Amherst News-Times, 1997-08-27

              New coach for boys team — Page 13     Girls bank on experience — Page
Amherst News-Time
Wednesday, August 27, 1997
Amherst, Ohio
School bells ring for kids tomorrow morni
ku niAUA   uniir.i Aun \
by DIANA HOUGLAND
News-Times reporter
The countdown is just hours from
being over. Bedtime curfews arc being adjusted to handle the early
morning alarm clocks. It's time to
go to school.
The 1997-98 school year offically
begins tomorrow, Aug. 28, for first
graders through high school; kindergarten classes begin on Tuesday,
Sept. 2.
For the teachers, tutors, administration and the rest of the Amherst school staff, tomorrow is the
day that they have all been working
toward, as well as looking forward
to while the students have been enjoying the freedom of summer: the
minute the school bells ring and
kids are ready to learn.
Once again, the age of technology
is helping in making the some of the
'■ major changes at the individual
; schools as well as a long list of new
; leaching staff. But the overall con-
j sensus from the six Amhersl princi-
! pals is "We're ready, let's start the
I new year!"
New course
offerings at
high school
Marion L. Steele High School
principal Bob Boyton says lhat
while there are no structural
changes to the school this year,
there are some additions to the
Assistant band director Christoper Barbara teaches some fancy
foot work to new members of the Comet Marching Band during
practice. The Marion L. Steel High School band has increased from
102 to 138 members,
sophomores.
Many of the new members are freshmen and
leaching staff. He feels the two new
additions to the courses offered at
the high school arc the biggest and
most exciting changes that have
been made.
"The biggest thing that's new
here this year is a new lab and
course call Technology Exploration, a required course for ninth
graders and an elective for the up-
pcrclassmen," Boyton said. "We're
really excited about this course. We
feci that these will be the jobs that
will be out there for these kids and
we p»ed to give the kids a background. We want to expose ninth
graders to the technology out
there."
The new 14-modulc lab will expose the students to several different subjects: computer added designs, basic electricity, research and
design, bio-medical technology,
aerodynamics, robotics and automa
tion, hydrolics, nu	
production, electronic technology,
electronic communication, CNC
technology, instruction technology
and industrial control technology.
During the semester the students
will have the opportunity lo work
on six lo eight of the modules.
Each module has ten hours introduction to each area.
"The idea," Boyton explained,
"is to expose the kids to all of the
technologies that we have today. At
the beginning of the course they
will take a pretest to determine
what they know aboul the subject,
then go through the ten hours of introduction. At the end of the ten
hours, they will take a post test to
see what they have learned. Next
year we plan to upgrade and the
kids could come back and do 30
hours."
The other new course that the
high school will have to offer this
year is entitled Network Communications Course. According to Boyton, this is a two-year program for
juniors and seniors and they should
be able to learn about everything to
do with a computer. The PTO donated $55,000 to buy the 22 computers to help start this new lab.
"If a student finds out lhat they
are interested," Boyton said, "then
ihey could go on to a tech school or
even a four-year school."
The other big change at the high
school this year will be the teaching
staff, and the eight new teachers
coming aboard at Steele.
"Eight new teachers is a lot for
us," Boyton said.
The new staff includes Michelle
Kamczyc, who was previously a
CONTINUED on page 2
Computers bring job introduction to classes
by GLEN MILLER
News-Times reporter
High school students will be able
to visit cyberspace on a regular basis when they return to class this
week thanks to a $140,000 upgrade
of computers.
The school board and high school
Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)
combined financial resources earlier
this year to pay for a major upgrade
of the business computer laboratory
in the media center and construction
of a Technology Exploration Lab at
Marion L. Steele High School.
The lab is located in the renovated industrial arts section of the
high school and will be used by all
freshman students. They will be
able to chose from six to eight instructional modules introducing
them to technology ranging from
aeronautical engineering to electronics. All are 10 hours long and taught
with the use of computers.
"This is why we call it an exploration course because they will
spend lime getting exposed to and
exploring things they may be interested in as a career or just have general interest in," principal Robert
Boyton explained.
Students will have 14 instructional modules from which to
choose, including medicine, manufacturing, engineering, and
transportation.
If they find a career field in which
they are particularly interested, students  will  be  able  to  enroll  in
Technology teacher Artene Lengyel gets help from Leslie Paine,
a summer technology and media intern, as she loads new software
into new computers in the high school media center's upgraded
30-hour  modules  as  sophomores,    will provide them with more m-
The expanded instructional modules   depth instruction and information.
computer laboratory,
program.
It is the site of the networking technology
he explained.
If they don't find career area as a
freshman, Boyton said students will
be able to enroll in the nine-week
exploration course again and review
another six to eight modules. They
only will be turned away if there is
nol sufficient room.
Out of 300 or more freshman,
Boyton said school officials anticipate at least 40 or 50 will select the
30-hour modules.
At the end of their sophomore
year, students will have the choice
of enrolling in a high school tech-
prep course, a college-prep course
or a manufacturing technology
course offered at the Lorain County
Joint Vocational School (JVS).
The college program will prepare
sludents for a college education
while the JVS program will provide
them with a more detailed program
to prepare them for work in high-
tech manufacturing.
Boyton said the high school
would like to offer the JVS course
bul does not currently have the expensive equipment.
The lech-prep curriculum will
prepare sludents for work after graduation and is a combination of the
manufacturing and college preparatory programs, he explained.
"What we want to do is have kids
realize the kind of technology that's
available in today's society by having them explore it and then choose
the 30-hour modules if they want lo
know more," he added.
The JVS is contributing $10,000
to the program and the school board
has allocated $80,000.
But the massive computer upgrade has not been limited to tech*
CONTINUED on
Early deadlines observed
for Sept. 3 issue of paper
Early deadlines will be enforced so that some members of the
News-Times staff can spend the Labor Day holiday with family.
The office will be closed on Monday, Sept. 1 in observance of the
holiday. The following deadlines will be used:
• Classified ads: All classified ads musi-be placed by noon on
Thursday. Aug. 28.
• Display ads: All display advertising must be placed by 5 p.m.
on Wednesday, Aug. 27.
• News copy: AH letters to the editor, press releases, news
items and bulletin board items must be delivered to the News-
Times office by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 28.
No exceptions will be made.
The Sept. 3 issue of the News-Times will be delivered by mail
on Wednesday as.usual.
Lake waters provide learning depth
by KATHLEEN KOSHAR
News-Times editor
A local student spenl a week on
Cibraltor Island, digging into the
muck at the bottom of Lake Erie and
finding out what tiny organisms and
creatures make the. water a living
entity of its own.
Emily Nagy, 18, a 1997 graduate
of Marion L. Steele High School,
found there's plenty alive in the waters of Lake Erie. A lot of it is visible only through a high-ppwered
microscope, but it's there and it's
healthy living matter.
However, Nagy admits finding all
the creatures of the lake bottom
makes her wonder whether she's up
lo swimming in Lake Erie again.
At least now she knows she's
never swimming alone.
Nagy, the daughter of Jo Anne
Nagy, a second grade teacher at
Powers Elementary School, and Richard,* an Avon Ford plant employee, spent a week .mis August on
Gibraltar Island, just a boat's ride
from, the shore of Put-in-Bay.
She was a student of the Franz
Theodore Stone Laboratory, Ohio
Slate University's biological field
station on Lake Erie.
Hoping lo become a marine
biologist, and work with dolphins in
their habitats, Nagy said she turned
to her computer earlier this year for
information about career choices
and classes.
There she found OSU's home
page; she logged on to an advisor
who told her how she could become
a student at the laboratory. She E-
mailed for information and found
she could enroll in different classes
including the introductory aquatic
biology class for a week.
" Nagy was one of 14 students —
seven men and seven women -—-
who arrived on the island for a week
of hands-on study.
They roomed at the Stone Laboratory dorms on Gibraltor from Sunday to Saturday and spent up to 10.
hours a day in "dais."
Class was often conducted in the
water, where Nagy studied in water
up to her shoulders. She used nets to
gather fish and kicked up the lake
and river bottoms to get toe. organisms moving from the muck.'
In the morning, the waters were
cold, but after noon, they tieated
up," she said.
Students took the creatures, they
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