BBCHS Robotics Team Makes Its Mark During Inaugural Season

ronclad, the FIRST Robotics Competition team

of BBCHS, competed at the Central Illinois Re-

gional event on March 18 and 19 at Bradley Uni-

versity in Peoria, Illinois. With an impressive first-

year showing, Ironclad won the Rookie Inspiration

Award, Top-Seeded Rookie Award, and the Under-

writers Laboratory Safety Hard Hat Award. Forty

teams attended the competition from as far away as

North Dakota and Minnesota. (Continued on pg. 2)

Boiler Vision Monthly Newsletter from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School

MARCH 2016

IN THIS ISSUE

Team Ironclad

Student Learning Update

Sound Check Impacts the

Community

Student Success Update

What’s Trending @bbchs307

Upcoming Events

Student Success Update

On the cover: BBCHS Team

Ironclad 5847 at the FIRST

Robotics Competition

Ironclad

Community Partnerships

e2i, Inc. NUCOR Steel

Argosy Foundation Precision Piping

FE Moran Valley Glass CSL Behring

Ruders PSI

Alexander Construction Capella College Tuffy Auto Care

800 Pound Gorilla Craig Page Agency Buffalo Wild Wings

F.E. Moran Meineke Car Care Center

Chicago Dough Pizza

Teams use a 10 foot by 10 foot

pit area to work and maintain

their competitive robots to play

the game FIRST Stronghold.

The medieval-themed game pits

three-team alliances against an-

other alliance. Each team earn

points for their alliance by cross-

ing different defenses, scoring

boulders (10" foam balls) into

high goals approximately 10 feet

above the ground and low goals

at ground level. Each team is giv-

en six weeks and a limited budget

to build a robot that complies

with all the game rules, such as

weight limits, dimension re-

strictions, and motor limitations.

After applying last minute repairs and mod-

ifications to its competition ro-

bot, Talos, the team passed a series of safe-

ty and compliance inspections. Talos is a

tank tread driven robot that includes a

mechanism to collect a ball, transport it

over different defenses, and score it in the

low goal. The robot has an attached manip-

ulator arm that can help Talos bypass vari-

ous defenses.

A series of qualification matches played on

Friday and part of Saturday generates a

ranking of each team in the tournament.

The top seeded teams select playoff allianc-

es for the playoff matches on Saturday af-

ternoon. Talos, operated by students John

Austin, Nick Thiessen, and Vidhi Patel and

coached by Teacher Katie Kunz performed

well enough that Ironclad was ranked 11

out of 40 teams by the end of qualification

matches. During the playoff alliance selec-

tion, Ironclad became a playoff alliance

BBCHS Ironclad Wins Rookie of the Year Award

Ironclad 5847 goes up and over the rock wall

captain and rolled into the playoffs.

During the Quarterfinals, the team’s 8th

ranked alliance faced off against the 1st

ranked alliance in a best of three set of

matches. Despite a high scoring perfor-

mance, the BBCHS alliance fell to the

opposition and was eliminated.

Ironclad is made up of approximately

60 high school student members and

over 20 adult mentors working

alongside them. Financial support

has been provided by the BBCHS

Academic Foundation, e2i,

Inc., NUCOR steel, the Ar-

gosy Foundation, Precision

Piping, FE Moran, Valley

Glass, and many other local

businesses. The team safety

award was made possible in

part by the financial spon-

sorship of NUCOR steel and

the first aid/CPR training

provided by CSL Behring.

The impressive Ironclad safety cart

was custom built for the team by

Valley Glass.

Ironclad will compete in

the Regional Competi-

tion on April 1, 2 at the

University of Illinois -

Chicago Pavilion. Admis-

sion is free. Additionally,

the team is hosting a Ro-

bot Reveal open house at

the Olivet Nazarene Uni-

versity Engineering

building on Thursday,

April 7 from 5 p.m. to 7

p.m. More information is

available at

http://eepurl.com/bUiQgv.

Student Learning Update

In order to increase awareness throughout the community about hearing loss and those it impacts, BBCHS Junior, Ian Lilienthal started a new school club called Sound Check. The club’s current member-ship is 20 students, led by a small group of students who either wear hearing aids or have a cochlear im-plant.

As part of the team objectives, the group developed programs for youth and senior citizens who live with hearing loss. Sound Check Jun-ior, the first program organized by club members, was held on March 12th at the Bourbonnais Public Library. Families in the community with hearing im-paired children were invited to wear their favorite superhero gear while they listened to a sto-ry, made a craft and played games. Older children with hearing loss and all parents listened as two members from the Sound Check leadership team shared their stories about growing up with hearing loss and how they developed strategies to overcome challenges. Leaders facilitated a Q & A session for the audience. Following the inaugural event,

Student’s Club Benefits Entire Community

Paths to Success at BBCHS

Summer Academic

Program Offerings

A Step Ahead

Session I

Week 1: June 6-10

Week 2: June 13-17

Week 3: June 20-24

All students must be in attend-ance for the final exam on June 24th, please refer to attend-ance policy in brochure

Session II

Week 1: June 27- July 1

Week 2: July 5 - 11

Week 3: July 12- 18

All students must be in attend-ance for the final exam on July 18th, please refer to attend-ance policy in brochure

Fast Forward June 6th - June 24th

Visit www.bbchs.org for

more information.

The subject-area schedule is as follows:

Monday – Math

Tuesday – Science and English

Sound Check members paired up with kids with a hearing loss to become their mentors. The men-tors are encouraged to send a note or email to their Sound Check Jr. buddy regularly and occasionally meet so that young children with hearing loss may develop a rela-tionship with club members. Sound Check Jr. plans to meet four

times per year and the mem-bers are hoping that by do-ing the mentoring program, they will cultivate long-term relationships to build a hear-ing impaired community in the area. The group also coordinated a second community event called Sound Check Sr. at Riverside Assisted Living facility in Bourbonnais. Sound Check members in-

teracted with residents. Sound Check members plan to go to Riv-erside Assisted Living facility one Sunday a month to continue this

program. A club with a vision and plans for ongoing community outreach, BBCHS Sound Check is uniting young people in a common goal.

Student Success Update

Hard Work + Creativity = Success for BBCHS Art Students

What does it take to make an award-

winning piece of art? People who’ve

never taken art classes often share why

they would never take art, saying, “I

can’t even draw a stick figure!” Visit art

classes at BBCHS to see that art is

something that can be learned like any

other subject area. “Our students prove

time and time again that many hours of

higher-level thinking combined with

technique practice and art-making are

the recipe for success for making art,”

notes teacher, Katie Bretzlaff.

At the last of the big art shows this

season, BBCHS art students’ hard

work paid off. Students earned sev-

eral honors at the KCC High School

Art Exhibition on March 29. Seven

students received awards – more

than any other high school.

BBCHS Merit award winners in-

clude Jenna Howard for her graph-

ite drawing, Cheyanne Kozuch for her

ceramic sculpture, Madison McMullen

for her painting made with cosmetics

and Sidney Bradley. Lauren Buschek

was awarded honorable mention in 3D

design for their artworks.

Mia Morris’ photograph

also earned an honorable

mention award,

along with Sien-

na Jackson’s

acrylic painting.

Madison

McMullen’s art-

work was not

only awarded a

Merit, but also

selected as the promotional

image for the exhibition.

McMullen, a senior in AP

Studio Art, remarked how surprised

she was when she heard her name read

for the award. “It was exciting. I’m glad

that my grandparents were there too.”

Jenna Howard

Lauren

Buschek

Madison McMullen

Cheyanne

Kozuch

The subject-area schedule is as follows:

Monday – Math

Students whose works were selected for

the KCC High School Art Exhibition

include: Cheyenne Altshue, Matthew

Barthel, Samantha Bauman, Cait Boyd,

Sidney Bradley, Charisma Brattin, Tom-

lyn Brza, Lauren Buschek, Kenny Car-

ruthers, Emma Clark, Samuel Clark,

Carmen Cyr, My’kel Dabney, Emma

Endres, Samantha Estes, Savanna Feth,

Chyanne Fuller, Arianna Garcia, Sarid

Garcia, Ashley Grimm, Jordyn Hajek,

Leann Hale, Julia Hasik, Angelica

Heneghan, Aubrey Hernandez, Jenna

Howard, Shy Jackson, Julia Hutson,

Michaela Kieffer, Lindsay King, Bryson

Klups, Cheyenne Kozuch, Sienna Kra-

mer, RiAnna Lanie, Cierra Macon, Sa-

vannah Maysey, Steven McDaniel, Mad-

ison McMullen, Stephen Menard,

Dustin Meyer, Jake Meyering, Jaime

Molina, Shelby Monferdini, Marissa

Montwid, Mia Morris, Marueen Orvis,

Paityn Riegel, Daniella Riordan, Josh

Rutnicki, Khadejia Sawyers, Laura Shi-

er, Mandy Smith, Alexandra Sterk, Josie

Stone, Aidan Stringer, Claire Tanner,

Abigail Tebrock, Grace Wahlen, Paige

Wilson, Ronald Wozniak, Jared

Wurster, and Jeffrey Wurster.

These artworks, along with those from

Art 4 Heart and the SWSC Visual Art

Exhibition, will be on display in the

BBCHS Library on Tuesday, April 5

from 2:00-3:20 p.m. A reception will be

held during this time for artists, admin-

istration, faculty, staff, and friends.

BBCHS Student Artwork

will be on display on

April 5th from

2:00—3:20 p.m.

By the Numbers—BBCHS National Honor Society Induction

clude a variety of coverage in an eye-catching design. They, along with 2015 editor Abby Devine and the rest of the yearbook staff, created the 236-page yearbook as part of their coursework in Yearbook I and II classes. Gabby shared, "It's great to have my work published in our school's year-book, but to see my work published in this magazine is particularly excit-ing. We all worked very hard to make it a memorable edition and I think we succeeded." This book was especially important to the staff because it was the 75th edition. Extra copies of this special edition are available for purchase the BBCHS main office. Gabby is the daughter of John and Paige Chinski of Bourbonnais.

Student Success Update

Bradleyan Yearbook Featured in Magazine

Submitted by Katie Bretzlaff

What’s Trending: @BBCHS307

The subject-area schedule is as follows:

Monday – Math

Tuesday – Science and English

@BbchsBaseball Your boil-

ers with another big 7-1 win!

Moving to 3-0 on the season!

Great pitching performance

from Owen Starr!

@bbchs307 Congratulations

to the Boiler Band over 200

members strong marching in

the Disney Electric Parade.

@bbchsrobotics Ironclad is

proud to win the Rookie Inspi-

ration Award and the Highest

Rookie Seed award!

@BBCHSwrestling Congratu-

lations Trevor Conroy and

Jaden Llorens!! Frosh/Soph

State Qualifiers and will com-

plete in Springfield next

weekend! Boiler UP!!

@DrBrianWright Congrats to

returning & new members of

National Art Honor Society!

Thanks for making life more

colorful!

BBCHS senior Gabrielle Chinski can now say that her work has been pub-lished in a national magazine, thanks to the hard work she put into the 2014 Homecoming spread in last year's year-book. The work was featured in Wal-sworth Publishing Company's biannu-al Idea File magazine, which is distrib-uted to high schools and universities throughout the country. Chinski is a student in Yearbook II class and serves as co-Editor-in-Chief. Gabby, along with 2015 graduate Mad-dux Reid, created these pages to in-

BBCHS Summer Youth Theatre Experi-

ence is registering participants for the

first annual summer camp. Attendees

will learn about all aspects of theatre

arts from the professionals who produce

the critically acclaimed BBCHS theatre

productions. The summer experience

will take place from June 1st through

July 17th from 6—8:30 p.m. and will

accommodate vacations. Participants

will produce Seussical the Musical Jr.

For more information, contact David

Morgan at dmorgan@bbchs.org or visit

the program Facebook page.

First Annual BBCHS Summer

Youth Theatre Experience

July 15th at 7:00pm, July 16th at

2:00pm and 7:00pm, and July

17th at 2:00pm

BBCHS Prepares for the ACT

Upcoming Events

Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School

700 W. North St.

Bradley , IL

815.937.3707 ph

815.937.0156 fax

www.bbchs.org

Event Date Time Location

BBCHS Art Showcase 4/5 2:00– 3:20

p.m.

BBCHS Library

Early Dismissal 4/6 11:12 a.m.

NHS Meeting 4/7 7:30 a.m. North Cafeteria

Teacher Institute Day—NO

SCHOOL

10/23

Tri-M Executive Board Meet-

ing

4/11 7:15 a.m. Choir Room

National Library Week 4/11—4/16

Teacher Institute Day—NO

SCHOOL

4/15

Student Council Petitions

Available

4/18

Spring Play 4/21—4/23 7:00 p.m. Auditorium

Student Council Petitions Due 4/25 3:00 p.m.

Senior Class Meeting 3/26 8:00 a.m. Auditorium

NHS Meeting 4/28 7:30 a.m. North Cafeteria

Jazz Concert 4/28 7:00 p.m. Auditorium

SWSC Activities Assembly 4/29 9:00 a.m. Auditorium

BBCHS Prom 4/30 6—10 p.m. Chicago’s Navy

Pier

Event Spotlight

Bradley Bourbonnais Com-munity High School has been selected as the recipi-ent of the Daily Journal 2016 Progress Award for Excellence in Education. BBCHS was nominated for the award by the Village of Bourbonnais. The District will be formally recog-nized for demonstrating the spirit, initiative and commit-ment needed for progress in the community on Thursday, April 14, 2016 at the Hilton Garden Inn and Riverstone Conference Center.