Endangered Species Nurtured by ES Students

by Daniel Saulnier

The biggest project the Sophomore Environmental Science class takes part in is the raising and releasing of their Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) and Plymouth Red-bellied Turtles (Pseudernys rubriventris bangsi). Both of these species are on the State and Federal Endangered Species list. Several of the students have commented that they enjoy raising these fascinating animals.
Six Plymouth Red-bellied turtles were received from the “Head Start” program, run by the Mass Wildlife’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species program, near the beginning of the school year.
For the past six months the Woodlands and Wetlands ecology class has been working hard, taking care of these turtles by cleaning their tank once a week and feeding them regularly. In addition to this, the class has been measuring the weight and shell length of each turtle each week. Each student records this data into their own personal log book where they later calculate the weight change as well as the change in size. At the end of every month, this data is sent to Mass Wildlife. This data from the first twenty-three weeks will be found here. Mr. Saulnier’s Sophomore class is proud to say that none of their turtles have died or been injured and that our turtles are well above average weight and size when compared to the rest of the state’s data.
As of February, the sophomore ES class has been raising five-hundred Atlantic Salmon eggs. The class received these eggs from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Nashua Fish Hatchery when they were on a field trip.
When the salmon are released into the stream they will be in the fry stage of their life cycle. This stage can be compared to the tadpole stage of the frog life cycle. It is unlikely that all five-hundred eggs will hatch or even survive by the time they are ready to be released, just as not all salmon would survive if they were bred in the wild. But the Sophomores are hoping to beat the current Junior’s record of 475 salmon survivors. As of March 21, only four eggs have not hatched. Every week, measures are taken to ensure the salmon’s survival by ridding the tank of bacteria and chlorine. Once a week the water is checked for ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) levels and the pH. It is obvious that this class is doing all it can to help preserve and protect both of these endangered species.
The salmon were released back into the wild by the Sophomore ES classinto the Souhegan River in Milford, New Hampshire.

Aggie’s David Noseworthy Names Vocational Student of the Year

    Each year the Massachusetts Vocational Association (MVA) awards one deserving title of Vocational Student of the Year. This years award recipient is Essex Aggie’s own David Noseworthy.
According to the MVA this annual award is given based on several criteria: Personal commitment to vocational technical education and to the program in which the student is enrolled; success in vocational technical classes, projects and work experiences as well as success in academic areas. David ranked second in the senior class and a Ornamental Horticulture major was honored at a banquet held in Worcester in April.

Wheelabrator Plants Environmental Hazards or Environmental Caretakers?

by Daniel Saulnier

The Environmental Science program is known for going on several interesting field trips throughout the year. The sophomore class has gone on three field trips thus far this year. Among the trips was a visit to the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) in Danvers; ESRI is the developer of the mapping software used in the Environmental Technologies Program for studying Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The sophomores have also gone on hiking trips in New Hampshire. Perhaps one of the most environmentally controversial trips was to the Wheelabrator plant in Saugus.

The plant is a waste-to-Energy Plant that claims to provide environmentally safe disposal of municipal solid waste while providing clean electricity to local utilities.

As the class approached the facility we saw a large industrial building with tall smoke stacks. Surely, this could not possibly be environmentally safe? At this point the class knew this was where waste products were incinerated and disposed of. Initially as we saw the plant some of us were outraged. From what we could see, all around the plant was barren grassland with a river running through it. We were all thinking the same thing, was this the land fill and was the waste seeping into the river, contaminating it? Some of the students asked Mr. Saulnier why he was taking us to a place that pollutes the environment rather than someplace that is trying to conserve it. When we got to the building we went into an office where we met with a representative of the plant who told us about all the steps that were taken to prevent environmentally hazardous chemicals from entering into the atmosphere. One of the students asked about the smoke stacks. We found out that it was not smoke that we were seeing but water vapor. Most of the students were impressed that that measures were taken to protect the environment.
There was one major problem that was brought up about the chemicals that were released into the air. The Wheelabrator plant in Saugus can only reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide, or smog, they produce by 50%. They can legally do this because they buy NOx credits. The government puts restrictions on how much nitrogen oxide can be emitted. But the government also allows a source that emits nitrogen oxide to transfer ownership of the emission reduction to another party. Several environmentalists believe it is wrong to “pay for pollution.” A representative from the plant said that they are trying to reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide they are emitting.
We also found out that the Wheelabrator plant is able to produce electrical energy from the burning of waste products they receive. The waste first goes into an incinerator. All of the students were able to see the inside of the incinerator and many of them agreed it was the “coolest” part of the field trip. The boiler then absorbs the heat from the incinerator and converts it into steam. The steam then goes through a turbine generator. The generator then converts the mechanical energy into electrical energy which is then sent to the New England Power Company.

The Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary is located directly next to the plant. This wildlife sanctuary is owned by Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. and consists of 207 acres of land. Part of the sanctuary is used as a landfill for current ashes and old waste that was not incinerated. There is a very large amount of soil that is placed over this waste so that animals would not be able to burrow their way into the waste. Walls in the ground that surround the perimeter of the sanctuary prevent any water that may have been contaminated by the waste from seeping into the surrounding land and river. There are a group of people that are working hard to make the sanctuary a suitable place for animals to live. They are currently eliminating invasive plant species by introducing other plant species. There are 17 state-listed endangered or threatened bird species that they are particularly trying to target as the sanctuary is located right over several bird species’ migratory path. The sanctuary may not be complete for some time but it will be well worh the effort to see this landfill become an adequate habitat to plant and animal species that need this space. For more information on Wheelabrator plants go to there official website at http://www.wheelabratortechnologies.com

Aggie Student Wins Statewide Recognition

Reprinted from the Salem Evening News article by Amanda McGregor Tuesday April 11, 2006

David Noseworthy’s fear of heights did not stop him from climbing his way to success — sometimes as high as 70 fee to prune tree branches.

Such activities are all in a school day’s work for Noseworthy who won statewide recognition as a top vocational student of the year. Noseworthy, 17, is a senior majoring in landscape design at Essex Agricultural and Technical High School.

“Sometimes I don’t feel like it show—all the hard work I do—but now this shows that I’ve accomplished a lot,” said Noseworthy, who is from Peabody. “it’s a pretty good feeling.”

Noseworthy plans to work in computer-aided design, using software programs to create landscapes. He has applied to a few colleges, including UMass Boston and North Shore Community College, where he was accepted as a computer science major. He hasn’t yet decided where he’ll go.

“Computers in general have kind of been a hobby of mine,” Noseworthy said. “I think it’s definitely possible (I will) have a business where I would do the design and contract the actual work. I definitely want to go to college.”

Every year each vocational high school in the state (there are 47) nominates one student as best vocational student of the year. The Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators hosted the awards ceremony on Thursday night in Worcester. Noseworthy attended with his family and Essex Aggie Vice Principal Gene Demsey.

“David works very hard to achieve the grades he gets in both the academic and vocational classes,” said Demsey, noting Noseworthy is ranked second in his class of just over 100 kids. “He’s a great young man to work with.”

Beyond this award, Noseworthy has made his mark on the campus including several stone walls and a walkway that he and his classmates constructed. Noseworthy said he found himself enjoying all of his classes at the Aggie, even in topics he presumed would be either boring or too difficult.

“Irrigation was rely cool. It was interesting to see how it all works,” said Noseworthy during an interview last week as he walked around the rolling hills of the Aggie campus, located off Route 62. “It involves simple math, and I actually thought it was really interesting and fun.”

Come June, for the third summer in a row, Noseworthy will work for the local landscaping company Landcare Inc., which has fueled his love for the trade.

“You’re doing a good thing for other people because you’re pretty much creating a beautiful landscape for people,” he said.

Noseworthy attended Higgins Middle School in Peabody before he enrolled at Essex Aggie as a freshman. He lives on Northend Street with his parents and his younger sister and brother.

Human Rights Awareness

by Daniel Saulnier
Although the Holocaust is the most well known genocide there are others such as the Rwandan and Cambodian Genocides. The Rwandan Genocide lasted for one hundred days in 1994. Eight-hundred thousand people were estimated to have been killed during this period. One-million to three-million people were estimated to have died in the Cambodian Genocide between 1975 and 1979. An estimated six-million deaths resulted from the Holocaust.

The figures listed above are not as disturbing as hearing the accounts of survivors from each of these genocides. Mr. Banos’s Sophomore honors history class did just this when they went on a field trip to Salem High School for a human rights awareness assembly. There, they heard speeches from Cambodian Genocide survivor, Sayon Soeun, Rwandan Genocide Survivor, Ernest Rugwizangonga, and Holocaust Survivor, Rena Finder.

These speeches made students look at things from a different prospective. Hearing from adults, “the bad things happening to you aren’t as bad as what others have gone through” is always the last thing people want to hear and they often do not really think about it. But listening to these speakers has made some of us think in different way. The Holocaust, Rwanda, and Cambodian genocides were all horrible events in history. Educating the public about these events is very important not only to commemorate the people who suffered from them but to prevent as much as possible another similar event from happening, but genocide still exists today.

“Since 2003, more than 400,000 people have been murdered in Sudan, Africa and 2 million more displaced.” Reports Boston Heralds, Fred Bridgland on March 5^th, 2006. The televised media appears to be just beginning to cover this issue. Many people in America are unaware of the sickening events that are taking place is Sudan and the U.S. Government has not yet taken any direct action into helping stop this situation. It is a very controversial issue and I am sure some people would say this discussion does not belong in a school newspaper.

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If you are a staff member or student, we would like to hear your opinion on weather or not the Rampage should include editorials (written by Rampage staff members or readers) that discuss current events and politics. If you do think we should publish stories about important world events then give us your opinion on the Sudan Genocide issue.

“Fishues” in Agriscience and Environmental Technologies

Fish are a big issue at our school. We get them, care for them, watch them grow and sometimes die. Regrettably, for most of this year we have been watching our fish die. At the beginning of the school year Environmental Technology and Agriscience received fish from a cranberry farmer by the name of Brad Morse. The fish that we received are large mouthed bass. At the beginning of the year Mrs. Abdella’s Agriscience class got 242 fish but for some reason they started to die. The same thing started to happen with Mrs. Witzig’s fish. Mrs. Witzig started with 900 fish and is now down to approximately 750 while Mrs. Abdella is left with 150.

This loss of fish started to concern their caretakers. They first thought that it was because of an oil spill from the new underwater lights but they were moved to where the water was cleaner and fish continued to die. When they realized that the fish were still dying they believed it was either from chlorine in the water or the water temperature. The teens administered tests to find that it wasn’t the chlorine and the temperature is always at 18-20 degrees. We still aren’t sure as to what is killing the fish but have many ideas as to what could be causing it. We will return all the fish that have survived to Brad Morse when the temperature outside is 50 degrees at night time. For now we continue to search for the answers of why or fish are still dying.

Memorandum

by Richard Barbeau

We had six seniors qualify for the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship. If they choose, they can receive four years of free tuition at the University of Massachusetts campus. Their outstanding MCAS results have qualified them for this award. The students are: Jessica Conley, Jayna Davis, Chris Joblon, Donald Knight, Kevin Lamontagne, and Renee Malionek.

I would also like to announce the Vocational Student of the Year. He is David Noseworthy. David was selected based on his GPA, leadership skills, work experience, and participation in school activities. David will be honored at a banquet in Worcester on April 6.

FFA Pizza Night

Pizza night 2006 was all about love, friendship, karaoke, and the hot steamy crunchy delicious Prince’s pizza. The beatiful sounds of Ms. Grima and the not so beatiful sounds of Mr. Bell were the talk of the evening. Stealing the floor a half hour in to the night the duo inspired the rest of the group to get up there and shake what were mamas gave them. The next three hours were filled with the wondrous sound of the Aggie Idols, having the time of there lives. The Aggie teachers were enthusiastic to sing the inspirational song Lean on Me to all the aggie students. The only wishes the FFA have are the ones of next year being as good or better than the one this year, and that every student has a great time with their wonderful friends.

Aggie’s Art Club

by Daniel Saulnier

Among the wide variety of after school activities the Aggie has to offer is the Art Club, run by Mr. Feeney. The art club is a great place to socialize with other classmates while working on a large variety of arts and crafts. These crafts include sand art, splatter art, tie-dye shirts, and painting a large selection of wooden boxes, picture frames, and miniature bird houses and much more. More recently, the Art club has been taken outside to work on scenery paintings. Art club meetings are on every other Thursday.

IMAX Deep Sea 3D

a review by Daniel Saulnier
Possibly the greatest IMAX film to date, Deep Sea 3D is a spectacular adventure for people of all ages. When I think of nature documentaries I generally think of low budget, drawn out, films that never keep me awake for more than five minutes no matter how much I like the subject. Deep Sea 3D is a major exception to this. I have never been so captivated by a nature documentary than I have to this film. This is due to the ingenious cinematography that makes you feel like you are really swimming in the ocean, the outstanding score composed by Danny Elfman (composer of several Tim Burton films), and the lack of commentary from narrators Kate Winslit and Johnny Depp. This film is not overloaded with trivial information that you will never remember. Instead, Deep Sea 3D is a more visually pleasing film. It is hard to give a specific recommendation for this film as I’m sure it will appeal to most all people, even those who have little or no interest in the environment. For those who do have an interest in marine biology, you will be blown away by this incredible IMAX experience.

My Rating *****

Google’s Average Rating ****