Page 11 - Sanger Herald 2-14-19 E-edition

Sanger
Lifestyles
• 3B • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2019
Spellers duel for supremacy
SANGER HERALD
Hoonur Kaur worked to find materials to better protect farm fields from drought. Her research is already in use in India.
Science projects seek solutions
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Hoonur Kaur had just gotten back the day before from India.
“India’s very close to my heart,” she said.
Kaur, a seventh-grader, and perhaps several dozen other students, their parents, friends and teachers gathered in the Washington Academic Middle School East Gym on Feb. 6 for the school’s science fair. Kaur’s project, “The Effectiveness of the Different Soil Additives on the Retention Level in the Soil,” originated from her desire to assist farmers in the densely populated Asian country.
And she did. Like an independent research and extension service, Kaur took on a challenge and sought to provide real- world solutions to farmers looking to keep their soil as moist as possible using a minimum of water under drought conditions.
“My relatives found out about this project, and they began using it,” Kaur said.
Susan Wright, a seventh- grade science teacher, said 50 judges had analyzed the projects and decided upon the top contenders in the categories of physical science and life science for the three grades.
“We had so many good
Love Defined
1 Corinthians 13 — Sam’s Paraphrase: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I’m just making noise. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. No matter how much I know — or how much great wisdom I speak, no matter if I utter incredible mysteries that
projects,” said Stefanie Fuerte, a sixth-grade science teacher.
School faculty encourage science fair participants to tackle projects close to home and find solutions that can be immediately applied. Like Kaur’s.
Sixth-grader Vicente Nicholas said he was inspired by the December 2004 tsunami that hit the west coast of the northern region of Sumatra. The massive wave caused about 230,000 deaths, destruction and untold economic impact after it originated from a undersea mega quake of about magnitude 9.1. Nicholas and his father built a wave-simulation device to test the theories behind his project, “The Effect of Water Depth on Wave Height.”
“Tsunamis,” Nicholas said of his inspiration. “I’ve been wondering why they’re so big.”
He found an answer.
“The deeper the water, the less tidal the wave,” he said. “It takes longer for the power to reach to reach up the deeper the water. Haven’t you seen in the movies that you can’t see a tsunami until it gets closer to land where the depth is more shallow?”
Perhaps like the age-old question of a tree falling
See Science, Page 2B
wow the masses — I might as well be just honking my horn in bumper to bumper traffic unless I do it with love. No matter what I can do — healing, miracles — without love it is meaningless. No matter how much I give of myself – I can be the humblest most giving person on earth — even give up my life for myfaith—butifIamnot flowing in God’s love I might as well not do it.”
What kind of love is this? Every time the word “love” appears in this chapter, it is the word “agape.” This is different from the other forms of the word love in Greek. Phileo is the idea of brotherly love
Ponce won early, forcing four others to go into a sudden death competition to determine the next two places. They got words like vestibule, ethos, ingestible, disavow and brigade to sort them out.
Ponce gave this advice to others interested in entering competition. “Just study a lot,” he said. As for the competition, which is
a sit-down spelling bee in which contestants write down their final answer, he said, “I was very nervous.”
The reporter can be contacted by email at nemethfeatures@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Kevin Narang and Ethan Woolum outlasted the rest of the field in the annual Sanger Unified School District Spelling Bee.
Chloe Acapulco, a sixth-grader from Quail Lake, exited the Feb. 7 competition in the seventh round, earning the third- place nod. The crowd filling the Washington Academic Middle School auditorium remained dead silent as coordinator Amy Williams explained just how the winner would be chosen.
Kevin, a sixth-grader from Sanger Academy Charter, and Ethan, a fifth-grader from Reagan Elementary, would duel until a winner was obvious. And that meant spelling a couple more words than the other.
Kevin got “galleria” correct. Ethan missed “mirage,” so it went back to Kevin. Kevin manhandled mirage and then spelled “fresco” and won it all.
He didn’t jump up and down. That’s not protocol. But he did smile. So did Ethan and Chloe. They emerged the top three. Each got trophies and a bunch of people shot their pictures.
The next phase of the competition is at the Fresno County level. The competition will be held March 19 at Fresno State.
Kevin said the pressure will be intense. He won the
fourth through sixth grade contest last year, too. “A lot more,” he said. “There’s a lot more people.”
Kevin advised those interested in participating in the spelling bee at some future date to study, and he said to not forget words with capital letters. “I studied almost every day,” he said. “Just page by page.”
Ethan said he studied, too. “Really hard,” he said. “Every day I would study for almost two hours a day.”
His advice to future spellers was simple but somewhat contradictory. “Try your hardest,” he said. “Never give up, and never push yourself too hard.”
Ethan said he’s looking forward to continuing, but he still had some jitters from the competition. “When I went on stage, my heart was almost stopping,” he said.
Reagan Elementary principal Christy Platt told Ethan, “Now you’re going to be famous.” She said she is proud not only of him but of his fellow Reagan competitor fourth-grader Hailey Foltz, who lasted at least several rounds. “She’s going to be back next year.”
Amongst seventh- and eighth-graders, Jayden Ponce from Quail Lake emerged victorious. Ivan Rodriguez, an eighth- grader from WAMS, was second, and Jillian Silva, an eighth-grader from Hallmark Charter School was third.
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Winners from the fourth through sixth competition top are from left, Chloe Acapulco, third; Ethan Woolum, second; and Kevin Narang, first. In seventh and eighth competition below from left are Jayden Ponce, first; Ivan Rodriguez, second; and Jillian Silva, third. The bee was held Feb. 7 at WAMS.
Electric bus makes debut at Sanger Unified garage
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Oneofapairofnew additions to the Sanger Unified school bus fleet moved silently out of the massive warehouse that serves as the school system’s maintenance facility.
The familiar growl of an internal combustion engine proved glaringly absent.
“It’s weird not to hear that roar,” superintendent Adela Jones said. However, she added, “It’s really a comfortable ride.”
The school district unveiled the silent-running student haulers on a chilly morning Feb. 6 at its transportation yard off Commerce Avenue. The large yellow vehicles that emit no tailpipe emissions were purchased with a $1.1 million grant through the Fresno County
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Tim Lopez, left, and Danny Akers discuss the mechanics.
Transportation Authority and Measure C and administered by the City of Sanger, said Sanger mayor Frank Gonzalez.
The buses, manufactured by Saint-Jerome, Quebec- based Lion Electric Co., will complement a fleet that now numbers about 65 vehicles, 20 of which are already low emission, running off compressed natural gas.
“This allows us to maximize our resources,” said Joy Frantz, the school district’s director of support services. “Students can enjoy a much quieter ride.”
Frantz said the buses have a range of about 100 miles, carry about 70 passengers and feature regenerative braking, which recharges the battery pack during coasting or braking.
See Electric, Page 2B
you deal with life (patient, hopes, trusts, perseveres, never fails); your relationship to yourself (never fails, patient, kind, vs. envy, pride, self- seeking, boasting); and your relationship to God (hopes, perseveres, rejoices in truth, vs. pride, self- seeking, delight in evil).
Next time we will look at these individually.
Pastor Sam Estes is city advance director and facilitates the Sanger Community Task Force that meets the first and third Tuesdays every month. He can be reached at pastorsam51@gmail.com.
PASTOR’S CORNER
or friendship.
The city of Philadelphia gets
its name from
this word. Eros is
the idea of sexual
love — we get the
word erotic from
this word. Agape
as a word didn’t
really appear until the New Testament. It is selfless love — the love of God toward Jesus and toward us. It’s not a love of word but a love of action without regard to self-interest.
This kind of love is the character of God. 1 John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Everything you strive for,
who you want to be, what you want to do, how you want people to think of you, what you want to accomplish — everything should go through this filter: “Am I doing this with agape
rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
The eight things love is: patient, kind, rejoices in truth, protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres, never fails. The eight things love is not: envy, boasting, pride, rudeness, self-seeking, anger, holding grudges, delighting in evil.
You could form these around four basic concepts: how you deal with others (patient, kind, protects, vs. rude, angry, grudges); how
Pastor Sam Estes
love?”
So now let’s look at the
character of this love.
Paul defines for us what agape means. He does it in terms of what it is and what it is not. There are eight things love does, eight things love does not do. I Corinthians 13:4-8, Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not