Archive: Around Town

Lansing history students had a victorious run in the New York State History Interest Project (SHIP) competition last weekend.  Nine Lansing High School SHIP/Yorkers Club students competed against 400 students from seventeen other New York schools, earning  first and second place in the History Bowl competition.  The competition tests student's knowledge of the New York State Social Studies Standards, and takes place at an annual convention.  This year's victory set a record for the first time Lansing took both first and second place in the History Bowl.

"Nine kids came back victorious," Lansing social studies teacher Dan Ferguson told the Board Of Education at their Monday meeting.  "All of our kids placed in first or second place.  We took two history bowl teams this year, and our teams came in first and second place.  Where it gets interesting is that it's a playoff challenge, and our two teams ended up having to play each other in the final round."

Ferguson and Social Studies Teacher Chris Finn took the two teams to the convention, which was held in Rochester this year.  In addition to the History Bowl, students competed in over a dozen challenges ranging from map making to art and political cartooning, creative writing, exhibit making. and research, among others


Senior Nick Geisler won first place for his original song, 'Ballad of Willie Reed.'  The song tells the story of the murder of Emmet Till in 1955.  Till, 14, was brutally murdered, helping to spark the civil rights movement.

"The judges were so moved by that that they had Nick perform his song in front of all 400 kids," Ferguson says.  "He did it quite well."

Senior Josh Barber won first place for his photography project.  Senior Tyler Sherwood won second place overall in the map activity in which students were challenged to draw an original map of New York State or an area within the state.  Junior Haley Georgia won second place for her original poem, 'What rhymes with New York?'  Junior Cheryl Gagnon won first place for her political cartoon depicting Governor David Patterson.  Erin O'Brien was the alternate in the History Bowl challenge.

Tory Cutting and Kyle Armstrong are awaiting word on the results of the Document Based Question (DBQ) competition, which is being judged this week.


Ferguson told the school board that his students worked hard throughout the school year preparing for the competition.  He said Lansing students excel in behavior and preparation.

"I can't stress this enough," he said Monday.  "I've had the opportunity to take kids to places around the world, and when we look at Lansing kids and see how they carry themselves it's absolutely fantastic.  Most kids on a bus have their headphones on, or their iPods on.  Our kids are asking each other questions the whole way there.  Those are the kind of things that we get to see."

Ferguson and Finn say the highlight of the weekend for Lansing students was the History Bowl.  Lansing Team #2 (Devin Hegelein, Tory Cutting, Kyle Armstrong, and Tyler Sherwood) ended up competing against Lansing Team #1 (Cheryl Gagnon, Nick Geisler, Haley Georgia, and Josh Barber) in the final round.  Team #2 earned first place with Team #1 taking second, putting Lansing in the top two spots in the entire competition.

The two teachers say they are 'extremely proud of the participation and efforts of Lansing students' at this year's convention.  They urged school board members to tell students how proud they are of their efforts during the school year that led to their victories.


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