News & Events

There will be a free showing of the award-winning documentary, “What We’re Hungry For: How Food Pantries Fed Rural Wisconsin During the Pandemic, on Monday, November 28, 2022, from 5:30-7:00 p.m. at the Cinemas of Whitewater, 151 Pearson Lane in Whitewater. The screening of the documentary will be followed by a discussion of hunger and food insecurity in the Whitewater area.

This documentary was directed and co-produced by Whitewater resident Dr. Jim Winship, with the videography and film editing by Whitewater High School graduate Parker Winship. The film chronicles the response of five rural Wisconsin food pantries to the unprecedented needs of their communities during the coronavirus pandemic. The stories of how these pantries responded to hunger and food insecurity during this crisis reveal the vital role their efforts play in the wellbeing of their communities and provide a lens to look at longstanding underexplored issues surrounding hunger in rural Wisconsin. What We’re Hungry For was recently honored at the Ceres Food Film Festival with the Moved Us Most Award.

Cash donations may be made at this event to The Community Space, Whitewater Food Pantry, and Whitewater Unites Lives Summer Feeding Program — Mind the Gap.

For more information, contact Jim Winship at jim@beechwoodtrue.com, 262-215-1492.

Three WUSD schools were represented by teams at the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Regional held at Mukwonago High School on Saturday, November 19. The competition hosted a total of 20 teams from elementary and middle schools from around southeast Wisconsin. The WMS Iron Dragons, the Washington Brick Layers, and the Lakeview Brick Layers spent the day interacting with other teams, completing practice runs with their Spike Prime robots, participating in competitive robot runs, and presenting for a team of judges. The presentations included the team’s innovation project based on this year’s FLL Challenge theme of Super-Powered, dealing with the future of sustainable energy.

Whitewater schools participate in the FLL Challenge level age-group with 4^th and 5^th graders at the elementaries and 6^th and 7th graders at the middle school. Teams are challenged to start with their base Spike Prime robot and then design and add attachments to the robot with LEGOs that they can write code to operate. This then allows them to complete a series of missions on the table-top game field. Each mission is worth a varying number of points, and all of the mission scores are added together to achieve the final robot score. After three attempts on the official field, teams are ranked based on their highest run. Teams also maintain technical documentation of their engineering process.

The Whitewater Middle School Iron Dragons, coached by Mrs. Kerry Ramsden, are a newly formed team, and many of the students were first time coders and builders. They met after school and during the Middle School’s club advisory time in preparation for their first competition. Their team’s formation was made possible in part by a generous donation from Wisconsin Makers, Inc. which funded the purchase of their new Spike Prime robot. The students presented their Hydroelectric Gutter project at the FLL competition which proposes using a series of water wheels to harness power from the flow of water through gutters during rain showers. They received positive feedback from the judges on their teamwork and how each of them had a part in project presentation and robot design.

The Washington Brick Layers, coached by Mr. Chris Nate and Mrs. Valerie Troxel, met after school twice a week to work on computer coding, robot design, and researching energy. The students sent out electronic quizzes to their families and the teachers to collect data on personal energy usage.They met with Mr. Johnson from WE Energies and found out about our community’s energy grid and how we get and use energy. The students used this data to create a fictitious app called Meter Reader (MR.) which would convert energy usage on your phone into dollar amounts. This way homeowners could adjust and hopefully save money and energy.  They presented this idea to a panel of judges along with competing in three robot competitions.    

The Washington team earned the Motivate Award at Saturday’s event, which celebrates a team that embraces the culture of FLL through team building, team spirit, and displayed enthusiasm.  The Motivate Award celebrates the core values of FIRST Robotics of discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, and fun, and the winner is selected after discussion between all of the judging teams.

The Lakeview Brick Layers are coached by Mrs. Sara Brautigam. “Lake Power” was the focus of Lakeview’s LEGO League innovation project. The team was interested in developing a hydroelectric station through Whitewater Lake that could help power our Promethean boards at Lakeview. The students sent out surveys to teachers on their daily usage of their Promethean boards and were amazed at how much they are used! The team also conversed with Mr. Grondin from WE Energies on information pertaining to hydroelectric power. With the use of hydroelectric power, we could provide energy to our school to help offset our daily electrical usage. They presented this idea to a panel of judges, along with their robot design and core values. King Bob, Lakeview’s robot, completed three rounds in the afternoon during the robot competition.  

The Lincoln Brick Layers, coached by Mrs. Lisa Kaminski, were not able to enter the Mukwonago competition, but met throughout the season learning to program their robot and working on their innovation project.

Members of Ferradermis, Whitewater High School’s FIRST Robotics Competition Team, were excited to help out some of the elementaries and the middle school during a few of their team meetings, providing mentoring in preparation for Saturday’s competition.

The elementary teams ended their day on Saturday with some exciting news from the Whitewater Community Foundation, as a Community Action Grant written by Mrs. Lori Heidenreich on behalf of Delta Kappa Gamma (DKG) will allow each of the three elementaries to purchase a second Spike Prime robot kit. Each elementary school now owns one robot kit which was provided through fundraising by the high school robotics team, and Wisconsin Makers, a local makerspace, recently funded the first robot kit for the middle school team. Having a second robot at a school will allow many more students to be hands-on at the same time.

At least two of the schools are now looking forward to a second in-house season with new groups of students, and the schools also plan to host their own in-district competition later this year. 

If you would like any additional information on the WUSD robotics program, would like to help mentor a team, or would be interested in sponsoring a team, please reach out to one of the coaches/advisors below:

• Val Troxel, FLL Challenge Team #48853 Washington Brick Layers, vtroxel@wwusd.org
• Chris Nate, FLL Challenge Team #48853 Washington Brick Layers, cnate@wwusd.org
• Sara Brautigam, FLL Challenge Team #48981 Lakeview Brick Layers, sbrautigam@wwusd.org
• Lisa Kaminski, FLL Challenge Team #51504 Lincoln Brick Layers, lkaminski@wwusd.org
• Kerry Ramsden, FLL Challenge Team #57560 WMS Iron Dragons, kramsden@wwusd.org
• Laura Masbruch, FRC Team #6574 Ferradermis, lmasbruch@wwusd.org
• Jacob Lee, FRC Team #6574 Ferradermis, jlee@wwusd.org

Article and Photos Submitted by the Robotics Advisors and Coaches Listed Above

On November 15th,  the WHS Music Masters Ensemble performed at Fairhaven. The students sang six ensemble selections and one solo. The music was a preview of the songs they will sing at their Music Masters Showcase which will be held on December 18th at 3:00 p.m. at Whitewater High School. The tickets are reserved-seating only and can be purchased from any Music Masters Ensemble member, director Mrs. Karen Tordera, or the HS office. Tickets are $10. Please call 262-472-8174 or email Mrs. Tordera at kTordera@wwusd.org with any questions. 

Photos and article submitted by Karen Tordera.

UW-Whitewater Department of Music

Let the festivities begin with UW-Whitewater Department of Music’s Gala Holiday Concert on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022 in Young Auditorium. This annual holiday tradition is filled with joyous sounds from nearly every music department student ensemble throughout the facility. Small ensembles will play throughout the building prior to the performance, during intermission, and immediately following the large concert. All proceeds benefit the Department of Music student scholarship fund. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased in advance by calling 262-472-2222 or online at tickets.uww.edu.

Tickets for the general public are $25.00, over 65 and under 18 are $20.00, and UW-Whitewater students will be charged $16.50. Tickets purchased at the event will include an additional $2.00 surcharge. In addition to ticket sales, we welcome gifts through our Angel donation program. Gifts can be made online at uww.edu/coac/gala-benefit-concert. Alternatively, checks made out to the UW-Whitewater Foundation can be sent to UW-Whitewater, 950 W. Main Street, CA2031, Whitewater, WI 53190. 

On the night of Dec. 3, small ensembles will begin performing at 6:45 p.m. throughout the Young Auditorium and in the atrium of the Greenhill Center of the Arts. The first half of the concert begins at 7:30 p.m. and will include performances by the Brass Ensemble, Vocal Jazz, Jazz Ensemble and Symphonic Wind Ensemble. During intermission, various smaller ensembles will perform throughout the Young Auditorium. The second half of the concert will feature the Chamber Singers, Whitewater Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir. In addition to the festive music, several student groups will be selling artwork throughout the evening, and a limited number of commemorative ornaments will be available for purchase as supplies last.  

Jeff Herriott, Interim Department Chair for the Department of Music, will be hosting the event. “The annual Gala Holiday Concert is a wonderful opportunity to showcase and support our many talented, hard-working students. I feel privileged to host this outstanding event and welcome you all to join in the festivities,” said Herriott.

Come get into the holiday spirit and support the UW-Whitewater music students at 6:45 p.m. on Dec. 3. The main concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in Young Auditorium located at 930 W. Main St., Whitewater, Wisconsin 53190. Tickets are available at tickets.uww.edu or by calling 262-472-2222. All proceeds benefit the Department of Music student scholarship fund. For more information or to become a Gala Angel by donating to the Department of Music student scholarship fund, visit uww.edu/coac/gala-benefit-concert.

By Lynn Binnie
Whitewater Banner volunteer staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com

In recent years “Just-In-Time” Delivery has become a popular inventory management approach for many types of businesses from manufacturers to retailers. The approach is designed to increase efficiency while reducing waste, and to cut warehousing and financing costs.

Walmart may have taken the approach a little too far, or perhaps it’s just due to an unexpectedly large pre-Thanksgiving rush, but as of a little past 8 p.m. on Monday, November 21 the store had no plastic “grocery” bags. If a customer hasn’t brought their own bags, they have a choice of purchasing a reusable bag or putting their purchases back loose into the cart for delivery to their vehicle, assuming they aren’t on foot.

Walmart staff indicate that they expect a new shipment of bags sometime on Tuesday; meanwhile, B.Y.O.B.

Forty-five computer programming teams representing 14 Wisconsin and Illinois high schools gathered in Diercks Hall at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) on Friday, November 18, for the annual Opportunity Conference Computer Competition. Competing schools included Crystal Lake Central, Crystal Lake South, Arrowhead, Greendale, University School of Milwaukee, Homestead, Grafton, Brookfield East, Janesville Parker, Janesville Craig, Menomonee Falls, Whitefish Bay, Prairie Ridge, and Whitewater.

Students worked in groups of up to four using only two computers per group to tackle nine problems of varying difficulty including three 10-point problems, three 20-point problems, and three 40-point problems, during 2.5 hours of intense competition. Groups could choose to use either Python or Java.

Whitewater was represented by two groups made up of current and former AP Computer Science students and 3 groups of students just getting started with coding in the Computer Programming I course. Programming in Java were Jazmin Cederberg, Daniel Portwine, Brooke Bazeley, Dayna Carlson, and Drew Swartz. Programming in Python were Zoe Olson, Arson Webster-Barczak, Atreyu Blahnik, Chacha Binagi, Ace Hudec, Rae Breisath, Ethan Barels, Chris Cortes, Adalynn Frye, and Ash Kutal.

A group from Greendale High School placed first, eventually solving 5 of the 9 problems correctly and earning 78 of the possible 210 points. Greendale was the only group to solve any of the 40-point problems correctly.

While awaiting the awards ceremony, students learned about machine learning and artificial intelligence projects taking place at MSOE using their on site super-computer named Rosie.

Article and Photos Submitted by Laura Masbruch
Whitewater High School Computer Science Teacher and Banner Volunteer
lmasbruch@wwusd.org