The Big Blue Blast
The Official Newsletter of Swampscott High School
November 8, 2019
On Monday, November 11 we celebrate veterans and the contributions they have made to our nation and community. As the son and brother of a veteran, I am aware of the sacrifices and challenges of service members and the families supporting them. Thank you for your service.
Quarter One grades post on Aspen X2 today. Please make sure to check your child's progress. Parent-teacher conferences are this Tuesday, November 12.
Congratulations to the following students who were awarded the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship:
Charlotte Andrews
Erik Bazarov
Abigail Benevento
Olivia Chavez
Georgia Cilley
Andrew Cronin
Ella Daniels-Koch
Ashley Engstrom
Gefen Finn
Kyle Fitzgerald
Leonie Flacke
Jamie Gaber
Oscar Hale
Harris Havlicek
Caleigh Hopkins
Graham Inzana
Hannah Kornerup
Margaret Krawitz
Nora Laplante
Morgan Lenihan
Anna Levenberg
Maxwell Lewis
Mackenna Lord
Tyler Marshall
Ian McRae
Jane Michigan
Alexa Mignone
Jack Miller
Amanda Murrizi
Lucy Naughton
Madeline O'Brien
Duncan Page
Alexa Papazoglou
Aidan Pulaski
Grace Rapisarda
Justin Ratner
Snow Reza
Anabella Seligson
Brooke Stout
Andrew Turcotte
Jared Wallen
Stephen Whipple
Riley Wurzel
Sarah Zanger
IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES:
Prospective Student Open House: November 21
Powder Puff Game: November 23 10 AM Blocksidge Field
Pep Rally: November 27, 10:45 AM Noon Dismissal for all students
November 28: Thanksgiving
November 29: No school, Thanksgiving Break
UPDATES FROM THE GUIDANCE DEPARTMENT
NSCC On the Spot Admissions
Yesterday, 11/7, the counselors hosted an “on the spot” admissions event with NSCC. Approximately ten students applied and were accepted to NSCC pending graduation on June 7, 2020.
Salem State University “On the Spot Admissions”
The counselors have collaborated again with Salem State University to offer a similar on the spot admissions event, which will take place on 12/9/2019. If you are interested in Salem State and would like to submit an application and learn of the admissions decision “on the spot,” please see your school counselor for details!
COLLEGE VISITS: FOR SENIOR STUDENTS
Admissions reps from over 75 colleges are coming to SHS to see YOU. The list of scheduled visits is on Naviance and posted in the Guidance suite. This is an awesome opportunity for you to meet with admissions officers from schools you are interested in, get to know more about the school, programs, campus organizations, etc. Perhaps the most crucial element to these visits is that the admissions officers who come are usually the ones who read and make decisions on your application. So, this is your chance to make a strong first impression, have your questions answered, and engage with the admissions team!!! See Mrs. Brown for a pass. Visits will take place in the guidance office.
Upcoming College Visits
11/12/19 9:00 AM
Suffolk University
11/12/19 10:30 AM
New England Institute of Technology
11/13/19 9:00 AM
Fisher College
11/13/19 10:30 AM
Massachusetts Maritime Academy
11/14/19 9:00 AM
University of New Haven
11/15/19 9:00 AM
Wentworth Institute of Technology
11/15/19 10:30 AM
Regis College
Hands On Programming!
Looking for a school that offers more hands-on programs? Check out New England Institute of Technology, coming next week to SHS for an info session. They offer a multitude of programs that include associate, Bachelor’s and graduate programs. Consider a career in automotive, welding engineering, veterinary technology, health sciences, architecture, or interior design...to name a few. Check here for a full list of their programs or head to their open house (11/17) for more info.
Click here for complete list of all college visits through the end of this month..
Students can register through Naviance, which is helpful because students get an automatic email reminder.
HARVARD RESEARCH STUDY
On Thursday, November 14, a research team from Harvard will be implementing a voluntary study with SHS students. Here is information from the study:
US schools are seeking to prepare students for the jobs of the future, where AI, machine learning, and automation will play a critical role. This project will be the first to examine whether recent interpretable machine learning models can be understood by young people. This work has several implications. There is an equity issue at stake: as more decisions about the lives of students are made by machines, it is important to explore whether these populations can understand (and once understood, trust, believe, question, and hold to account) those machine learning models. In addition, concepts of modeling, prediction, and machine learning models are now important in STEM and beyond, so studying whether young people can understand these concepts could help to inform curriculum development in the STEM pipeline - at what age can these machine learning concepts be taught and understood by students?
Content:
The survey is a puzzle that will help evaluate students' interaction with complex, AI models.
The students will be presented with several puzzle-like models and will be asked to make a decision based on the available information.
The survey will be completely anonymous.
It takes approximately 20 minutes to complete
It does not contain any sensitive questions.
Outcomes:
The research team plans to share the survey results with Swampscott High School as it will have several insights around the students' interactions with complex AI models that will drive the jobs of the future and ideas for curriculum development. We will share any associations that we might find between student's interests/favorite subjects and their performance on the survey. We will provide our analysis from the research conducted on this subject on ways to help students be better prepared for the jobs of the future.
North Shore Medical Center is offering Yoga classes for teens. Please follow this link for more information
https://nsmc.partners.org/class/ViewDetails/3159
NSMC is also offering Teen Talk, This group supports teens with depression, anxiety, ADHD, self harming, eating disorders, etc. For more information, follow this link: https://nsmc.partners.org/class/ViewDetails/3156
Oedipus Rex
Abigail Adams Scholarship Recipients
Follow us on Twitter
Principal Dennis Kohut @swampkohut
Assistant Principal Colleen Cull-Finn @cullfinnshs
Dean of Students Chris Norkun @cnorkunshs
Swampscott High School Guidance Department @SHSguidancedpt
Swampscott High School Athletics @sportsbigblue
Superintendent Pamela Angelakis @sps01907