dayton. Ms. Rachel Neeley, seventh-grade English teacher, is the yearbook advisor. The yearbook staff takes all of the pictures and designs the yearbook during seventh period.

Ooh’s and aah’s came from the auditorium on October 22nd at Springville Junior High. That is where Zoo Mania had begun! Zoo Mania is an educational assembly where students learn about different animal-related careers. Seventh-grade CTE students got to see many different species of animals.

The executive director of Zoo Mania is Mrs. Karen Beverly. She helps students learn about the different occupations related to animals. Mrs. Beverly said, “We show the students the importance of taking education seriously in this stage of their lives.”