Falconidae

John A. Ferguson Senior High, Miami, FL Dr. Lisa Robertson, Principal

Volume 14 February 2015 No Goal’s Too High Where Falcons Fly!

Ferguson has been selected as a Microsoft IT school! The Microsoft IT Academy (ITA) program provides digital curricu-lum and certifications for fundamental technology skills to help students be successful in college and careers. Curricu-lum and resources are available to give teachers the flexibility to teach in the style that is best for them and their stu-dents. Some of the advantages of this exciting new academy program are found in the chart below.

Curriculum

Lab Resources

Professional Development

Certification

Partnership Resources

MOAC (Microsoft Official Academic Course) Digital

Textbooks

Online Learning, Lesson Plans, Stu-dent Projects and Test Banks Curricu-lum Mapping to cur-

rent courses

Digital Literacy

Office 2010 or Office 2013 Lab

Licenses

DreamSpark – Developer, Gam-ing and Designer tools, plus Win-dows Server, Se-quel Server, Visual

Studio, and more

E-Reference Online

Library

Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) Mem-

bership

Microsoft Innova-

tive Educator

Teaching with Technology E-

Learning curriculum

10 Microsoft Of-fice Specialist (MOS) certification

vouchers

10 Microsoft Technology Associ-ate (MTA) certifica-

tion vouchers

10 Microsoft Cer-tified Educator (MCE) certification

vouchers

ITA Membership Plaque to showcase

membership

Posters on Mi-crosoft technolo-

gies

Use of Microsoft

IT Academy logo

Teacher Training on ITA Tools & Ben-

efits

MICROSOFT IN THE HOUSE!

PHYSICS

Vishnu Tanguturi- 3rd

MATHEMATICS

Nirav Sookhai- 2nd

CHEMISTRY

Wilson Ly- 1st

Jose Bouza- 4th

Monina Furigay-6th

BIOLOGY

Abhinav Koppu- 3rd

Jorge Vera-Rebollar -4th

Phi Beta Chi and A.P. Chemistry students, under the direction of Mrs. Natalia Guevara, participated in Florida

Gulf Coast University’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) competition on March 2nd.

Ferguson won first place in Chemistry and 4th place overall! Here are the individual standings:

S.T.E.M. STARS

Joao Ribeiro, a Ferguson Interior Design

student, was selected to attend The Na-

tional Youth Leadership Forum: Engi-

neering & Technology in Boston this

summer.

MODEL STUDENTS

Ferguson’s Model United Nations, under the direc-tion of Ms. Maria Blandon, participated in the UNA-USA Conference held at Miami Dade College on February 21st. There were over 25 local high schools participating in this event. Giovanna Garcia and Micaela Gonzalez got the Best Delegate

Award in the Committee on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice repre-senting the Czech Republic. Luana Yamashita and Carla Sanchez-Noya re-ceived Best Position Paper in the United Nations Development Program for the Czech Republic. Christian Flores and Nirav Sookhai got Honorable Mention for Pakistan in the UN Development Program Committee.

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Volume 14

February 2015

At the Ripoll Relays meet on February 16th, Natalie Hernandez, Lauren Gavu-

lic, Kamaria Johnson, and Samantha Ebanks set a school record in the 4x200

meter relay. In addition to this exciting new record, our girls team brought

home the team championship for the fifth consecutive year and the boys

brought home runner-up honors. At the West Kendall Championship on Febru-

ary 20th, both of our teams won first place by margins that were double the

scores of the other three schools combined! Individual congratulations go out

to senior Kamaria Johnson for setting the meet record in the 100 meter hur-

dles.

Teachers Juan Moreno and Shana Wexler are members of the “Green Team,” a group of teach-ers assembled by EF Tours, trained to lead tours to various locations around the world. The group convened in Rome on February 12th-16th, where they re-ceived formal training by EF representatives and veteran travelling teachers. Mr. Moreno and Ms. Wexler will be leading a tour to Paris during spring recess. “We can’t wait! This was definitely the best teacher workshop ever!” commented Mr. Moreno.

Andrew Hoyt and Julian Rodriguez received 2015 Scholas-tic Art & Writing Gold Key awards for their video game submissions. The two talented programmers are now poised to have their games judged at the national level. Julian has already won a Loft award for another game he developed earlier this year, receiving $1000 and the honor of presenting his game at a national tech conference in Washington, D.C.

GREEN MEANS GO! PRAISE FOR PROGRAMMERS

SHATTERING OLD RECORDS!

LEADER IN TRAINING

Four of Ferguson’s chorus students have been accepted as members of Florida’s All-State Chorus. They are Bernadeth Tolentino, Juan Pablo Hernandez, Annia Balcazar, and Su-priya Gudi. On January 31st, the Ferguson Winter Guard competed in their first competition in Jupiter, Florida. The guard placed second. Their next competition was on February 7th. They competed at West Broward High School and received first place!

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Volume 14

February 2015

On January 24th, John A. Ferguson’s Science Olympiad Team, under the direction of Mr. Michael Weiss, competed at the Southwest Regional Competition in Cape Coral. They placed third, finishing a mere four points short of 1st place, and qualified for the state competition on March 21st in Orlando, Florida. The team is comprised of Abhinav Koppu, Vishnu Tanguturi, Wilson Ly, Shirly Ly, Andrew Chang, Vivek Tolani, Navin Singh, Mubin Khan, Matthew Pasteris, David Rotger, Saadhvi Umesh, James DeCario, Smita Bhattachar-jee, Ann-Katrin Valencia, and Carla Sanchez-Noya. Individual accolades were also earned by: Vishnu Tanguturi and Navin Singh-1st Place – Astronomy Abhinav Koppu and Smita Bhattacharjee-1st Place – Cell Biology Navin Singh and James Decario-1st Place – Geologic Mapping Shirly Ly and Wilson Ly-1st Place – Green Generation Vishnu Tanguturi and Wilson Ly-1st Place – It’s About Time Smita Bhattacharjee and Ann-Katrin Valencia-1st Place – Mission Possible David Rotger and James Decario-3rd Place – Air Trajectory Abhinav Koppu and Vishnu Tanguturi-3rd Place – Compound Machines James Decario and Navin Singh-3rd Place – Forensics Abhinav Koppu and Ann-Katrin Valencia-3rd Place – Protein Modeling Abhinav Koppu and Carla Sanchez-Noya-3rd Place – Fossils Matthew Pasteris and Carla Sanchez-Noya-3rd Place – Scrambler

SCIENCE OLYMPIAD CHAMPIONS

Our very own Key Club conducts pizza sales every Friday after school under the pavilion in the courtyard, but it’s piz-za with a purpose! The proceeds will be given to the ELIMI-

NATE Project partnered with UNICEF. The money will be used in to eliminate maternal neonatal tetanus off the face of the planet. “I highly encourage students to be as active in their community as possible in order to achieve the changes they wish to see. While it may seem like a frivolous task, even the smallest amount of mon-

ey can make a difference in the distribution of vaccines around the world,” said club president Michelle Perez.

THE KEY TO ENDING DISEASE MUSICAL MASTERS

“[John A.] Ferguson Sr. High School has some of the best high-school mathematicians in the country,” read a

February 23rd press release by National Assessment & Testing. Our math honor society, Mu Alpha Theta,

demonstrated this with their 22nd-place finish in the 2015 Four-by-Four Competition, a national mathe-

matics contest administered by N.A.T. MAO members, under the direction of Dr. Teresita Lemus, participat-

ed in the team competition where four questions must be answered in ten three-minute rounds. During the

competition, critical decisions must be made by the team as to who will work each problem and whether

their time would be better spent checking one another’s work on easier and more familiar problems or if

they should attempt to answer all four questions. After results from schools across the country were double-

checked, the team of Vishnu Tanguturi, Abhinav Koppu, Wilson Ly, and Sebastian Flores had the highest

score at Ferguson, leading our school to place 22nd overall among the top schools in the country! In addition

to this accomplishment, MAO attended two regional competitions. The results are below.

Ferguson February Regional – 2/14/2015

SWEEPSTAKES – Ferguson – 7TH Place ALGEBRA 1 TEAM – 4TH Place - Connie Ly, Sree Lakshmi Praveen, Kartik Tanguturi, Megan Morales CALCULUS TEAM – 4TH Place - Vishnu Tanguturi, Abhinav Koppu, Wilson Ly, Navin Singh PRE-CALCULUS TEAM – 7TH Place -Nirav Sookhai, Christian Flores, Briana Morales, Smita Bhattacharjee PRE-CALCULUS INDIVIDUAL - 18TH Place -- Christian Flores

Braddock/Sunset January Regional Competition – 1/31/2015 SWEEPSTAKES – Ferguson - 8TH Place CALCULUS TEAM – 3rd Place - Abhinav Koppu, Vishnu Tanguturi, Wilson Ly, Navin Singh CALCULUS INDIVIDUAL – 9th Place - Abhinav Koppu PRE-CALCULUS TEAM – 6th Place - Nirav Sookhai, Christian Flores, Briana Morales, Smita Bhattacharjee PRE-CALCULUS INDIVIDUAL – 10th Place - Nirav Sookhai PRE- CALCULUS INDIVIDUAL – 14th Place -- Christian Flores

NATIONALLY-RENOWNED MATHEMATICIANS

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Volume 14

February 2015