The Prowler Dec. 6, 20124 news

Biting into history Election Day in America has come and gone, but Charlotte Robinson’s AP US History class kept the political spirit alive through dinner parties. Each class had to divide themselves up into four different groups with each group debating the hot-topic issues of the 1828, 1832, 1836 and 1840 presidential elections. The students had to debate the issues such as indian removal and tariffs and economic policies. “I learned a ton of different things,” junior Owen Handel said. “It was fun to work on and all of the skits were interesting to watch.” Students were also able to

Juniors in Charlotte Robinson’s AP US History class, act out the 1832 presidential election between Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. Some of the topics debated were tarrifs, the removal of indians and the expansion of slavery. Justin Doil/Staff

choose the characters they wanted to act out in their skits. “It was great to have fun with my group while learning history,”

junior Abby Newman said. “The food was good and I enjoyed bringing out the personality of my character.”

Bowling the day away Physics teachers Ryan Mew-born and Joseph Perrotta decided to gauge their students’ under-standing of the physics in some unconventional ways. In October, the classes ventured out into the fac-ulty parking lot where they participated in a relay race. In order to complete the race, students had to accurately draw a free body diagram and sweep a bowling ball around scattered cones. Later, in November, Mewborn and Perrotta decided to use the game Tug-o-War to teach students some lessons about tension. By allowing students to venture outside of the classroom, Mew-born and Perrotta were able to

Students in Joseph Perrotta’s and Ryan Mewborn’s Physics classes take part in a bowling obstacle course where students had to navigate a bowling ball through a obstacle course and complete free body diagrams. Antonio Santiago/Staff

teach students concepts in an engaging way. “It was a ton of fun,” junior Gabby Illg said. “It was a fresh

and exciting way to learn about the basics of physics that we use and learn about every day during class.”

Masks illustrate plays

Students from first and second period litter English teacher Nancy Close’s bul-letin board with a wide array of Shakespeare masks. Victoria Alvarez/Staff

students chose to illustrate ele-ments from “Romeo and Juliet.” On the back of their mask, the students had to include a label explaining how they incorporat-ed the elements into their masks. Students were mainly graded on originality, creativity, and

construction. Students then presented their mask projects to their peers. “As a group they did a really good job,” Close said after their presentations. “It’s amazing what some of them come up with.”

English teacher Nancy Close makes Shakespeare come to life with her Shakespearean mask projects. Close, who has assigned the project every year since she’s taught ninth grade gifted English, first got the idea from her friend, Lynne Bruschetti, who teaches English at McIn-tosh. Close said she thought it would be “a bit more fun to do a creative project” instead of a quiz or test. Earlier in the year, students from Close’s first and second periods read and discussed the Shakespeare plays “Romeo and Juliet” and “Much Ado about Nothing.” To show their understanding of the material, the students were required to create a mask illus-trating a series of lines, themes, scenes, or characters. Most of the

Victoria Alvarez ’16 Staff Writer

Justin Doil ’14 Staff Writer

Drama department director, David Spearman, instructs participates during the first rehersal of the pageant that will be held in January. Paige Neary/Staff

Pageant lines up ‘kicking’ talent

This year, Miss Starr’s Mill will start out with a kick. Liter-ally. Among the talents of the 29 girls participating in the pageant is senior Mariah Smith’s black-belt demonstration. Smith will perform a karate routine using a bow staff and the self-defense skills she earned from eight years of hard work. Smith started karate when she was 10 and it took her four years to receive her black belt. She still competes in form, sparring, and board breaking. This is Smith’s first pageant and she is looking forward to it. “I joined the pageant because I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and try for the scholarship, but I’m really interested in seeing the other talents,” Smith said.

In previous years, many of the talents have consisted of singing, dancing, and other assorted skills, but according to pageant direc-tor and Drama department chair David Spearman, it depends year to year. “One year we may have a lot of dancers, another we may have singers, but the majority sing or dance,” he said. The first two days of the pageant are Thursday Jan. 10 and Friday Jan. 11, and will begin at 7 p.m. The final 10 contestants will vie for the title starting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12. The girls will have 10 rehears-als before the big show. “Tickets can be purchased in the front office and later will be sold in the cafeteria during lunch,” said front office secretary Vicky Swaerkosz said.

VogelContinued from page 1dream to make a national com-mercial, but for Vogel, it was a chance at fame. Whatever their reasons, the two seemed fated to meet. “I chose Luke because his personality was easy to work with and his overall look fit the main character in my commercial,” Peek said. “I needed someone young, but who looked older.” Vogel said he has the looks for the part, but his acting inexperi-ence didn’t hold him back. “At first I was hesitant to be in the commercial, but when he told me it was going to be in a contest and had the chance to be part of the Super Bowl commercials, I changed my mind and said yes,” Vogel said. “I was just thinking how cool of an opportunity it was to be on TV, especially during the Super Bowl,” he said. The commercial was shot inside an old private jet in Aug. at an airport museum in Marietta. “I wasn’t really nervous, I just didn’t know what to expect,” Vogel said. “It was weird at first because I never acted before. I just winged it, and Keith said I did a good job.” Vogel said his limited acting skills weren’t a problem because the commercial was pretty simple.

“I was sitting in the airplane enjoying the ride while drawing a picture of a Doritos bag that I didn’t really draw,” Vogel said. “Next, we replaced the picture with an empty Doritos bag that was glued to the paper,” Vogel said. “When I peeled it back, it looked like the picture came to life, and I had to act really surprised.” After Vogel had a real Doritos bag placed in his hand, a flight attendant walked by. “He stole the bag and took a bite,” Vogel said. “I had to tackle him because he stole my Doritos.” Peek said he was pleased with the commercial. “He did a great job and I am definitely going to use him again,” Peek said. Vogel would have never guessed that attending the wed-ding of a family friend in Pensa-cola would have given him the opportunity for Super Bowl fame. “It’s a good thing I didn’t back out of it because I would never have had this experience,” Vogel said. To view the Doritos’ com-mercials, go to “Crash the Super Bowl” Facebook page. Vogel and Peek’s commercial was in eighth place at the time this article was written and if it wins, they will recieve $1 million to split.

Karson Mizell ’14 Staff Writer

Paige Neary’14 Staff Writer