News & Events

Carol McCormick writes, “This group must have missed the last southbound flight! Thought Trippe Lake had better accommodations.”

Our thanks to Carol McCormick for sharing yet another interesting nature photo.

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Editor’s note: The following announcement was provided by the Whitewater Unified School District.

In honor of National Apprenticeship Week, which was last week, November 14th-20th, Whitewater High School wishes to congratulate all of our students who have taken steps into their future by participating in Youth Apprenticeships. Youth Apprenticeship (YA) integrates school-based and work-based learning to instruct students in employability and occupational skills defined by Wisconsin industries. WHS has more than doubled participation in YA over the last few school years and we hope to continue growing opportunities for WHS students. Students wishing to learn more about YA should contact Mr. Baron West.

Editor’s note: The following statement from Interim Chancellor John Chenoweth was published in the UW-W announcements on November 22.

News about UW-Platteville Richland 

Dear faculty, staff and students,

The University of Wisconsin System has announced that UW-Platteville will be transitioning the academic programs at its Richland branch campus to either its main Platteville campus or Baraboo campus next fall. The Richland branch campus enrolls only 60 students, by far the lowest of any of the branch campuses, and this level of enrollment was not sustainable for vibrant academic programs.

I recognize this news may cause some initial concern, given UW-Whitewater also has a branch campus. Please know that the decision on UW-Platteville Richland is specific to that campus, and does not affect other branch campuses. UW-Whitewater at Rock County, which is one of the top-three largest branch campuses in the system with more than 570 students, remains fully committed to providing exceptional and expanding opportunities to students in our region.

I am devoted to ensuring that our branch campus maintains long-term viability and continues to be a dependable cornerstone of the Rock County region.

Examples of this commitment include:

• Building a new Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree pathway in partnership with Edgewood College. The initial cohort of students is expected to start in fall 2023.
• Launching the Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences Degree, a degree completion program for students with applied associate degrees.
• Engaging in strategic discussions about expanding pathways to careers, degrees, and increased opportunities for students.
• Enhancing facilities to ensure our campus is meeting the needs of faculty, staff, students, and the community.
• Growing our existing partnerships with area technical schools, school districts, employers, and community partners.

We know the UW System is wholly committed to providing the broadest access possible, allowing all Wisconsin residents to attend college if they desire and to achieve their goals. Our branch campus provides this region a critical access point to higher education and we will continue to invest in UW-Whitewater at Rock County.

John Chenoweth
Interim Chancellor

Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia. It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessings of the harvest and of the preceding year. Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and around the same part of the year in other places. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well.

Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among most religions after harvests and at other times of the year. The Thanksgiving holiday’s history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation. It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.

[The above information is from Wikipedia.]

The Banner appreciates having permission to use the image on the homepage by Sue Junky from Pixabay.

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.