Middle School GeoBee

 

(Pictured above: runner-up, Camryn Bublitz and school champion, Lucas Peterson)

Belleville Middle School students recently participated in a school Geography Bee. This year, as we all know, has been different and the Belleville Middle School Geography Bee would be as well. This year the National Geographic Geography Bee was cancelled, however, the Belleville Middle School was able to continue with the Geography Bee with permission from National Geographic to use their materials. The Belleville Middle School’s Geography Bee was held on Tuesday, December 22nd, with 19 classroom finalists in grades 7 and 8 competing. This year’s middle school contest was held virtually via Zoom and for the first time, live-streamed on the School District of Belleville live Youtube channel. The Geography Bee included geography questions on U.S. states, world rivers, animals around the world, odd one out, economic activities of countries around the world, and the ever-popular “Weird but True,” questions about geography that also explain an unusual aspect of a country or continent.  

The school champion of the Middle School competition was 7th grader Lucas Peterson, with 7th grader Camryn Bublitz taking runner-up honors.  This year there will be no advancing to the state qualifying test.  Congratulations to all our participants! 

(Finalists pictured below, top to bottom, left to right: Abraham Chavez, Valerie Covarrubias, Olivia Fox, Adrian Jenkins, Jacob Justeson, (2nd row) Brennan Keyes, Macy Lamboley, Faith Waefler, Caden Myers, Treyton Myers, (3rd row) Elijah Olson, Madalyn DeSmet, Isaac Patrow, Garrett Pauli, Henry Polega, (4th row) Chase Varney, and Christopher Weber)

Science Olympiad Team Scores First Place in Most Recent Meet

This past Saturday, Belleville hosted the first Science Olympiad event of the year.  In past years, several hundred students fill the halls of Belleville Middle and High School for this event.  Belleville had three high school teams participating in this event.  Unfortunately, there is not a middle school team this year.  Students have been practicing their events after school hours both virtually and utilizing the science labs and gymnasium.  This year students from each school logged in virtually from their own schools to partake in over 30 different events.  There were 35 schools throughout the country participating in this first-ever satellite tournament.  A satellite tournament is when students participate in the event from their high school.  The December tournament Belleville will participate in will be a mini virtual tournament meaning students will participate from their homes.   

Congratulations to the team in scoring first place in the small school division as well as the following individuals who placed in their events.  We look forward to a great season!

Belleville Satellite Invite

1st Place

Circuit Lab - James Gustafson and Matt Loshaw

Code Analysis -  Jack Nolden and James Gustafson

Code Busters - Jack Nolden, Jacob Kean, and Tony Diaz

Designer Genes - Roxana Grunenwald and Tony Diaz

Detector Building - James Gustafson and Carson Heller

Experimental Design - Emma Anson, Elise Medenwald, Roxana Grunenwald

Forensics - Roxana Grunenwald and Alex Steckelis 

Gravity Vehicle - Logan Niesen and Carson Heller

Horticulture - Jack Nolden and Zach Thole

Machines - Jack Nolden and Carson Heller

Protein Modeling - Roxana Grunenwald, Mason Schweogler, and Gina Salmela

Robot Tour - Logan Niesen and Carson Heller

Virtual Geocaching - Zach Thole and Gina Salmela

Write It Do It - Elise Medenwald and Gina Salmela

2nd Place

Astronomy - James Gustafson and Jacob Kean

Disease Detectives - Emma Anson and Alex Steckelis 

Geologic Mapping - Zach Thole and Gina Salmela

Horticulture - Katie Bowers and Skyler Beyer

Mystery Build - Carson Heller and Logan Niesen

Ping Pong Parachute - Logan Niesen and Gina Salmela

Wright Stuff - Logan Niesen and Risandi Bartle

3rd Place

Anatomy and Physiology - Jordyn Thomas and Melanie Humke

Boomilever - Logan Niesen and Risandi Bartle

Dynamic Planet - Emma Anson and Zach Thole

Fossils - Emma Anson and Tony Diaz

Water Quality - Zach Thole and Tony Diaz

Fall One-Act Plays

Before school started this past August, Mrs. Vogel contacted me to brainstorm ideas to still have the Fall One-Act Theater Festival.  Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Vogel's dedication to our students to find opportunities to practice and put on the virtual One-Act performances this year.  These students practiced virtually every week through Zoom sessions.  Mr. and Mrs. Vogel worked with CESA 2 to create a set up that could be streamed for virtual production and YouTube streaming.  The students that were involved in the festival had props, costume, hair, and make-up.  As a spectator, you were able to enjoy the acting from the safety and comfort of your home.  Thank you and congratulations to all students involved.

2020 National Honor Society Inductees

The show must go on.  This year we were unable to induct our new National Honor Society members in person, however, Mrs. Jenkins put together a wonderful virtual ceremony.  On Tuesday, November 10, the Belleville Chapter of the National Honor Society inducted 13 new members. On Monday, November 16, Belleville High School staff members will make visits to student's homes to deliver their National Honor Society pins.  The criteria to apply and become inducted as a National Honor Society member are

• Scholarship - a cumulative grade point average of 3.67 or higher
• Service - on pace for a Wildcat Service Cord (averaging 35 volunteer hours per year)
• Leadership - 3 positions or roles from a selected list
• Character - a 90% (or higher) rating on a 9-trait survey of current and former high school teachers  

​Congratulations to the following inductees - ​Lauren Bartels, Risandi Bartle, Ava Foley, Isamara Gomez, Melanie Humke, Jacob Kean, Morgan Messner, Claire Patrow, Gina Salmela, Karena Simmons, Callie Smith, Zachary Thole, Jordyn Thomas, and Madelyn Winterburn

Practice ACT Test

The vision of the School District of Belleville states every student will achieve success and graduate as a lifelong learner, be globally competitive, and prepared for college, career, and life.  As we continue to prepare our students for college and career, we offered the opportunity for our Juniors to take a practice, paper and pencil, ACT test this past Saturday.  We had 42 students come to school for 3.5 hours in the morning to take all four academic sections that include English, Math, Science, and Reading.  

This is a test provided by ACT that will be scored by ACT.  Scores will be returned to students in approximately 3 weeks.  These scores give students feedback so they can better prepare for the statewide ACT held on March 9, 2021.  Students also provided feedback to their teachers on standards and skills they felt they needed more practice prior to the March test.  For the past three years, we have utilized the Method Test Prep program to help prepare students for the ACT test.  Students stated on Saturday they are looking forward to the continued opportunity to utilize this program in the next months.  That's the Wildcat Way!

2020 Capital Conference Academic Bowl Champs

There have been many changes this school year, but at least one thing remains the same, Belleville High School Wildcats remain the 2020 Capital Conference Academic Bowl Champs.  This year a total of seven Capital Conference schools competed in this event on Monday, November 2.  Generally students from schools all over the conference travel to a host school for this competition.  This year Cambridge hosted a virtual event where students were in their school buildings but competed virtually with all the other schools.  Fifteen Belleville high school students completed both written and oral tests in English, Social Studies, Science, and Current Events.  Overall Belleville scored 727 points, this was an overall win of 7 points over Columbus. Congratulations!

We would like to congratulate the following students for taking first place in their event.

                 

Roxana Grunenwald      Andrew Remy                Zach Thole                   Jacob Kean     

Chemistry                           US History                    Geography                    English 12

National Merit Semifinalists Announced

Today officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.  For the first time in school history, Belleville High School has three finalists.  We would like to congratulate Jacob Kean, Elise Medenwald, and Jackson Nolden.  

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring.  The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.  The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the stat's percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.  From the approximately 6,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation.

Students continue to volunteer

Needless to say, this has been an atypical summer.  Many of the yearly community events in which Belleville students have volunteered their time have been canceled.   Even though many of these events have been unable to take place, there are still numerous opportunities to earn service hours.  A few of our high school students have recently volunteered their time helping community members sew masks, picking up trash along local roads, and creating a back to school video.  Below is a list of additional ways to earn service hours while abiding by the Department of Health Guidelines. If you have additional ideas, please send them to Mr. Loshaw at loshawk@belleville.k12.wi.us and he will add these ideas to the service cord form attached here. 

• Send cards to service members
• Send cards to nursing homes 
• Sew masks or blankets to donate 
• Pick up trash along the road 
• Mow a neighbors yard or help with other yard work 
• Tutor younger students virtually 
• Ask an elementary teacher if there are books you can read aloud and record yourself

Advanced Placement Results

Advanced Placement (AP) Results

Earlier this week the Advanced Placement results were published by the College Board.  In May, 165 AP exams were taken by Belleville students in Calculus AB, Calculus BC, English Language and Composition, English Literature and Composition, Psychology, US Government and Politics, US History, Environmental Science, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.  Due to school closures this past spring, all students across the country completed the tests online, from home.  A student must earn a score of at least 3 on a 5-point scale in order to earn college credit, 73% of the tests taken by Belleville students earned college credit.  Belleville students also scored higher than the state average in all four core content areas.  Congratulations to these students and their teachers!

Subject Area	Belleville Pass Rate	State Pass Rate
Math	77%	70%
Science	68%	61%
Social Sciences	72%	65%
English	77%	64%

Senior Goodbyes

The West parking lot had a few visitors yesterday on the last "virtual" day of school. The Class of 2020 said goodbye in chalk messages in a few parking stalls. "That class" has certainly shown its humor and creativity despite the negativity that the COVID-19 pandemic brought on. Now that is the Wildcat Way!

Middle School Awards

At a virtual awards ceremony held on June 4, Belleville Middle School staff recognized 7th and 8th grade students for the President's Academic Excellence Award, honor roll, and perfect attendance. In addition, teachers recognized students in each grade for both improvement and excellence.

7th Grade Most Improved
Dylan Norton
Kevin Vega

7th Grade Excellence Awards
Lillian Hanna
Mallory Thompson

8th Grade Most Improved
Jordan Babler
Royce Ranguette
Nicholas Wescott

8th Grade Excellence Awards
Aidan Cook
Carter Scholey

Finally, Pastor George Kaminski represented the Kiwanis Club and distributed Academic Excellence Awards for 8th grade students by subject area. Recipients included:

English Language Arts: Alora Spiegel

Fine Arts: Savannah Meland

Mathematics: Isaac Erb

Science: Emily Swanson

Social Studies: Benjamin Johnson

Mr. Gentilli and Mrs. Schultz hand-delivered Kiwanis certificates and $40 gift cards to recipients on June 5.

Congratulations to all these Wildcats for their academic success during the 2019-20 school year.

Friday Announcements for 5-29-20

Check out the final video announcements of 2019-20 school year with the latest information on student-choice in grading, the last week of the school, and graduation, along with remaining shout-outs and the Masked Wildcat finale! 

Wisconsin PLTW EDD Competition Results

For the third consecutive year, a Belleville High School team, under the direction of Master Teacher Ed Neumann, made it to the state for Project Lead the Way's Engineering Development and Design (EDD) competition. EDD is PLTW's capstone course for its Engineering Program.

The Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) had 36 judges from across the United States evaluating 12 different projects from Wisconsin students. Elizabeth Taylor, Director of STEM at MSOE stated, "We were thrilled by how many students were able to still participate in the competition given the abrupt and sudden change during one of the most important parts of the project process...The ability to do so during all the changes the pandemic brought to your school year shows the highest levels of commitment and scholastic achievement."

Juniors Raina Nicholson and Anthony Pollen created a heated stress ball prototype that can be used by active outdoors people. This year the students presented and were recorded online. In the past, the presentations took place in front of a panel of judges as part of the STEAM Open House. Once the results were released, Raina and Anthony took second place in the state, earning a $2,000 team prize (or $1,000 apiece).

This finish matches Belleville High School's highest placement in the state EDD competition and solidifies the School District of Belleville's recent Distinguished District designation. Congratulations to Raina and Anthony on their tremendous work!