Tiger Talk
Volume LV1 Issue 4 February 2023
Central School's Geography Bee
On Tuesday, January 31, thirteen Central students from sixth, seventh, and eighth grade participated in our school Geography Bee in front of the entire school. National Geographic sponsored this bee for over 20 years, but discontinued it due to Covid. An international geography bee was brought back this year. Our bee was moderated by Mr. Gillespie, and Mr. Hockmeyer was the judge and scorekeeper. The bee consisted of three final rounds. To determine who participated in the bee, in early January, students in 6th and 7th grade competed in classroom geography bees. In 8th grade, students were given a geography test. The sixth grade finalists were Nathaniel Bockelman, Amaya Elizagray, Jack Neri, and Bo Olpaka. The seventh grade finalists were Cole Lesser (for Aidan Abere), Joey Cerami, David Nicolette, Ronen Joshi, and Josh Rogers. The eighth grade finalists were Harry Graves, Jack Marianski, Dev Patel, and Joey Perruna. Students performed well, and the school-wide winner was Harrison Graves. Congratulations! See photo below.
Central Competes in Consortium General Knowledge Competition
On Tuesday, January 24th, eight Central students - Aza Chang, Ella Donohoe, Joel Force, Anya Jain, Jack Marianski, Dev Patel, Camila Rodriguez, and Stella Viegas - competed in a General Knowledge competition, which took place here at Central Middle School. This was led by Mr. Gillespie. They competed against 8 other schools including, Delbarton, Frelinghuysen, Morris Plains Boro School, Oak Knoll, Oratory Prep, Our Lady of Peace, Peck, and Ridgedale.
General Knowledge competition is a test of students’ knowledge on random facts. These facts are arranged in the categories of history, geography, mathematics, science, sports, religions, language art literacy, and poetry. For the competition, students were given thirty seconds to answer the general questions, and forty-five seconds for math questions. If the teams answered correctly, they earned 10 points. Central's JV team placed first overall out of nine teams! For their efforts, they won a plaque! We are so proud of our students and their teamwork, kindness, communication, and cooperation. Overall, the students described General Knowledge as a great experience! See photo below.
Central Students Compete in Model UN
On Friday, January 27th, ten Central students participated in the Jr. Model UN competition. This year was the first time in Central Middle School that our Jr. Model U.N team participated as a delegation in person. In the past, due to COVID-19, everything was online. This year, the set up was a whole different experience for our members.
Model U.N requires motivation, participation, and leadership skills. Our members worked tremendously hard on their position papers and were determined to do their best. Nonetheless, that courage and grit paid off!
But before getting into details, what is Jr. Model U.N? Junior Model United Nations is an extracurricular activity that you can join in middle school. Model U.N is also offered in high school. Students usually represent as delegates to the United Nations and formally discuss global conflicts like global health, war, climate action, and gender equality. Each delegation would be assigned a country and a part of the United Nation like the General Assembly or the World Health Organization (WHO). Next these delegations take months of research to propose a proper position paper, each delegation must discuss only stating their countries views on the given conflict, not including their personal opinion. The countries then gather for a conference at their assigned agency and after discussing, countries propose a resolution. The remaining countries decide on whether they agree or disagree to adopt the resolution.
Our delegates this year traveled to Drew University for the conference. It took a lot of critical thinking, diplomacy, confidence, public speaking skills, teamwork, and research for our team. Not surprisingly, all our teams pushed through against 65 other teams. Central Middle School earned 3 best delegation awards, going to Noah Muchnik and Anya Jain as Pakistan, Maya Omkar and D’Laynna Hughes as China, and Leo Yao and Benjamin Squizziato as Nigeria. Ms. Paugh, Central's Model U.N coach/advisor stated, “Congratulations! I'm proud of each of you. As coach, I am naming Aza Chang our most valuable player. She attended all meetings, conducted extensive research for each topic, and stepped in when the French Delegation lost a member. Thank you, Aza, and every member of our team. Today, you are the champions!” Also, great work to Aza Chang, Dev Patel, Justin Li, Jack Marianski, and Alex Tatar. Mr. Gillespie accompanied the students on the trip with Mrs. Paugh. Overall, Model U.N was an interesting and different experience. Each student had fun and would love to recruit more members to experience this researching journey next year.
Basketball Playoffs!
A Few Tiger Talk Students Explore Central School's Basement
Did you know that Central Middle School has a basement? Did you know there used to be classes down there? These surprising facts still remain unknown to some students here at our school. Going down there was an exciting experience. The basement compared to the upstairs was surely strange. When first going, down, you see a large picture of a gray dragon painted on the side of the stairwell. At the bottom of the stairs, there is a long teal hallway with rooms only to the right side. In those rooms were mostly storage items, such as old artwork, theater props, old textbooks, uniforms, and files of every student who ever attended Central Middle School. It was odd to think about how those items were once used by previous students. The atmosphere was quite unusual compared to the Central Middle School we know today. The paint was peeling off the walls, there are colorful wires, and even a boiler room, things that I wouldn’t expect to see. There is a crawl space that runs underneath the stage. What I found most interesting is the fact that the Central Middle School basement was a nuclear fallout shelter. Fallout shelters were originally built during the Cold War. We saw the two signs saying “Fallout Shelter," one outside, and one down in the basement. This was a fun and educational "field trip."