Project Lead the Way Day at the Capitol

Governor Walker has proclaimed March 19-23 Project Lead The Way (PLTW) Week in Wisconsin. Wednesday was designated as Project Lead the Way Day at the Capitol.

Belleville was one of just nine school districts from around the state that was asked to showcase its PLTW students and projects. Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch spoke with Belleville students and teachers shortly before noon.  During her address to all the gathered students, she mentioned only one student- Julia McNamar of Belleville!

In the last three years, Belleville has incorporated PLTW in grades K-12, with Launch in the elementary school and Gateway in the middle school. Our efforts in this short period of time are now being recognized at the state level! Congratulations and thank yous go out to Ed Neumann and Julia Xistris for leading this initiative!

Wildcat Forensics Move On To State!

Congratulations to our Belleville High School Forensics Team as they performed at the District 11 meet last night (3-19) in Stoughton. BHS has 19 entries headed to the state competition in April!

Top scorers from last night were...
Noah Fahey: Solo Acting -  25 out of 25 in all 3 rounds! Excellent!

Jenna Blask: Demonstration - 25 out of 25 in 1 round
Emily Flick: Prose - 25 out of 25 in 1 round
Mili Julian: Farrago - 25 out of 25 in 1 round
Jacob Kean: Solo Acting - 25 out of 25 in 1 round
Eliza Woods: Prose - 25 out of 25 in 1 round

Mya Enerson: Poetry - 24 out of 25 in 1 round

Julia McNamar: Farrago - 24 out of 25 in 1 round

Gary Salmela: Public Address - 24 out of 25 in 1 round
Rylee Hubbard, Anna Nolden, and Abby Winterburn: Group Interpretation - 24 out of 25 in 1 round

Mrs. Alsteens and Mrs. Jenkins are very proud of the entire team! It was a great day to be a Wildcat!

Not Pictured: Noah Fahey and Abby Winterburn

New Art Fusion Course

As 9th-11th grade students finalize their plans for 2018-19 scheduling on Wednesday in their 5th block classes, check out this short video for Belleville High School's new Art Fusion class!

Capitol Conference Math Meet

The Capitol Conference Math Meet was held Monday, March 12, at Lakeside Lutheran High School. The Belleville team had a couple individual standouts.

Riley Medenwald tied for fifth place overall in the Varsity division, and Jack Nolden tied for first place overall in the Junior Varsity division.

The Belleville varsity team finished 2nd in the Capitol Conference South and 6th overall. The junior varsity finished 1st in the Capitol Conference South, with a 2nd-place finish overall.

Science Night 2018

Students in Mr. Bussey's and Mrs. Smith's high school Science classes displayed their current research and exhibited new skills and knowledge at Tuesday night's Science Night.

The event began at 5pm with a soup supper in the cafeteria to benefit the Outdoors Club. Science presentations began shortly afterward at 6pm around the building. This included 26 student projects in the hallways and classrooms. The Science Show kicked off at 6:30pm in the auditorium. Advanced Placement Physics students put on 8 demonstrations on stage.

Along with our five Advanced Placement, dual-credit, and Project Lead the Way courses as well as Science Olympiad and numerous field trips, Science Night is another tremendous opportunity to both learn and demonstrate student's knowledge.

High School Students-of-the-Month

On Friday, March 9, Belleville High School staff recognized students-of-the-month from February. Students were treated to a Tano's Pizza lunch. They received a personalized certificate from their nominating teacher and movie passes donated by Marcus Theaters (as part of their Student Motivation Program). Teachers noted that these students took on rigorous academic courses, helped other students, and demonstrated leadership.

Congratulations to:

Josephine Latorre, Ayisa Ceesay, Brynnna Winkers, Mya Enerson, Jaydon Winkers, Ogden York, and Kalin O'Rourke

Not Pictured: Heidi Wegehaupt

More Capitol Conference Honors

The Capitol Conference South boys' basketball all-conference team was announced on Wednesday. Two Belleville seniors were named to the team. Brock Kelly and Drew Shrader were named Honorable Mention. Congratulations to these two seniors, as they cap their Wildcat basketball careers!

Aspiring Chefs

Students in Mrs. Gartley's Culinary Arts class are learning how to analyze recipes to generate a plan for prep tasks and how to set up a workstation. Even they are amazed at how efficient they are becoming! They have created tasty menu items like today's made-from-scratch stir-fry to enjoy with their friends. [Submitted by Mrs. Gartley]

Engineering and Manfacturing Field Trip

Mr. Neumann took his Technology Education students out into the field on Wednesday, March 7. The trip was linked to current curriculum initiatives in STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math) and PLTW (Project Lead the Way). Mr. Neumann is always seeking experiences to expand student exposure to technology, careers, equipment, practices, software, and materials outside of the classroom. 

Check out the scenes from the businesses that they visited!

• Federal Industry
• Isthmus Engineering
• Madison-Kipp in Sun Prairie

Yahara River Writer's Contest

The results from the Yahara River Writer's Contest are in, and the School District of Belleville has 10 winners this year- including five from the Middle School. They are invited to attend the 2018 Yahara River Writer's workshop and ceremony on Tuesday, May 8 at Union South on UW-Madison. 

Congratulations to students below in the following categories:

Cartoons
Catherine Booth (1st Place): The "United" States of America
Alyssa Caskey: America

Editorials
Gavin Boyum: Protesting the National Anthem
Matthew Loshaw: Web Filters in School

Poetry

Josh Kean: The Sounds of the Game

State DECA Results

Senior Drew Shrader and sophomore Ogden York competed at Wisconsin DECA’s State Career Development Conference.  They competed in the Sports & Entertainment Marketing team event.  They handled themselves in professional manner and impressed the judges. Although the results are not in yet, they made the school district and community of Belleville proud. [Submitted by Mr. Farrar]

More Science Olympiad Success!

At this weekend's Marquette University High School Invite, the Belleville High School Science Olympiad Team took 2nd place in the Small School Division and 3rd place overall. They missed 1st place by a mere 19 points! Mrs. Smith was particularly smitten with the trophy the team received- a silver-plated Erlenmeyer flask topped with a dinosaur.

Congratulations to the following medalists:

1st Place 

Chemistry Lab - Otto Anson and Riley Medenwald

Herpetology - Cody Koeppel and William Meyers

Mousetrap Vehicle - Logan Niesen and Noah Niesen 

2nd Place 

Fermi Questions - Elise and Riley Medenwald

Mission Possible - Logan and Noah Niesen

Write It Do It - Roxana Grunenwald and Elise Medenwald

3rd Place

Forensics - Roxana Grunenwald and Connor Theis
Microbe Mission - Roxana Grunenwald and Trevor Thole

Protein Modeling - Roxana Grunenwald, Elise Medenwald, and Gary Salmela

Rocks and Minerals - Gianna Diaz and Gary Salmela

Sustainable Energy - Emma and Otto Anson

WiFi Lab - Hansi Bartle and Gianna Diaz

4th Place

Astronomy - Riley Medenwald and Gary Salmela

Electric Wright Stuff - Logan Niesen 

Hovercraft - Elise Medenwald and Connor Theis

Picture This - Tyler Beyer, Christian Hakala, and Ryan Posthuma

Remote Sensing - Jack Nolden and Trevor Thole

Towers - Josh Bowers and Bryson Jelle

5th Place

Disease Detectives - Gary Salmela and Emma Veeneman

Thermodynamics - Otto Anson and Jack Nolden

Towers - Hansi Bartle

WiFi Lab - Tyler Beyer and Jacob Kean

LINKS TO PREVIOUS MEET RESULTS

Sub-district Forensics Meet at Verona

Congratulations to the Belleville Wildcat Forensics team. They will send 22 entries (involving 28 students) to the district competition on March 19!

Top scorers last night were:

Students who scored a perfect 25 out of 25

Gary Salmela - Public Address

Mya Enerson - Poetry

Owen Benash - Radio

Students who scored 24 out of 25

Taylor Vesperman - Poetry

Eliza Woods - Prose

Julia McNamar - Farrago

Jenna Blask - Demonstration

The Wildcats will compete in the District meet at Stoughton High School on March 19th.

Go Cats!

Pastries with Parents and Student-of-the-Month Celebration

On Friday, March 2, Belleville Middle School staff invited parents into the Commons between 7:30 and 8:00am for coffee and doughnuts. This annual event allows parents and teachers to get to know one another even better in an informal setting outside of parent-teacher conferences.

Parents could then stay for the announcement of middle school students-of-the-month for February, also held in the Commons.

Congratulations to: Alonzo Vega, Hugo Araujo, Averi Boyum, Nicole Steele, Karena Simmons, Gianna Cisneros, Nicole Rufenacht, Mia Ace, Yisel Balderas-Perez, Madeleine Saeger, and Mikayla Caskey

Both events were a very positive way to start the month and a Friday morning!