The Rampage

Sammi Springer  Staff Reporter  With the holiday season coming around the corner fast, it’s important to remember those less fortunate than you. A good way to keep things in perspective while helping those less fortunate this December is the Toys for Tots drive that the club SkillsUSA is sponsoring through December 18.             “The toys go into a big organization and they split it between less fortunate kids. I think it’s more so not sick kids and more so the less fortunate,” said Jessica Wheeler, senior and member of SkillsUSA.             “It’s good to help less fortunate kids who don’t get the same gifts that everyone else does during the holidays and give them a good Christmas they might not always get every year,” said Wheeler.             Students have until Friday to continue bringing in presents or money donations to the stations set up near the doors by SkillsUSA, which will then be picked up by the organization Toys for Tots and given to kids all around the co

Pat Owens Guest Reporter  Language arts teacher Pat Owens, Carson Owens, sophomore Cutler Owens, and senior Cordell  Parks at the premiere of The Force Awakens at Copper Creek theater Thursday night. Pat Owens photo. SPOILER ALERT—I am a big fan of the Star Wars Saga, especially the original trilogy, so this will be a favorable review. Thirty-eight-and-a-half years ago, I fell in love for the first time. Okay, maybe I had loved a pet or two before, but all that was cast aside when my dad took me to see the original Star Wars (before the subtitle Episode IV—A New Hope was added to the 1981 re-release). “I saw the most unbelievable movie,” he said. “I have to take you to see it.” Being an excited seven-year-old, I don’t remember much, but what I do remember is the feeling I had afterwards and how that carried on through my childhood and adolescence, even into adulthood, as Star Wars became one of the most iconic series in popular culture. Fast-forwa

Carrie McGrean  Staff Reporter  Students who are graduating early this year need need to attend the meeting in the auditorium. Photo credit Carrie McGrean. Many seniors will be graduating early this year. There will be a meeting for early graduates in the auditorium Friday December 18 during advisement period. Seniors were informed last Friday in advisement about the meeting. Early graduating senior Emma Larson doesn’t know exactly what the meeting will be about, but she has an idea.             “ I think it will be about papers to get signed and make sure we are all still on track,” said Larson.             Some seniors have had it in mind to graduate ahead of their class for a while now, while others just decided this year.             “ I decided to graduate early a couple weeks into this semester,” said Larson.             Seniors that made this choice all probably had different reasons for doing so. Larson said she wants to get away from the drama of high school a

Kayla Sunderland  Staff Reporter  People gathered with the Altoona cops to help raise money for kids Christmas presents. Photo credit Kayla Sunderland.  The Altoona Walmart store hosted their annual Shop with a Cop on Tuesday, December 8th. The store has been hosting the event at the Altoona Walmart for over ten years now.             “Shop with a Cop” allows families who cannot afford to buy gifts for themselves come in and shop for their families. Altoona and Pleasant Hill cops gather to help families have a great Christmas.             The kids were the ones who got to choose what to get for themselves and their family. Many kids chose to buy gifts for their siblings, parents, and grandparents. Gifts ranged from toys, clothing, candy, video games or movies, and accessories.             Volunteers were able to come in and wrap the gifts right after they checked out so the families could bring home the gifts and not have to worry about wrapping them.             Appro

Lexi Burrows Convergence Editor  Students have to draw a "Little Buddy" for their Spanish II speech. Photo credit Lexi Burrows.  Spanish II classes have to present about their “little buddy’s” daily routine. Students have to draw a small person and color it. They have to glue it to a pencil or a stick, and then label ten different body parts.             Once students have finished drawing and coloring their little buddy, they have to either make a video or just present in front of the class. Many students are creating videos rather than presenting it in person. “I don’t like speaking in Spanish because I feel like I am going to mess up. It gets confusing,” said Spanish II student, Ryan Hermes. Students must show their buddy to six different daily routine activities and they must be reflexive verbs. They have to use the reflexives verbs in three different tenses. They also have to have two past tense verbs in the preterit form. Multiple students talk about ho

Jessica Rish  News Editor  Students can learn more information about Hour of code on https://hourofcode.com/us        On December 9, 2015 Southeast Polk will be hosting their first Hour of Code after school.             The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. One-hour tutorials are available in over 40 languages. No experience needed. Ages 4 to 104 according to the Southeast Polk website. Junior Maya Barker is taking part in the hour of code. “I wanted to do hour of code because it seems like something cool I would like,” said Barker. “I don’t know what I want to do with my life when I graduate, so this a good opportunity to see if I like computer technology.”             The Hour of Code promotes students to get involved in computer sciences. Computer science is every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving

Pete Ruden  Sports Editor  Chris Henderson protects the hoop against an Indianola player. Photo credit Pete Ruden.   The boys basketball team took care of business in their first game, as they handily beat Indianola on the road on Friday, December 4 by a score of 55-38.             Senior Chris Henderson led the Rams with a double-double, in which he scored 14 points, shooting 62.5 percent from the field, along with 10 rebounds.             “I felt I did a pretty good job and I contributed well to the team and the win,” Henderson said.             Along with Henderson’s performance, senior Keegan Van Kooten put up some solid stats, dropping in 14 points, with seven rebounds and two assists. Junior Jackson Cole also performed well, putting up 10 points, grabbing seven rebounds on the glass and dishing out two assists.             For any team, a 17 point road win on opening night is a good performance. The same can be said for the Rams, as they began their season on a h

Sammi Springer Staff Reporter  Students can speed and agility on Tuesday and Friday mornings. Photo credit Sammi Springer.  Speed and Agility training that is held in the morning on Tuesdays and Fridays helps athletes and otherwise improve their, well, speed and agility. One of the common participates in the before-school workouts is sophomore Maddy Kelly, who was encouraged to go to the tryouts by her softball coach Stiles. “Speed has a lot to do with strength, so we do a lot of ladder exercises that have to do with coordination and power stuff, that has a lot to do with legs,” said Kelly. According to her, many of the crowd of students that go are football players, who are obligated to go to make sure they improve and impress their coaches so they can play first string. “If you don't go to them, it’s like you’re not committed,” she said. “It’s like showing your coach that you don't really care and you don't want to improve.” For all athletes who want to go

Kaelee Keesee Editor-and-Cheif  It’s time for the start of Odyssey of the Mind! The club’s first meeting will be tonight after school in the Tag Room.             Odyssey of the Mind is a group that competes in problem solving competition with teams of five to seven people. They are given a problem with a certain set of rules and guidelines to solve them by. There are five types of problems with some requiring a skit to tell a story of a problem that gets solved in at least eight minutes. Another type of problem is building some sort of vehicle or structure to serve a special function. The props and anything used in the process are completely made by the members of the team from anything they desire.             “It’s not something that’s offered in other activities here,” said senior Paige Prichard. This will be her fourth year on the Odyssey team. “I can be creative and kind of silly and the fact that it’s a competition as well makes it that much better.             Pricha

Dressing pets up for holidays makes spirits bright! Photo credit Tori Hennick.  Tori Hennick Arts & Culture Editor  Pets are already cute. Want to make them even cuter? Dress them up for the holidays! People everywhere around the world spend tons of money not only on clothes for themselves, but also for their precious pets.             According to petmd.com, there are ten reasons why people should dress up their pets.  Number ten: clothes can show off your pet’s personality. Whether your pet is tough or flirty, clothes can show their traits off to others.             Number nine: if you wear clothes, there’s a chance your pet wants to as well. If your pet follows you around the house or sits on the couch when you do, try dressing them up like you. Number eight: it’s cold outside. In December and January it gets extremely cold outside. By dressing your pet up, you are protecting them from the harsh weather. Number seven: who doesn’t want their pet to be the cente

Kayla Sunderland  Staff Reporter  Sophomore English students started a new unit about a Greek tragedy. Photo credit Kayla Sunderland.     Mrs. Zelenovich’s Sophomore English II classes have started to talk the play Antigone on Monday, November 30.             Sophomore Cassie Link is in Mrs. Zelenovich’s fifth hour class. The lesson for that day was about the history of the playwright Sophocles and the other two parts of the trilogy that Antigone is in. Antigone is the third part to the trilogy. The first two parts of the trilogy are Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus.             “The play seems to have a lot of psychology behind it behind it and a wide range of literacy to be learned,” said Link.             Antigone is a Greek play written by Sophocles sometime around 441 B.C. and takes place in ancient Greece. The play is based on the myth of Oedipus.             Students will be reading the play aloud to each other in class and will then will give a speech af

Brooklyn Draisey  Columnist  Southeast Polk will have their first ever "Ugly sweater contest". The contest winners will be announced on December 20,2015. Photo credit Brooklyn Draisey.   The ugly  sweater contest was announced during the assembly on Tuesday, November 24. At the end of the assembly music started to play over the speakers and teachers ran around the gym in ugly sweaters. Then Heather Goodrich, a special education teacher, announced the contest. Ashley Van Ryswyk , another special education teacher, is also involved. Either can be contacted with any questions.             To enter the contest, fill out the registration form that was sent to every student’s infinite campus email. Once the form has been filled out, take a photo and submit it to #seprocktheugly2015 by December 16. Name and grade must be included. There will be an overall-class winner and individual finalists. The individual finalists will be announced on December 18 via social media and

Ashley Vannoy  Staff Reporter  The annual food drive has come to an end. Mrs.Owens has won the contest every year since the new school opened. Photo credit Ashley Vannoy.   Health careers teacher, Mrs. Owens has won the annual school food drive every year since the new high school opened. Recently her advisor class also won the TLC book drive.             “I feel very fortunate to work with such generous kids and families.  It is really humbling to watch kids donate their own, hard earned money to help others.  The most rewarding part is seeing how great they (the students) feel by helping someone else,” said Mrs. Owens.             Often, in some classes throughout the school, no one brings anything to donate. Owens explained how she got her students to be encouraged to donate for the drives.              “I start talking about the food drive on the first day of school.  I have engaged in many friendly competitions over the years (Mrs. Stille and Mrs. Corwin) which re

Jessica Rish  News Editor  Students attended a Central Region Leadership Conference in Kansas City this past weekend. Photo credit Jessica Rish.   On November 20th, 21st and 22nd a handful of DECA members will be attended the Central Region Leadership Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. DECA is a club at Southeast Polk that focuses on social, competition and leadership events. According to the official deca website, deca.org their mission is to prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe. Delaney Christian is junior here at Southeast Polk and is a second year member of DECA. Christian and participates in marketing events at DECA competitions. This will be Christian's second year attending the CRLC conference. “Last year we went to Minneapolis and this year we are going to Kansas City and I have high expectations because last year was really good,” said Christian. The CRL

Pete Ruden  Sports Editor  Many students enjoyed the annual Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday November, 19. Photo credit Pete Ruden.  November is wrapping up and Thanksgiving is just around the corner, which means the school is serving up their annual Thanksgiving lunch. A lunch like that can remind students of what is to come, whether it’s being with friends or family, or just being thankful for what they have.             The lunch contains turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, a roll, green beans, stuffing and pumpkin bars for the kids to enjoy exactly a week from Thanksgiving. Each student has their favorite part of the meal. Some people at lunch enjoy the turkey, while others enjoy the stuffing. Still, others crave the pumpkin bar that comes around once every year.             “[The best part about the lunch is] they usually have a pumpkin bar that goes along with it,” senior Nick McDermott said. “That’s usually pretty great.”             With only a week until Thanksgivi

Demi Muchmore  Editor-and-Chief  FCCLA students are attending a district conference on November 23,2015. Photo credit Demi Muchmore.  On Monday, November 23 rd FCCLA students will be attending a district conference. This will be at the Guthery Center, in this conference they will be doing a lot of leadership building, doing break out sessions, and enjoy an inspirational speaker. As some people don’t know, FCCLA stands for: family, career, community leaders of America.             The main idea of FCCLA is to promote and accomplish community service and also attend leadership events. They also work with a sponsorship called star events which is a competition setting.              Senior Mckayla Birkenholtz is one of the top leaders this year. She is in charge of helping with the Star events and finding more community service projects for the team to do.             Along with doing the community service projects, they also go with your silver chord hours. “Being in thi

Sydney Sears  Staff Reporter  Students will be preforming in front of the best judges, and hope to receive a good review. Photo credit Sydney Sears.  Several band students of Southeast Polk will be attending the Iowa All State Band Festival at Iowa State University tomorrow the 19th and Friday. The Iowa All State Band Festival is an opportunity for all band kids, though to get in, students must audition a week or so before hand to get in. Once they make it through auditions, they perform a piece they practice on for nearly months and play for the handful of judges in front of them. One of students that made it for the Southeast Polk side of the band is freshman Katy Meunier. “I practiced almost every day, for an hour at least, or I at least tried to in my free time,” Meunier said. She prepped with her piece as soon as she got it, and played her French horn after school. “I was very, very nervous,” Meunier said about the auditions, “There was one judge there and a student

Shelby Kellis  Business Manager           Chad Willefords’ 3D art class is finishing up their clay bust project. For this project students got to pick a head of a character, animal, or person to sculpt. Some of the projects the students are doing, Darth Vader, Yoda, Chris Evans, Thor and Jack Skellington.         Senior Shianne Bice is doing Jack, which is coming along great. “The way the eyes are nearly a perfect match to the picture,” says Bice. “Probably one of my best pieces of art I have done in my whole high school career.”         For this project students start with making a neck, by putting clay slabs over an armature. According to Google.com an armature is a metal framewoek on which a sculpture is molded with clay or a similar materianl. But instead of using metal students made their armature by rolling up news papers and putting them in plastic sacks.        After making the neck students sat the head armature on top of the neck and covered it up with more cla

Kaelee Keesee  Editor-and-Cheif            On the night of Sunday, November 15, the commons was home to nearly 300 members of the Southeast Polk wrestling family. Wrestlers, managers and families alike came together to enjoy a Thanksgiving potluck for the boys before the fun of cutting weight begins.             Each member of the team was in charge of a specific dish to prepare for the meal, with seniors in charge of bringing a main dish, juniors responsible for a side, sophomores bringing dessert and freshman were in charge of clean up.             This is the second year that the parents have hosted this event, with large success each year. It is the first time the wrestlers spend time together before they spend countless hours at 6am workouts, after school practice, meets and tournaments together until mid-February.             “I’m looking forward to winning a state title with my teammates,” said senior Eric Pingel, who attended the meal. Pingel has been a member of the

Quincey Nelson  Graphic Designer  Every student will be asked to write a thank you note in their advisor this Friday. Students will be asked to write a note to some in their life that they are thankful for. This can include family, friends, teachers, and anyone who they want to send gratitude to.  This is meant to be an encouragement to do a small act of kindness for someone else as well. Many people do not realize that they don’t say thank you to anyone. In today’s society it is unlikely someone will say thank you to the cashier or even to a teacher or coach. “I definitely don’t thank them as much as I should,” said Sophomore Libby Pruden. This activity is to help students reflect on positive influences someone has had on their life and paying the kindness back. “I believe I’ll use this time to express how thankful for my family I am, I’m thankful for them because they support me and my decisions and try to help me to the best of their ability,” said Pruden. Advisement

Carrie McGrean Staff Reporter  SkillsUSA is having a contest to help their campaign "Combat Hunger". Photo credit Carrie McGrean.   Southeast Polk SkillsUSA is sponsoring a “Combat Hunger” Food Drive in which they collect non-perishable food, paper products, and cash donations on November 16th – through the 20. Students should bring their items to their first period class and give them to their teacher. Most teachers will have a safe place to put the items until the end of the week when SkillsUSA members will collect all the items and tally the amount of points each class has accumulated.             “When you give things it gets points depending on what it is,” said Freshman Alyssa Kincaid.             High school students were informed of the food drive last week so they could come up with donations before this week and most were told that there was a point system. The point system is not officially announced, but from past years it is said that cans are worth

Brooklyn Draisey  Columnist Students finished building their Rube Goldberg machines on Thursday.   Students finished their Rube Goldberg machines in Mr. Busch’s Chemistry class on Thursday. The students had been working on the machines since Tuesday. The machines had to have at least three steps that included two gas relationships. Those relationships could be between temperature and volume, pressure and temperature, number of particles and volume, or many others. The students have to complete a simple task, like popping a balloon, through a series of simple tasks, which what a Rube Goldberg machine does. The steps must also happen on their own. After the first step is triggered, the students can’t mess with the machine until it’s done.             “We’re doing this to experience gas relationships in action,” said Taylor Davis, a junior in Mr. Busch’s fourth period class. One of the gas relationships featured in her group’s machine was between temperature and volume. Alexand

Anna Zelenovich  Staff Reporter  Congressman David Young came to visit Southeast Polk High School on Monday, November 9.  This past Monday Congressman, David Young, came to Southeast Polk High School and talked to Mr. Gross’s sophomore Government class. Congressman Young was on a work period recess from Washington D.C. and was at the high school recognizing the baseball team, and because some students in Mr. Gross’s class had written him letters, he stayed to answer some questions. “We were learning about public opinion and how important it is for our government officials to hear feedback from citizens, so students had the option of writing a 1 page letter to a public official discussing 2 or 3 topics they were concerned about. Most chose President Obama or David Young,” said Gross. Congressman Young graduated from Johnston High School and then continued his education at Drake University. When he got out of college and realized how the Government impacted him he decided

Kailee Ammons  Feature Editor  Students have been working hard to recreate the Addams Family musical. Photo credit Kailee Ammons.   Friends and family of the Southeast Polk community are invited to come enjoy a comedy about family and young love expressed through the values of the Addams family! Southeast Polk High School is hosting the musical based off of the well-known Addams Family this weekend in the auditorium.             The cast is putting on a performance during the day on Thursday, November 12. This is open to the students from the sixth grade center, the junior high, and those who want to watch during study halls. The first act of the show will be in the morning and the second act will be in the afternoon.             To prepare for the musical, the cast has been practicing lines, efficient set changes, handling props, and music. Now they are putting the finishing touches on it, and believe that they will be ready for Thursday.             Along with working

Claire Strickland  Managing and Design Editor    Six members of student council attended the Iowa Youth Leadership Summit at the capital. Photo credit Claire Strickland.  On November 9, student council took six members to the 2015 Iowa Youth Leadership Summit at the Capitol. Senior Kaitlynn Lucy, Vice President of student council, participated in the event.             “ The leadership conference was about the importance of leadership and how to be a better leader in all you're involved in,” said Lucy. Students from all over Iowa participated in the event led by Congressman David Young. There were also multiple guest speakers, and each student had the opportunity to listen to three different breakout sessions.             “The best part was the breakout session with Dr. Jason Woods who talked about different qualities of being a leader and how important it is to be respectful to others around you,” said Lucy. The main speaker was Mr. Wilfred “Mickye” Johnson, an admini