The Rampage

Jessica Rish Staff Reporter                 The beginning of May brings many exciting things-one of which is AP testing.  AP classes are programs created by the College Board, which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. AP stands for Advanced Placement. Colleges and universities often grant placement and course credit to students who obtain high scores on the examinations.                 AP exams will begin at the beginning of May and go through the end of May. Reagan Mackie is a junior who will be taking 4 exams this year.                “I’m in AP composition, AP psychology, AP world history and AP human geography,” said Mackie. It is important to start studying at an early date so students can be prepared for the test according to collegeboard.or...

Lexi Burrows Staff Reporter                 Students in freshman Earth and Space classes have been learning about the Earth. They collected data from an experiment testing heating and cooling systems that they completed. In the experiment students are given soil, sand, water and salt in a cup.  Students then stacked books on top of chairs and placed a meter stick over top.  Finally they were given a thermometer and a heating lamp. Students then had to write a hypothesis of which substance they thought would warm up fastest and which would cool off the fastest. Students set up the experiment and every two minutes they recorded the temperature of the different substances.  After twelve minutes students then shut off the light and kept track of the temperatures as they cooled. Once all of the data was collected, students shared their different temperatures with the teacher and the rest of...

Brooklyn Draisey Columnist                 On Wednesday, April 22, the University of Iowa hospitals celebrated the year of the hospital’s 5000 th transplant by planting trees. The event was organized by Greg Johnson, Jody Johnson, and other members of the hospital staff. They planted five different trees for the five different major organs, which are the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and pancreas. They also planted a tree in honor of the donors who saved recipients’ lives by donating organs. The types of the trees were Bald Cyprus, which were chosen for their beauty and resilience.  As of April 22, the hospital had successfully conducted 5,018 transplants. The most common type of transplant was for kidneys, and there have been 3,338 since 1969. There have been 785 liver transplants, 339 heart transplants, 146 lung transplants, and 69 pancreas transplants. There were also many people who required mo...

Claire Strickland Opinion Editor             Students who play volleyball have a mandatory meeting on Friday morning at 7:15. The meeting will take place in Mr. Parkers room, N273.             “The meeting will mostly be about future summer open gym dates,” said sophomore volleyball player Maya Barker. For students who plan on playing volleyball during the next fall season, the meeting is highly recommended.             “I want varsity to make it to state of course, but also a good team record for all of the teams,” Barker said. Students who play volleyball attend summer open gyms, where lots of preparations occur. Drills, games and conditioning take place at the open gyms every morning.             “During the offseason there are open gyms and sand volleyball...

Ethan Edvenson Cartoonist             It’s just an average lunch time on a pretty basic day at school. You look around and see most everyone enjoying their lunch just as you are, until your stomach gets that feeling. UH OH! Looks like you can’t eat any more of that chicken sandwich because your stomach is now full! Oh what to do? Just like culture has taught you, it is okay to just go ahead and throw it in the garbage along with the other food you didn’t finish. It won’t add up to much right? However, you soon realize more and more students are doing the same thing as you are doing. Then, you think about the students and staff from the other lunch hours all combined in their efforts to get rid of their trash. Finally, you acknowledge the several millions of other United States citizens that shamelessly throw away their remains to rot in a landfill. And that landfill isn’t limited to food. According to the EPA, in just one year, America is estim...

Tori Hennick Arts + Cultures Editor Students are beginning to start buckling down on their studying as the AP exams approach. Most of the AP exams are at the beginning of May, so they are only a few weeks away. Junior Morgan Handy hasn’t started yet, but is planning to start studying for her AP Human Geography exam. “It is important (to study) because if you do well enough, you can get college credit for that class,” said Handy. This is Handy’s first college credit class she has taken and so far. She isn’t too stressed out because her class has just started to talk about everything they are going to need to know. “I should study more, I think I’m going to do well, but it never hurts to study more often and frequently,” said Handy. AP teachers usually tell their students to study anywhere from 2 weeks to a month in advance about the exam. This gives students a chance to go through all of their material and figure out if they are missing any worksheets and gives them p...

Pete Ruden Staff Reporter             A staple in Southeast Polk athletics since reaching the state championship game in 2006, the football team has already started spring “seven on seven” workouts.             A football seven on seven is when the offense’s quarterback, running backs and wide receivers go against the defense’s linebackers and defensive backs in an all-passing, fast paced competition.             “It gets the team together and helps us get to know each other when it’s not necessarily football season,” safety Michael Altes said. “[We can] have fun and just get work done.”             After a 6-5 season and another trip to the postseason, the Rams are looking to make it back again. In recent years, they have had a “playoffs or bust” mentality,...