We’ve all heard the various announcements encouraging students to come to clubs’ interest meetings and saying when the next meeting is, but what do these acronyms stand for, and what do these clubs actually do?
Science Olympiad
Last year was the first time that Science Olympiad made it to states. Regionals this year were held March 16 at Campbell University and the team advanced to states, which will be hosted by N.C. State April 26 and 27.
After a miscount, the team ended up in fifth, meaning they would not advance to states. After a recount, the team ended up eight points higher than the now fifth place team and ended up in fourth qualifying for states.
“I felt robbed at first because I thought we did well,” said science teacher and Science Olympiad advisor Victoria Raymond. “I knew we were close.”
Science Olympiad is a team competition where students compete in various events ranging from knowledge tests to building events. The material can include any science related subject like earth science, biology, chemistry, physics and engineering.
When Raymond came to Northwood there was not a team, though there had been one previously. She revived it and has continued it for the past four years.
“I like to get science out of the classroom,” Raymond said. “I like for kids that like science and enjoy this kind of challenge to see that there’s other folks out there that enjoy doing science too. It gets us out of Northwood, and yes it’s competitive. We love to win.”
There are 18 students on the team who split into groups of two and compete in a couple of events. Teams can take on knowledge events, building events or general science events. Raymond’s husband Bruce, an engineer, helps with the building teams.
The team is now preparing for states next weekend.
FFA
FFA stands for Future Farmers of America, a club that was made to support agricultural education where students learn about food, fiber and natural industries with science, business and technology along with production agriculture.
The FFA at Northwood is currently working on career development events. Club advisor Gale Brickhouse says they are doing a lot of events right now.
“We just got done doing the safety hunter’s skill contest, the poultry contest and the tool ID contest,” Brickhouse said. “[They] look at power points, practice tests and if it’s a hands-on contest, like the poultry contest where you have to identify parts of meat, we go ahead and get those parts of meats that they have to ID and get the chickens and they practice the present and past production on chickens.”
They competed March 15 in the poultry contest, coming in second in their federation and seventh in the region.
The next event for FFA is equine. Coming in fourth last year, they competed April 12 and 13 in Laurinburg, placing fifth in the region and 29th in the state. They judge horses, their conformation and different breeds. They also have to give oral reasoning as to why they chose to judge one animal over another.
SADD Club
SADD club met on March 21 to start the competition for free tickets to prom. Whoever made the best poster showing drugs aren’t the normal thing to do, won the tickets. It is called a normalcy campaign used to stress that most kids don’t do drugs after prom.
SADD stands for Students Against Destructive Decisions. The club was originally against kids drinking and driving, but has expanded to the issues of drinking, drugs, dangerous driving and other “destructive decisions.”
“Last year SADD club didn’t actually get a lot of things done,” said president Danielle Van der Lelie. “We had a whole skit last year with prom, but this year we wanted kids to really participate, rather than just watch.”
Next for SADD is the “Would you be proud?” project, getting kids to reflect and ask themselves if their younger self would be proud of the decisions they’re making now.
Van der Lelie encouraged members to attend conferences in the beginning of the year to come up with ideas for the year ahead and now their “ideas are coming to life.”
— By Tori Nothnagel