Knights Newsletter
Wheaton High School Monthly Update - May 2021
From Dr. Mugge
As we near the end of the year, please be looking for details about enrolling in summer school and some of the summer opportunities that teachers at Wheaton are developing for our students. More information is coming soon!
Please note that there is no school for students on Thursday, May 13. Graduation will be an asynchronous day for all students grades 9-11. Please read the details about graduation. MCPS has placed strong restrictions on graduations this year and we will follow them.
Class of 2021 Updates
Seniors!
SENIOR UNITY DAY: - Update
As of Friday April 30th, the county is allowing us to increase the number of seniors who can be present at Wheaton during Senior Unity Day on Wednesday May 5th, so we are going to bring seniors into the stadium by academy. This will allow seniors to be with more of their peers. Each academy will have 1 hours in the stadium and then need to exit for the next group to enter.
- Engineering will be from 9am to 10am,
- Bio-Medical will be from 10:15am to 11:15am
- Global Studies, AIOT and non-academy students will be from 11:30am-12:30pm.
Seniors will receive their caps & gowns, yard signs, special Wheaton mask made by volunteer community and staff, and play socially distanced games. Students will also have the opportunity to take pictures in their cap & gown for the virtual graduation (which will be available on the Wheaton website on graduation day).
GRADUATION:
We will have an in-person graduation and a virtual graduation (for students not comfortable participating in-person). Graduation will be live streamed via the stadium camera to the MCPS Website.
Seniors last day is May 28th, however, those who still need to complete assignments to pass classes required for graduation, they can continue up until the day before graduation.
Graduation Day - June 3
GRADUATION DAY:
Date and Time and Place: Thursday June 3rd 9:00am
Richard D.Riddle Stadium Wheaton High School
Inclement weather plan: Rain Date #1 June 3rd @ 6:00pm
Rain Date #2 June 4th @ 6:00pm
Graduating seniors can RSVP up to 2 guests per student at graduation by Thursday, May, 26th. Babies, infants, toddlers, etc.. are considered a ticketed guest. No animals or pets are allowed on school property. Wheaton Graduation will be streamed live via MCPS website/Wheaton webpage this year for anyone that is unable to attend. Students were provided the google link on Tuesday, April 27 during the senior class meeting and parents/guardians were provided the link on Thursday, April 29, during the senior parent meeting.
INFORMATION FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO ACCESS TO THE NFHS NETWORK. This is the stadium camera to view sporting events and graduation.
To sign up for your free MCPS high school graduation account, please follow these steps. Sign up for your free account now, do not wait until June 3rd.
1. Go to https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/users/sign_up#
2. Type in your name, email address, and a password to create your FREE NFHS Network account.
3. On [June 3rd] search for [Wheaton High School, Silver Spring, MD] in the search bar, or head to [school website link] https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/wheatonhs/ for a direct link to the NFHS website.
4. Day of: Watch for free, sign in and enjoy!
The unique NFHS website https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/wheaton-high-school-silver-spring-md/evt6770898200 links for all our schools has been established.
If have any questions, please contact Ms. Williams, Senior Administrator or Ms. Schreckengost or Ms. Wolfe, Graduation Coordinators.
Athletics
A Return to "Normalcy" and Play
Our Wheaton Knights returned to the practice fields this past March to begin preparing for the mini fall season which lasted six weeks. It was very refreshing to see over 150 student athletes return to campus and participate in competition versus each other and against other MCPS schools.
During the short season, lessons were learned through “skills and drills” by our field hockey players and a wide variety of “games to prepare for life” which were taught by Coach Travis. The fall season was positive for all by giving closure to our hard working seniors and providing new opportunities to the underclasses. Senior Night was enjoyable regardless of the weather and created many memories. Thank you to all of the coaches, parents and administrators who attended the games to support our Knights.
SCHOOLWIDE INFORMATION
AP Students - Exam Time!
It is exam time so please make sure you:
- Read all of the emails that come either from Ms. Salvado and or the College Board.
- Know your date/time/location of each AP Exam
- Have either downloaded onto your personal non-chrome device the digital app or updated your MCPS chrome book with the newest version of chrome. If you struggle use this: AP Digital Testing App for Chromebook
- Digital Exam Prep: https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/digital-ap-exams/four-steps-before-test/download-install-app
- Then complete the app demo
- Take the digital practice provided by AP
Reach out to me with any questions/comments if you have them! Jeanne_T_Salvado@mcpsmd.org
“See” you soon!
Ms. J. Salvado
CollegeTracks Welcomes Juniors!
CollegeTracks provides free support to juniors and seniors to help them explore college and career opportunities and complete steps in the admissions process like writing essays, getting financial aid, and deciding on a college.
You are invited to explore the CollegeTracks website and SIGN UP! Though there is no deadline to join, the sooner the better because programming for juniors will begin soon and there’s lots to do.
Questions? Please reach out to CollegeTracks at wheaton@collegetracksusa.org. We look forward to working with you and your student!
Tech Notes
Students, if your MCPS Chromebook is starting to do wonky things, there are two things you can try that might help:
- Reboot the device (not just close the lid). This also activates any updates waiting in cue:
- When logged in, click in are with the time, click power icon
- Before logging on, click the “shutdown” button in the lower right corner of the scree
- How down the power button until the device shuts down (never do this with a PC or Mac laptop)
- Clear your cache
1. Log into your device
2. Go to the Chrome browser
3. Log into the mcpsmd.net account
4. Click on the three stacked dots in the top right of the screen
5. Click on History
6. Click on History at the top of the list
7. Click on the box and arrow icon next to Clear browsing data
8. Click on Advanced
9. Set the Time range to All Time
10. Click Clear data.
11. Reboot device, if it is a Chromebook, power it off rather than just close the lid
If you’re still having trouble, feel free to write to me. Tell me what you’re seeing and share any error messages you’re receiving and we’ll take it from there!
How has your life been impacted by Covid?
Club Highlights
NSBE - National Society of Black Engineers
The mission of NSBE is to increase the number of culturally responsible Black Engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally, and positively impact the community. The WHS branch meets on Thursdays from 3:30 pm to 5 pm and does various activities and events, ranging from team competitions to fundraisers. Every year, we go to the NSBE National Convention (usually during March/April), where we meet other high school branches, as well as NSBE members from all walks of life. At the event, we participate in the Ten80, TMAL, and VEX national competitions, which you can learn more about below!
In Ten80, we assemble and program an autonomous racecar using an Arduino, and in C. The car comes with various sensors you can use to navigate the track and detect obstacles. At the national competition, each race car competes in a predetermined amount of laps as fast as they can. We have multiple cars to practice assembly and programming, as well as to run live tests on before the event.
In TMAL (Tri-Math-A-Lon), we train to participate in a team-based math competition, separated into Lower and Upper Division, for under and upperclassmen. Lower Division mainly covers geometry and algebra, while Upper Division includes some calculus as well. All of the material tested will be material already covered in your math classes. We participate in both Regional and National TMAL competitions. During club meetings, we run mock competitions to practice. In our last competition season, we won first place regionally and fourth place nationally at the events!
Last, but certainly not least, is VEX. I saved VEX for last because while I am the president of the Wheaton NSBE chapter, I also chair the VEX committee. In VEX, we design, construct and program a robot with VEX parts to fulfill a yearly objective set by the VEX National Competition. The robot is programmed with VEXcode but is compatible with languages such as Java as well. We go to regional competitions near the winter, and we move on to the national competition if we do well. Every year, we build a robot for the national VEX competition at the convention.
During our last standard competition season, we were on a tight schedule. As the event drew nearer, we met more frequently to finish the robot in time. Two weeks before the event, we uploaded the last of the code and tested the complete robot. To our horror, however, we found that the robot couldn’t move. In a panic, we worked to diagnose the issue. After hours spent disassembling the robot, we realized the motors were too weak to move the robot chassis: a deceptively simple problem.
With the deadline looming over us, we tore apart the robot to fix it. We spent late nights redesigning the blueprints, desperate for ways to make it lighter. Though my team stayed up all night at the convention rectifying our elevator lift, we faced more trouble as our improvised claw was not stable enough to hold the caps. In the lull between rounds, we decided to remove the lift entirely and replace it with a metal bar that could flip the caps and gain points. Surprisingly, the idea worked. We won the match, and we streamlined the robot even further, removing loose wires and replacing the metal bar with twin axles. Every match, our build improved as I delegated which parts we could reinforce, removing the rest. In the end, we became quarterfinalists. VEX is just one of the committees we have in our chapter, but our success in our competition season is a story of a collective effort by students to overcome misfortune. We persevered at every step of the way, learning and implementing new ideas, and we attribute our success to our unending tenacity, which continues to be the backbone of our club today.
We at NSBE pride ourselves on always pushing ourselves, and our club activities moving forward reflect that. We look forward to running summer camps for middle schoolers and incoming freshmen, running workshops at school to teach stem topics, competing in a wider variety of events, and more.
If interested, we ask that you join us on our journey in doing so by becoming a part of the club! We are always looking for new members our bustling community of student scholars welcomes you with open arms!
Wheaton High School
Email: Lisa_Gerhardt@mcpsmd.org
Website: https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/wheatonhs/
Location: Wheaton High School, Dalewood Drive, Silver Spring, MD, USA
Phone: 301-321-3400
Twitter: @wheaton_knights