Oyster River Middle School

Oyster River Students to Represent New Hampshire at 2019 National History Day Contest

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Oyster River Cooperative School District
SAU No. 5
Superintendent James Morse
36 Coe Drive
Durham, NH 03824

For Immediate Release

Monday, May 13, 2019

Media Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

Oyster River Students to Represent New Hampshire at 2019 National History Day Contest

Five Oyster River High School sophomores placed in first, second and third place in their history project categories at the statewide National History Day competition at Plymouth State University. From left: Aaron Hoag, Ryan Belanger, Sofia Testa, Sophie Sullivan and Ella Stasko. (Courtesy Photo Oyster River Cooperative School District)

DURHAM – Superintendent James Morse is pleased to share that a group of Oyster River High School students will travel to the University of Maryland this June to represent New Hampshire at the 2019 National History Day contest.

National History Day is a nonprofit educational organization that offers programming to encourage students to engage in history projects, and hosts a national competition annually for students that succeed in local and statewide competitions. Students can submit a variety of projects to the competitions, including research papers, documentaries, websites, exhibits and performances.

Three Oyster River High School sophomores, Sofia Testa, Aaron Hoag and Ella Stasko will travel to Maryland for the June 10-14 National History Day contest. Sophie Sullivan, also a sophomore, partnered with Ella Stasko on their project, but will not be attending the June competition.

“These students have been remarkably thoughtful and well-researched as they’ve developed these projects,” Superintendent Morse said. “They’ve gotten real experience working with primary sources and telling a historic narrative. It’s exciting, and this competition gave them a great opportunity to dive deep into history.”

The students began working on their projects last semester in their U.S. History classes. Twelve students advanced from a competition among Oyster River High School Students and competed in a statewide competition that was held at Plymouth State University on April 13.

Students who placed first or second in their categories at the statewide competition qualified to represent New Hampshire at the national level this June.

Testa earned first place in the individual exhibit category at the New Hampshire statewide competition for her project on Susan B. Anthony’s Lifelong Fight for Women’s Rights.

Hoag came in second place in the individual exhibit category for his project on the Stonewall Riots.

Stasko and Sullivan came in second place in the group exhibit category for their project on Noyes Academy, a desegregated school that was briefly open in Northern New Hampshire in the 1800s. Stasko and Sullivan also won the National Archives of Boston Award at the statewide competition for Outstanding Use of Primary Sources.

A fifth Oyster River High School sophomore, Ryan Belanger, was also awarded third place in the documentary category for “Joseph C. Grew and Pearl Harbor.”

Oyster River High School students participated in National History Day competitions for the first time three years ago. Gab Anderson, a social studies teacher at the school, started Oyster River High School’s tradition of competing in the competition. This year, Oyster River High School’s student history projects and competition were coordinated by U.S. History teachers Jaclyn Jensen and Scott McGrath.

“These students are incredibly invested in their topics, and have gone above and beyond in their research,” Jensen said. “Their projects are truly remarkable, and we wish them all the best this June.”

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Oyster River Students Honored by Scholastic Writing Awards

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Oyster River Cooperative School District
SAU No. 5
Superintendent James Morse
36 Coe Drive
Durham, NH 03824

For Immediate Release

Monday, Feb. 11, 2019

Media Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

Oyster River Students Honored by Scholastic Writing Awards

Several Oyster River Middle School students have been recognized for their original writing submissions to the 2019 Scholastic Writing Awards. Back row, left to right: Tyler Nelson, Marcus Anderson, Justin Partis, Michael O’Laughlin, Henry Hagen, Annika Baumgardt, Madelyn Marthouse, Julia Kinsey, Paige Burt. Front row, left to right: Elsie Paxton, Ava Gruner, Elizabeth Walent, Dillon Crockett, Kelly Zhang, Amelia Nott, Zoe Selig, Mary Jeong, Libby Davidson. Not pictured: Sabrina Golden and Sophie Meyer. (Photo Courtesy of Oyster River Cooperative School District)

DURHAM – Superintendent James Morse is pleased to announce that several eighth grade students at Oyster River Middle School have been recognized by the 2019 Scholastic Writing Awards.

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards annually recognize middle and high school students from across the United States for their exceptional art and writing work, and offers students the opportunity to have their submissions publicly displayed and published.

In the state of New Hampshire, 750 submissions were entered into the Scholastic Writing Awards by middle and high school students. Of those, 76 submissions were awarded Gold Keys, 158 submissions received Silver Keys, and 105 Honorable Mentions were given statewide.

Submissions to the Scholastic Writing Awards are judged on their originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision.

“Oyster River students have represented the district very well in the Scholastic Writing Awards, year after year,” Superintendent Morse said. “The poems, personal essays, short stories, and other works submitted this year reflect their hard work and talent for writing. It’s a pleasure to see their submissions recognized.”

At Oyster River Middle School, eight students were awarded Gold Keys for their work, eight students received Silver Keys, and seven students were given Honorable Mentions.

Gold Key recipients at Oyster River Middle include Annika Baumgardt for her poem “taste the rainbow,” Dillon Crockett for his personal essay “Floating,” Ava Gruner for her personal essay “Taken by the Wind,” Henry Hagen for his personal essay “Home is a Place with a Purple Fence,” Julia Kinsey for her poem “The Children of War,” Sophie Meyer for her poem “Tallying the Daily Dead,” Amelia Nott for her short story “When the Light Shines,” and Elsie Paxton for her poem “Your Words.”

“When I found out I won a gold key, I was really proud of myself,” said Dillon Crockett, an eighth grade student. “The fact that something that I wrote was recognized was really important to me.”

“I wrote down what I was feeling and what I remembered feeling,” said Ava Gruner, an eighth grade student, about her Gold Key winning personal essay. “While I was revising my memoir, I took out unnecessary dialogue that made it less dramatic, and I tried to make whoever was listening infer what I was feeling.”

“I was surprised when I won a gold key just because I never thought I would write something that other people would actually recognize and understand what I was trying to say,” she added. “I was pretty happy to see what I wrote getting recognized because I put so much emotion into it.”

Silver Keys were awarded to Annika Baumgardt for her poem “Ordinary Eyes,” Libby Davidson for her personal essay “I Live to Be Me,” Sabrina Golden for her flash fiction piece “The Unanswered Questions That Never Stopped Hurting,” Madelyn Marthouse for her personal essay “I Didn’t Even Get to Say Goodbye” and her poem “Some Will Never See Home Again,” Sophie Meyer for her personal essay “How to Say Goodbye,” Tyler Nelson for the poem “Twinkle Twinkle,” Amelia Nott for her science fiction/fantasy piece “A Spill of Ink,” and Elizabeth Walent for her poem “The (not so) Perfect World.”

“I actually wrote both of my poems in a three day period,” said Annika Baumgardt, an eighth grade student who was awarded both a Gold and a Silver Key. “I never really liked writing poetry, and writing in general wasn’t really my strong suit, but I was really in a creative mood when I started writing and I was surprised that I came up with something I was proud of. This was really the first time I’ve taken poetry writing seriously, and now I’m more open to writing other poems.”

Several students were also given Honorable Mentions, including Marcus Anderson for his flash fiction piece “Kamikaze,” Paige Burt for her poem “The World Needs to Make a Change,” Mary Jeong for her personal essay “White Cat on Daisy Drive,” Michael O’Laughlin for his personal essay “Wedding Band,” Justin Partis for his personal essay “When Calm Peaks” and his poem “Storm,” Zoe Selig for her poem “Refugees, Not Enemies,” and Kelly Zhang for her critical essay “You’ll Get Run Over, Honey.”

Students that were recognized in the 2019 Scholastic Writing Awards will be honored in an Awards Ceremony at Plymouth State University this May. Winning submissions will also be published in “Middle High School Voices,” an anthology of award winning writing by New Hampshire middle and high school students.

The 2019 Scholastic Writing Awards and “Middle High School Voices” was sponsored locally by the National Writing Project in New Hampshire.

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*Media Advisory* Oyster River to Host Robotics Competition this Weekend

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Oyster River Cooperative School District
SAU No. 5
Superintendent James Morse
36 Coe Drive
Durham, NH 03824

For Immediate Release

Friday, Jan. 25, 2019

Media Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

*Media Advisory* Oyster River to Host Robotics Competition this Weekend

Nine groups of Oyster River Middle School students built robots this year and competed against groups from other schools in VEX IQ Robotics Competitions. The school will hold it’s first VEX IQ robotics competition this Sunday, Jan. 27. (Courtesy photo Oyster River Cooperative School District)

DURHAM – Principal Jay Richard is pleased to announce that Oyster River Middle School will host its first VEX IQ robotics event this Sunday.

Approximately 45 students in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades at Oyster River Middle School take part in VEX IQ robotics, and are coached after school by teachers John Silverio and Jason Duff.

VEX IQ Robotics is a robotics building program that teaches students STEM concepts through the act of building and programming a robot.

Students who joined the VEX IQ Robotics club at Oyster River Middle School this fall started working on their robots in late September. Four out of the middle school’s nine teams have qualified this year for the state tournament on Feb. 17 at Manchester Community College. Two to five students are in each team.

Last year, one Oyster River Middle School team won the New Hampshire/ Vermont state championship VEX IQ Robotics competition in multiple categories. The same team also participated in the World VEX IQ event in April 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky.

On Sunday, Jan. 27, Oyster River Middle School is hosting it’s first annual VEX IQ Next Level Tournament from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The tournament is the last qualifying event for New Hampshire teams, and 32 groups from across the state have signed up to compete.

Students will face a variety of challenges in the competition. Individual teams will have one minute to score as many points as possible on the ‘challenge table.” Points can be scored by maneuvering a robot to move hubs on the table and stacking them in two scoring zones. Teams can also earn points by directing their robot to complete the round with a particular action, such as parking their robot under a bar or hanging from it. Points will also be added to the ‘skills’ score if a team programs their robot to score points autonomously.

Teams will also participate in pairs to score as many points as possible in one minute teamwork challenges during the tournament, ending in a ‘step ladder’ competition where the two teams with the highest scores will advance to the state tournament.

Engineering judges will also evaluate teams based on robot design and performance. Two awards, one for design and another for overall excellence, will be awarded at the competition. Teams that are given either award will qualify for the state tournament. Teams will also be assessed by their engineering knowledge and design, as well as an engineering log that tracks their process for building a robot and their engineering design stages.

For more information about Sunday’s competition visit www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-iq-challenge/RE-VIQC-18-6984.html.

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