CHS News

The Miss Creekside Pageant was held April 9, and we are so incredibly proud of the talented and dedicated participants. We are also thankful to the Junior gentlemen escorts, guest performers, backstage student volunteers, and faculty volunteers for helping us to make pageant night great.   Please join us in congratulating the award recipients and all of the amazing participants.

AWARDS:

• Most Ads Sold – Melania Carrigan
• People’s Choice Award – Anna Villanova
• Miss Congeniality- Kayla Gibian
• Most Photogenic – Arsheeya Garg
• Most Talented – Anna Villanova
• Most Scholarly – Lily Clarke
• 2nd Runner Up – Lauren Prangley
• 1st Runner Up – Arsheeya Garg
• Miss Creekside 2023 – Lily Clarke

Each year, more than 10,000 students from approximately 1,450 high schools across America participate in the ACE Mentoring Program, an after-school consortium designed to foster high school students’ enthusiasm toward careers in architecture, construction and engineering. Professionals from the “industry” guide groups of students through a simulated “RFP” (Request for Proposal). The students manage a project from conception to virtual implementation and are responsible for all stages of development … from budget analysis and research to materials selection and structure design.

This year, 8 dedicated students from Creekside High School worked on that chapter’s national-level ACE team and were one of only three selected to participate at the national competition in Washington, DC.

On April 25th, William Bass, Alyssa Buckingham, Shaan Chudgar, Ryan Flack, Sydney Lynch, Erin Philip, Kendall Reckamp and Brandon Ruckh will present their project in our nation’s capital and vie for the top spot.

Creekside’s RFP was the highest ranked in the category called “Strong + Sustainable.” As a team they had to decipher the RFP then create a solution based on the request. The students’ proposal, “Concrete Connect” showcased the “smart” aspects of cement and demonstrated the sustainable and carbon-neutral properties of this common building material.

“Concrete Connect” promotes the use of clean energy by integrating rechargeable concrete batteries and renewable resources into the structural features of existing buildings. This “concrete battery” provides a source of clean energy and allows for the storage and distribution of environmentally friendly energy throughout urban, suburban, and rural areas. The Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, proved to be an ideal model for the team. By incorporating concrete batteries in the building’s stairs and under the seats, installing Pavegen piezoelectric tiles at the main entrances and placing a solar canopy atop the parking garage, the students were able to demonstrate just how their idea could be implemented in society’s built environment.

The success of these Creekside students is a testament to months of brainstorming, research, and hard work. The support and guidance they received from their teachers and ACE Mentors was an invaluable part of their journey.

From March 10^th to 12^th, the Creekside Robotics Team 8775 competed in its first ever robotics competition.  The competition was sponsored by FIRST Robotics and was held at UCF. The competition consisted of two main challenges. The first of which was to collect oversized tennis balls on the floor, and to shoot them into a goal eight feet above the ground. The second challenge was even more problematic; get the 125-pound robot to climb a series of bars up to eventual height of more than 7 feet. To overcome these intimidating challenges, the team of students, teachers and volunteers from the Engineering and Cybersecurity Academy worked tirelessly to get the robot up and running for the competition. This hard work was shown in their every match. The Creekside team performed in a tour de force, fooling other teams into thinking that they were a seasoned veteran team. And on the final day, when the dust had settled, the team received a final ranking of 25^th out of the 56 teams – placing higher than every rookie team on the field. What may be even more impressive is that they were able to rank higher than more than half of the veteran teams on field, some of which had been competing for more than 20 years.

This tremendous success was a testament to the two months of demanding work that the Creekside team put into the robot before the competition. Students, teachers, and mentors alike spent long hours after school trying to get to robot up and running for the competition. These hours of CAD, manual labor, and ingenuity eventually paid off with a working robot and a trophy that is sure to stay in the Engineering Academy classroom for a long time.

National Engineers Week always begins during the week of George Washington’s birthday, as not only was he our first president he is considered to be the nation’s first engineer.  The 2022 Engineers week began February 21^st, with the annual Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Career Day occurring at the end of the week on Friday, February 25th.  Public, private and home-schooled students from northeast Florida were in attendance.

Students with an interest in STEM related fields found Career Day to be highly educational and enlightening.  Activities included hands-on projects, interaction with local engineers and several Florida universities, lunch, and a keynote speaker.

Participants competed in three events to take home the “Engineer Cup”, consisting of a take home project, a surprise project and an “engineering trivia challenge”.  The trivia challenge allows students to learn about actual engineering projects through interaction with local universities and engineering firms exhibiting at the event.  Take home and surprise projects were judged against a variety of criteria, and awards were given to the winning team for each of the three competitions.

The goal of the take home project was to construct a bridge using only uncooked spaghetti and hot glue that had the highest strength to weight ratio.

Creekside was the team with the highest overall average score of the three competitions and claimed the cup to display at CHS for the second consecutive year.  The winning team consisted of:

• Joseph Hadad
• Alex Wenzel
• Magnus Schmidt
• Luke Dixon

Congratulations to our Lady Knights!

7A State Champions

2022 Girls Soccer Team

Congratulations to Creekside’s Teaching Academy students who competed at the Florida Future Teachers of America state conference:

• FFEA State Secretary, 2022-23–Riley Hayes
• Inside Our Schools Video, 1^st place–Avery Karl, Viviana Zuniga, Yahli Salzman 
• Lesson Plan, 2^nd place–Julia Blasio
• Public Speaking, 5^th place–Bryn Fremont
• Education Research PPT, 5^th place--Riley Hayes, Ashley Carpenter, Ethan Were, Justice Heydn

Congratulations  to the Creekside High School Cyber Patriots team, TORtured Onions,  for placing 1st in the state.

Congratulations to the Creekside Girls Volleyball team on winning back-to-back district titles.

Senior Daniella Young won a prestigious Scholastic National Gold Key for a drawing she submitted to Scholastics Art Awards last December, 2020. After winning a Regional Gold Key, Daniella’s work went on to receive a National Award summer 2021. This is a huge achievement for Daniella as a National Gold Key winner. The CHS Art Department is proud of her success and her achievement!

Members of the Creekside High School Environmental Club recently participated in a local beach clean up project.