Penn High School students Renee Yaseen and Amelia Atkinson won two of the top awards at the Michigan State Model United Nations Conference on Saturday, March 18.

Yaseen, a junior, won the Best Delegate for her work in the Arctic Council.

Atkinson, a senior, won the Book Award for her work in Yatsenyuk's Interim Government.

A total of 27 Penn students participated in committees ranging from Washington's Cabinet to the World Health Organization to the Pan-Kurdish Summit of 2017.

Student delegates discussed women's health, who would marry Putin's daughter, how to allocate resources in the 2099 Martian Colony, and how to save Detroit's failing public schools.

During the event, student delegates wrote papers, formed alliances, and made impassioned speeches.

“It was impressive to watch their excitement for the important issues, for finding the solutions, and for making connections with students from all over Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan,” Penn Model U.N. sponsor Lauren Kraft said.

Penn High School is hosting a Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Day for Penn High School students on Tuesday, March 21.

The event starts with a keynote speaker at 8:40 a.m. in Penn’s Center for the Performing Arts.

“This exciting event allows female students to participate in interactive breakout sessions led by real Women in STEM in our community,” Penn assistant principal and STEM Academy leader Rachel Fry said.  “Breakout sessions include an engineer and a product development specialist from Whirlpool Corporation, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology from Purdue Polytechnic,  founder of the South Bend Code School, Human Resources Director at Daman Products, the Senior Director of Global STEM Initiatives for Discovery Education, and an Elkhart County conservationist. 

“Females continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields, and our goal is that Penn students lead their generation in bridging that gap,” Fry said.

The three breakout sessions last until 11:20 a.m.

Breakout session topics:

• STEM is Fun – Dr. Cindy Moss, Discovery Education
• Coding – Alexandra Liggins, South Bend Code School
• Engineering & Product Development – Beth Jackson & Ellen Dutton, Whirlpool Corp.
• Lean Manufacturing – Krysten Shoulders, Daman Products
• Mechanical Engineering – Megan McMann, Purdue Polytechnic
• A Little Dirt Doesn’t Hurt: Women in Environmental Science – Jordan Beehler, Elkhart Co. Conservationist

Penn Students click here to register.

Penn High School’s Academic Super Bowl teams earned first place in three categories in the ASB Invitational at Valparaiso High School on Tuesday, March 14.

Science, Math and Interdisciplinary Academic Super Bowl teams from Penn were awarded first place in the Invitational.

Fine arts placed second and English placed third.

Social Studies did not place.

Penn High School’s Playschool Experience is now accepting applications.

Child Development students create intellectual, social, emotional, and physical lesson plans and games to engage children ages three and four.

“It is a wonderful, hands-on experience for these eager students to incorporate all that we have discussed throughout the school year,” Penn Child Development instructor Kylee Wetzel stated. “In addition, it is also a great way for our community to get a full grasp on the positive things happening in our school and for young children to have interaction with fellow peers.  Also, the children truly seem to enjoy receiving instruction from high school students.”

Playschool is open to toddlers ages 3-and-4, and they must be potty-trained.  There is a one-time enrollment fee of $10 per child (to provide snacks).

Click here for registration forms, dates and times.

A square robot wheeled up to a docking station and loaded up with about a dozen neon balls. The robot pivoted and launched the balls into a bronze cylinder that towered eight feet tall, and then continued to place gears on the airship in the center of the field.

After that, the robot raced along the green turf that carpeted Penn High School’s main arena, fighting its way past competitors’ robots, to the next task.

Penn’s event attracted 34 teams, ranging from Lafayette, Ind., to Birmingham in suburban Detroit. A crowd of more than 2,000 fans roared as robots took center stage at Penn for the Indiana FIRST Robotics District event on Saturday, March 11, and Sunday, March 12. Watch the highlight reel below …

Penn High School principal Steve Hope praised the community-wide effort to host the Robotics District.

“The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics District Competition held at Penn High School this past weekend was a huge success,” Hope said. “It was great to see so many community leaders like Mr. Jeff Rea, South Bend Community Chamber President, and Indiana Senator, Mr. Ryan Mishler, in attendance to get a first-hand look at STEM education in action.

“Penn High School and the Penn STEM Academy were proud to host this event,” Hope continued. “Months of planning from Penn Assistant Principal for the STEM Academy, Mrs. Rachel Fry, and from STEM Academy Leader, Mr. Josiah Parker, made the event one of the best for Indiana FIRST.

“The competition itself is a fast-paced and exciting battle of robots,” Hope said. “However, the real excitement is the learning in our classrooms when students and their mentors, engineers in the community, work together to solve problems. This is the work our students will encounter in college and in business and industry. The skills they use from engineering to communications to fundraising are the skills they will use for life. “

Penn High School assistant principal Rachel Fry appreciated the learning benefits for Penn students.

“The entire atmosphere at Penn High School this past weekend was incredible!,” Fry said.  “It was fascinating for many to observe the wide range of collaborative work done by Robotics students, which is preparing them well to succeed in their futures beyond our walls. 

“While the District Robotics Competition certainly provided ample opportunity to promote STEM from young to old, it was so much more than that as a true community event,” Fry added. “The amount of work and volunteer time that went into making this happen cannot be numbered.  I am honored to work in a corporation with so much pride, as evidenced by the number of former teachers I met and Penn alumni we welcomed back. I appreciate the amount of support shown to our students by our governmental representatives, our school board, our administration, and our community at large!”

Penn’s Team 135 reached the semifinal round. (click here for all the results). Next up for Team 135 is another district event at Perry Meridian in Indianapolis as the Kingsmen try to qualify for the state finals in Huntington (April 6-8) and the World Championships in St. Louis (April 26-30).

As the Kingsmen made significant strides toward qualifying for state and the worlds this season, the impact that Penn Robotics made by hosting the district event is far reaching. Penn is the first northern Indiana school to host a major Robotics event, giving the technology-based competition an important presence in the region.

“This event was amazing for not just Penn, but all of northern Indiana and our whole region,” Penn STEM Academy leader Josiah Parker said. “Not only did we bring in all of the teams around us, but we brought in sponsors to the area.

We brought a lot of people in to show them what FIRST Robotics is,” Parker said. “We showed them what Penn can do, what Penn has, what Penn offers. I’ve heard nothing but amazing things from people, how amazed they are at what we have here, and how well we host an event.”

Penn Robotics coach Jim Langfeldt said that hosting the event was a tremendous experience for the students.

“This has been an exciting weekend for our students,” Langfeldt said. “They’ve worked really hard this year. I think it’s been fun for them to see people come to their high school to compete in their main arena, and to celebrate the wonderful facility and the great technology and resources that we have here at Penn.

“A Robotics event is really hard to understand until you see it,” Langfeldt continued. “I think bringing the community into our event, finally, after 20 years, has really been a special part of the weekend. Going forward, it’s going to help us make some new connections, new community partners. We’re excited to see what happens.”

Parker said that Penn students developed a great sense of pride from their involvement in hosting the event.

“Our students have been hearing from everybody here how amazing the event was, how well run it was,” Parker said. “They heard great things about Penn’s venues and facilities from the people who came here for the event. I think they developed a great sense of pride from this, because they can show off now to the entire FIRST community.

Penn senior Chris Dell appreciated the opportunity for a ‘home’ event.

“I thought it was nice, because it was our chance to give back to the FIRST community,” Penn student Chris Dell said. “This event brought more awareness to the Penn Robotics program, and FIRST. After being involved in FIRST Robotics for 8 years, it was a dream come true to be able to compete in an event at Penn High School for my senior year."

As the Penn students tore down the stations and packed up the equipment, the enthusiasm from the weekend was already focused on the future.

“We’ve already talked about what we can do for next year,” Parker said. “We’d like to open up a bid for the state championship next year.”

The IN District – St. Joseph Tournament is a qualifying event for the national FIRST Robotics Competition will be held March 10 – 12, 2017 at Penn High School. This is a community event and the first time a District Tournament has been held in Northern Indiana. A of 32 total teams will compete, including Penn’s own Team 135. Four other area high school teams will compete along with Penn: ElkLogics Team 2867 (Elkhart Schools), Las Pumas 2197 (New Prairie High School), Memento Vitam Team 5484 (S.B. Career Academy), and Riley WildBots Team 3865 (Riley High School).

WHEN: Friday, March 10 – Sunday, March 12, 2017

WHERE: Penn High School

EVENT SCHEDULE & DETAILS: http://www.indianafirst.org/2017-st-joseph-event

This year’s FIRST Robotics Competition Game Challenge was unveiled on Saturday, January 7, and Penn’s Team 135 just concluded their 6-week build season on February 21st. This is the 20th season of competitions for Penn.

The nearly 40-member student team competes in four competitions that run from March until the end of April:

• IN District – St. Joseph Tournament (Penn High School) March 10-12.
• Perry Meridian District Tournament (Indianapolis, IN) March 23-25.
• Indiana State Championships (Huntington, IN) April 6-8.
• FIRST National Championships (St. Louis, MO) April 26-29.

Last year, Penn Robotics Team 135 won awards in three competitions:  the “Judges’ Award” at the Tippecanoe District Tournament (West Lafayette, IN) on March 11-13, the “District Engineering Inspiration Award” at the Perry Meridian District Tournament (Indianapolis, IN) on March 24-26, and the “Regional Engineering Inspiration Award” at the Indiana State Championships in Kokomo on April 14-16.  Team 135 was also honored with a $5,000 award from NASA to pay their entry fee for the World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri.  The team is looking forward to another exciting competition season. 

Team 135 also gives back to the community through various projects. In May 2016, several team members collaborated with other Penn students to build an aluminum walker for a local first grader who could not speak and had difficulty walking.  The “Voice for Braylen” project enabled Braylen to move around with better stability and gave him the ability to speak through the use of a tablet attached to the walker.  It was a problem based learning project that not only benefited Braylen, but taught the robotics students the importance of helping others.

In May of 2015, Penn Robotics students built a prosthetic arm for a third grade Madison Elementary student in the “Hand of Grace” project.  It is also a part of Team 135’s regular activities to visit P-H-M’s elementary and middle schools to inspire younger students and invoke interest in STEM classes, activities and eventual careers.

Through participation in FIRST Robotics Competition, the Penn robotics students experience the excitement of science, engineering, technology and innovation. They learn to build well-rounded life capabilities such as self-confidence, communication and leadership, while also qualifying for over $50 million in college scholarships!

Penn High School will host a Fine Arts Festival on Thursday, March 9. This is a free event that is open to the public.

6:00 p.m. – works of Visual Arts students on display in the art hallway.

6:30 p.m. – Chamber groups perform in the art hallway.

8 p.m. – Theater, Dance, Band, Choir and Orchestra Performances in the Center for Performing Arts.

“The Fine Arts Festival gives students, parents and the community a chance to see all of the great work that our talented students are doing in a single evening,” Penn’s Fine Arts Academy leader Glenn Northern said. “We encourage everyone to come to the Fine Arts Festival on Thursday, March 9th.”

Students taking the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) at Penn High School on Saturday, March 11, should enter at Door A, which will open at 7:30 a.m.

You are required to bring a current recognizable picture ID and your admission ticket. You will not be admitted to the test without your picture ID and admission ticket. 

Bring No. 2 pencils and an approved calculator. No mechanical pencils. You may bring a bottle of water and a snack for the breaks.

Penn High School students excelled in the Indiana Technology Student Association state finals at Ball State University on Saturday, March 4.

Penn won 24 awards, more than all of the other competing schools combined. Penn TSA students qualified for the national finals in Orlando, Fla., in June.

Daniel Nilov was named the state TSA student president, and Giancarlo Smith was named the state Sergeant at Arms.

Penn instructor Steve Sinish was named the adviser of the year.

 Placing for Penn at state were:

• Daniel Nilov: – 1st Place Architectural Design, 1st Place CAD 2D Architecture.

• Giancarlo Smith – 1st Place Dragster Design, 2nd Place Computer Integrated Manufacturing

• Aaron Jackson – 1st Place Future Technology Teacher 

• Daniel Kline – 1st Place Coding 

• Dat Loung – 1st Place Coding 

• Mia Schwartz – 1st Place STEM Careers, 3rd Place Engineering Design 

• Alex Pippin –  2nd Place Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 1st Place CAD 3D Engineering. 

• Courtney Sharpe – 2nd Place Engineering Design 

• Keegan Shoemaker – 3rd Place Engineering Design

• Tara Devaraj – 2nd Place Engineering Design 

• Elisabeth Casetti – 2nd Place Engineering Design

• Michelle Kwok – 2nd Place Technology Problem Solving, 3rd Place Engineering Design

• Sabrina Kurian – 2nd Place Technology Problem Solving 

• Emily Duchine – 2nd Place CAD 2D Architecture, 2nd Place STEM Careers

• Charlotte Chang – 3rd Place CAD 3D Architecture

• Riya Patel – 3rd Place CAD 2D Architecture

• Dhruv Khanna – 1st Place Architectural Design 

• Steve Sinish – TSA Advisor of the year

   

Penn High’s Academic Super Bowl teams opened the season with a competition at the Warsaw Invitational on Monday, March 7.

Math and Fine Arts each earned first places in the event.

Penn’s Science team placed second.