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14 September 2008
Letter from the Editor:
-Shauna Baker
Top ten reasons why you should contribute to the student newsletter:
10. It's easy!
9. It allows others see your creative perspective.
8. It will help to develop your writing skills.
7. It'll make Shauna very happy.
6. You can explore journalism.
5. It's fun!
4. It'll help you to get involved.
3. Contributing regularly looks great on college applications.
2. Learn more about what's happening in your school.
1. You can ask Antal all those pesky questions.
This is the second issue of the LACS Student Newsletter for the 2008-2009 calendar. Within the next few weeks, there will also be a Highlights section posted to illustrate the interesting things that people or groups in the school are doing. Keep an eye out! A new issue will be posted every Sunday night to Monday morning where you can find new opportunities or interesting stories to read. Be sure to tell your friends about it, too!
The following is a list of submission guidelines for those of you interested in submitting to the newsletter:
Student Newsletter submissions:
-Must be related to the school or a member of the school, past or present
-Must be appropriate for all ages in language and content
-Must not contain plagerism
-Must be edited for correct spelling and grammar
-Approximate length: two paragraphs, adaptable depending on content
Student Journal submissions:
(For short poetry and prose)
-Must be appropriate for all ages in language and content
-Must be two pages or less in length
-Must contain original work; no plagerism
-Must be edited for correct spelling and gramar
Ask Antal
-Antal Spector-Zabusky
For all those nagging questions about life, the universe and, most importantly, technology
Q: What is dark matter and are there any uses for it?
A:
Dark matter is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: "matter" (or "stuff") that is "dark" (or "does not glow"). To be slightly more accurate: when we look up into the night sky, we see a bunch of colored dots of light: stars and planets. If we look at pictures of outer space from telescopes, we see brightly colored galaxies and nebulae. And so we assume that most of the matter in space is this normal, ordinary matter. However, it is not. Five times as much matter is actually "dark matter"—matter that neither reacts with nor gives off light. This dark matter is instead detected by its gravitational force. When we look at galaxies, we can measure the speed at which the non-dark matter is rotating; this speed is determined by gravitational forces. We find that the stars on the outside of certain galaxies are rotating much faster than the visible mass of the galaxy would account for; we thus deduce that there is more "dark matter" in the galaxy that is exerting gravitational force but which we cannot see. Methods like these are used to detect dark matter inferentially, as our telescopes are all light based (recall that x-rays and radio waves, among other things, are all different forms of light).
Along with dark matter, there is something even weirder and less well understood: so-called "dark energy." Dark energy is a mysterious repulsive force, yet more prevalent than dark matter, that is pushing the universe apart and causing it to expand faster and faster. Dark energy is in no way actually dark, and nothing about it is known as of yet.
As for uses for dark matter—probably not, but who knows? We barely know what dark matter is (it could be "normal" matter that is merely dark, or it could be a strange form of matter as yet unobserved); even if we did know what it was and how to construct it, its properties do not lend themselves to many everyday uses. We don't need, for instance, walls that are merely slabs of blackness—we have paint for that. What dark matter's real use will be is in helping us unlock the secrets of the cosmos.
Research:
Word of the Week
-Jocelyn Sawyer
Abhor, v.
Pronunciation: ah-bore
Definition: to hate
Example: "He abhors pasta – it's his least-favorite
food."
Counterfeit, adj.
Pronunciation: cown-ter-fit
Definition: fake, false
Example: "It's very difficult to make convincing
counterfeit money."
Tangent, n.
Pronunciation: tan-jent
Definition: going off the main subject
Example: "In the middle of her story, she went off o
n a tangent about ice cream flavors."
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Great opportunities!
Hi,
I'm an ACS alum, I was just checking out your website and newsletter. I would be more than happy to share my story with current students. Also, I have a great opportunity for some LACS high school students to intern this year at local businesses. I work at the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce and have been here for one year, currently 60% of my job is Administrative Aide for the Internship Coordinator. We have recently received a grant through the New York State Department of Labor, the grant is called Student Internship Opportunities Initiative. The grant has funded the operation and administration of the program which is staffed by one full time Internship Coordinator and myself.
The purpose of the grant is to work with for-profit businesses to create internship opportunities for high school and undergraduate students. The grant’s main focus is to provide students with real world experience in a field they are interested in, while also exposing them to the many opportunities in Upstate New York. Currently the Upstate New York region is seeing the “brain drain” not only from the baby boomers retiring but also from the young professionals who leave the area. Our hope is that this program will show students the many professional opportunities in Upstate New York and that some may decide to live and work here after graduation.
The Student Internship Opportunities Initiative is a different kind of internship program which provides a unique experience for every student. One of the main differences between our program and others is our cooperative learning agreement. This agreement is developed by the student, mentor/supervisor, Internship Coordinator and when applicable, the school advisor. The agreement outlines each party’s expectations for the internship, the learning outcomes for the student and the business outcomes. The learning outcomes are developed with the student so that each internship is tailored to the students own personal interests and professional goals. The Internship Coordinator will check in regularly with all involved parties to insure that the goals are being met and that there are no problems. In any case where they may be problems the Coordinator will act as a mediator and advisor to all involved parties.
Our internships are developed in two separate ways. The first is when businesses come to us with a need for an intern. The second is when a student comes to us in search of a particular learning experience. When this happens we work with businesses in the area to create that opportunity. Every internship differs, some will be project based and others will be general positions within the organization. In some cases we may have a group of interns working on a single project or just working for the same company. Each internship offers a level of responsibility and independent oversight that students may have a hard time finding elsewhere. To give a few examples, one intern will be solely responsible for developing and managing a radio station website, another will be responsible for developing a marketing campaign, while others will work on preparing real estate listings and marketing materials on a daily basis. These are phenomenal opportunities.
All of our internships are fully paid for by the businesses, some will pay minimum wage and others will pay much more. Another exciting aspect of our internships is that many of our businesses are interested in testing alternate work locations, with some businesses allowing for up to 90% of the work to be completed remotely. This is a great chance for busy students, and those without transportation to participate in an internship.
Each internship will be a minimum of six weeks; however the six weeks do not have to be consecutive. The internships can start and end at any time throughout the year; they can be over semester breaks, during the summer or during the semester. In order to meet our requirements for the grant, each internship will be a minimum of ten hours a week.
All information on our program, our available positions and inquiry forms for both students and businesses will be available on the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce website in the coming weeks. We are very excited about the opportunities we can provide to both students and businesses and hope that you are as well. Please refer any students you believe would be interested in our program to myself, Alta Logan, Administrative Assistant, or Jessica Myers, Internship Coordinator. We have a number of internships available already in many different fields and I would love to work with LACS students. I had a couple of internships while I was a student at ACS, I had a great experience and I hope to assist with creating some great opportunities for LACS students today.
Sincerely,
Alta Logan
Administrative Assistant &
Jessica Myers
Program Coordinator
Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce
904 East Shore Drive
Ithaca, NY 14850
607-273-7080
Fax: 607-272-7617
www.tompkinschamber.org
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