SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.
Ella Donesky
Staff Writer
Where do you usually shop?
The discount bin. I shop there because I don’t have that much money. I like American Eagle cause it’s nice, but I also don’t have American Eagle money. I go to whatever has good stuff, except for nasty department stores like Kohl’s.
Who inspires your outfits?
Me, cause I’m perfect.
What’s your favorite article of clothing and why?
My scarf, because I look fabulous. It has a cool pattern and it’s neat and I look perfect.
Benjamin Simon
Staff Writer
Two weeks ago, Temple sat impatiently waiting to hear their name called on Selection Sunday. Instead, they found themselves as a NIT (National Invitation Tournament) number 1 seed. They entered the tournament with a shaky and unconvincing win against the 8th seeded Bucknell, but bounced back with strong victories against George Washington and Louisiana Tech. Temple now is the NIT semifinals at the historic Madison Square Garden. They next play Miami (FL) and, if they win, will face the winner of Old Dominion and Stanford for the NIT championship. And quite frankly, I see Temple winning their 3rd NIT trophy this Thursday.
Why? Temple has played fantastic these last two games. They have competed with urgency and have shot the ball well throughout the NIT tournament. Against GW, they shot 50% from the field, significantly above their season average of 39%. Against LT, they shot 49%. If Temple keeps stroking the ball well, there is no way they will be defeated.
But they can even win without shooting well. Temple plays lockdown defense. They keep opponents to 61 points per game and play with heart. They bang on the boards (38 per game) and play smart on the offensive end (only 346 turnovers on the year, which is the 23rd lowest in the nation). On the other hand, the two most important reasons why I see Temple crowned the champion Thursday night are the abundance of scoring options they have and their deep lineup.
Opposite of years past, the Owls can rely on multiple people to step up and score when others cannot. Although only three players average in double figures, they have many guys who can get hot in stretches. Guard Josh Brown is the perfect example. Although Brown only averages 6 points per game, he has scored in double figures 9 times this year. He has put up 7 or more points in 15 of his outings. Brown scores in spurts, giving the team a safety net when other players are not hitting shots. You could also throw Clemson transfer Devin Coleman in the mix (a streaky and slick scorer) or even freshman Obi Enechionyia (an athletic big man who is multidimensional).
They also have 10 players who average 10 or more minutes a game this year. They have have 7 that average above 15. For instance, throughout much of the latter part of the season, sophomore forward Mark Williams has seen his minutes cut by the strong play of Daniel Dingle and Enechionyia. However, Williams has been brought in multiple times to fill minutes when players have been in foul trouble or have struggled. I feel quite confident in a team that has Williams, who has started many games for the Owls over the past two years, as their 10th man.
And Temple has first team all-AAC point guard, Will Cummings. The Florida native has been on fire throughout the NIT tournament averaging 22 points per game and shooting 54% from the field. Who’s going to check him? Watch out Miami (FL), this team’s ready to play.
Tuesday: Temple vs. Miami (FL), 7PM, ESPN, Madison Square Garden
Thursday: NIT Championship, 9PM, ESPN, Madison Square Garden
First picture courtesy of www.philly.com
Second picture courtesy of www.csnphilly.com
Benjamin Simon
Staff Writer
Who saw the 21 and 13 North Carolina State Wolfpack upsetting the 2 loss Villanova Wildcats? Absolutely no one. Outside of Kentucky (who went 31-0 during the regular season), Nova was the most consistent college basketball team in the nation. The squad had won 16 straight games and looked unstoppable. They had averaged over 76 points and shot a remarkable 46% from the field in conference play. After overwhelming Lafayette and showing little weakness, the Wildcats continued to look poised to win the NCAA championship. But two days later they were sent home. How? How could such a successful and laspeless team lose?
Like stated before, Villanova shot 46% from the field in conference play this year. They also shot just a tad below 40% from three on the season. They relied on their precision shooting and team play to propel them to 32 wins before March Madness. Saturday the team shot 31% from the field and 32% from 3-point range. Outside of Darrun Hilliard (who was 6-10 from three), the team was 3-18 from outside. It was not as though they weren’t getting open looks- they had plenty. The team was unable to knock them down and it cost them. Furthermore, Villanova only made 19 shots altogether. In their other two loses, the Wildcats made less than 20 shots as well. This was a recipe for disaster.
I also noticed as the game began to close, the team took ill advised and quick field goal attempts early in the shot clock. This could be reflected by their mere 7 assists, which was a season low. This showed their panic as the game began to slip through their fingers. Nova had not been down much throughout the year and I felt as though they were very unprepared for the situation. This might have been one of the prominent reasons why Villanova took such a terrible approach towards the latter part of the game.
One could point to many flaws throughout the meeting. Nova was significantly outrebounded (45-32) or the fact that Josh Hart and JayVaughn Pinkston were in foul trouble. But I think their struggle to play disciplined, as a team, and shoot the ball with proficiency were the underlying reasons why Villanova is pack-ing up.
Dylan McKeon Staff Writer
A major belief that many students of SLA hold is the idea that standardized tests are an inaccurate judgement of a student’s intelligence. In 2014, this idea was presented to to the world through a TED talk presented by SLA senior Nikki Adeli. In her TED talk, Nikki talks about how most schools currently have a large focus on standardized tests rather than teaching students to become citizens and leaders.
“The value and purpose of the schools is to grow a citizen” Nikki said in the speech, “and this citizen is to be a multitude of personalities, it’s if someones open-minded, knowledgeable and someone who in the long run can give back to her community.”
To change this situation, she is working to link students with small businesses to give students a bigger role in the community. The project would allow students to volunteer or intern during the school week and help small businesses in Philly.
Unfortunately, Nikki also sees big barriers to her work.
“The way I see it is not the way we are going, as the majority of our funding is to testing and to make sure testing comes into play”
She points out that a major problem with standardized test is that they creates competition, rather than building students into leaders and citizens.
The biggest challenge as she puts it “is the negative mentality a lot of Philadelphians have regarding young people”.
She argues that “the most important thing for students to realize is that they have the capability to be the leaders of today, not always the “leaders of tomorrow” like many people say”.
This isn’t all Nikki has done in her four years at SLA. She has done much to advocate for youth educations, serving as a Youth Commissioner to Mayor Michael Nutter and also has Head Concierge for EduCon.
Currently she is looking for colleges that offer her a similar sense of public policy and have strong connections to the community.
Her Ted Talk can be found here
If If you’re a senior at SLA, good news –there are many new classes next year being introduced by the teachers for seniors core classes and electives. .
Engineering Teacher John Kamal, has background in space science, had worked at GE’s space division and had worked on a couple of NASA programs, like Galileo and Ulysses interplanetary spacecraft and the design of the International Space Station, will be sharing his expertise in a new senior science class, called Aerospace Engineering.
“I want students to learn about the science of how the universe works. especially the physics and chemistry. I want them to be able to use observations to have the experience of seeing those physical principles in real life and to also look at how humans have explored space and engineering that went into the exploration.”
Mr.Kamal has also planned some cool projects for next year. For example, he might have his students design spacecraft with a given set of objectives and constraints to perform a particular mission.
“I’m really looking forward to teaching it for the for first time, and also looking forward to energetic students to learn about how the world works.”
English Teacher Amal Giknis,will be teaching the new class called Being Human next year to explore the deeper values that we all share.
“I wanted to leave the title open ended as a way to explore different values of our society. To explore more and discover answers to unanswered questions such as, are these value absolute? If our society crumble do these what values continue to exist. etc?”
This year, Ms. Giknis took over the English courses that had previously be designed by Ms. Dunn — Reel Reading and Gender and Sexuality in Literature. For the new course next year Ms. Giknis made her class based on things she questioned and loved.
“I made the class based on things I have loved to read and questions that had remained with me for so much of my life, and things I enjoy thinking about. At first, I started thinking about books I liked and a lot of the different themes that are interesting to explore with young people, especially the seniors. I didn’t teach most of the books I explored, so it’ll be great to explore as a class”.
Ms. Giknis wants the class to read mostly modern literature.
“ I really want to explore into themes that make us who we are as individual and as a society. What divides us from the world?, Where did values come from? Why aren’t we animals? Why aren’t we zombies?
Ms.Giknis’ possible activities for class can be something like a project on apocalyptic, she does not have the details, but will be interested to see how students explore into things like the world coming to an end, and the chances of survival.
“I am really excited, it’s really a cool privilege to have, to be able to teach anything you want, and to choose what it will be and what students will like.”
A third new class, Gender Studies, will be offered as a two-day elective by Ms. Menasion, and will be open to everybody but Freshmen. The course will be a continuation of some of the themes explored in the Social Justice elective she is teaching this year.