Category: Jr. Sr. High School

Students from Fairbury High School competed at the SkillsUSA State Leadership Conference March 30-April 1st. There were many students from all over the state of Nebraska competing.  This year was the first year that the state leadership conference was held in Grand Island, Nebraska at Fonner Park.

SkillsUSA is a national organization for students in career and technical education.  The goal of SkillsUSA is to replenish the workforce in America with skilled laborers and to help companies find quality people to fill the ever growing demand for industrial technical jobs.

Students that competed were Blake Bauer, Tanner Novotny, Dalton Buxton, Devon Trimm, Reed Williams, Zachary Holes, Jessa Eden, Madison Gregory, and Tayler Shellhase.

The Fairbury Speech team had a great 2017 season! The speech team ended up with 43 medals total, which was 12 more than last year. The following participated in speech this year.

We look forward to continuing the success we had this year, and look to add more Fairbury Jeffs to the team! I want to thank all the parents, administration, and kids for participating in this great activity.

Geometry students in Mrs. Julie Petersen’s class built vocabulary words today.  Polyhedrons are constructed with faces, edges and vertices.  Our clay and toothpicks were a little messy, but a lot creative.  In the pictures you can see tetrahedrons, pentahedrons, hexahedrons, heptahedrons and octahedrons.  Most examples include two models of each polyhedron.

Inductive reasoning allows us to look at the data, find a pattern and make a generalization about that pattern.  Students put their heads together to discover Euler’s Formula:  V + F – E = 2.  That is read “vertices plus faces minus edges equals 2”.  Building was fun!  Thinking was hard.  It’s easier to Google a formula, but today they were responsible for their own discovery.  Add these experiences together and long-term memory is the winner!

Here is our riddle for the day:  “What did the bird do when he got scared?  Poly he’d run!”  (Get it?  Polyhedron!)

Congratulations to Isaac Robertson who was selected to participate in the Nebraska Ambassadors of Music Tour to Europe this June! He will be visiting seven different countries, as well as taking an extended tour of Greece. Students from schools all across Nebraska are nominated for this tour. Isaac will take part in the band playing the trumpet, as well as singing in the choir. Students will be performing in each country and singing in various European cathedrals. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will provide a great educational experience for Isaac! Isaac is raising money to support his trip to Europe this summer in June selling Heritage Falls candles! If you are interested in supporting his trip, please contact Isaac or send me an email and we can get you more details. I’m so proud of Isaac for representing Fairbury in this awesome opportunity!

FHS students in Mrs. Julie Petersen’s Standards Math class calculate the probability of events.  First they determined the theoretical probability and then completed trials for an experimental probability.  Flip a coin, roll the dice and draw a card.  Upon completion of the lab, a student was overheard saying, “This class goes fast while we are busy experiencing math.”  Another student was surprised to learn how rare some probabilities are, such as drawing a four out of a deck of cards compared to spinning a coin to land heads up.

On March 20th, the Nebraska State Patrol visited Mr. Scott’s Driver’s Education class.  Officer Charlie Cook and Officer Tim Pickering spoke to the class about the importance of wearing seat belts, not being distracted by cell phones and by saying no to drinking and driving.    Students got to experience what a head on collision would be like at say 3-5 mph by sitting is a crash simulator while buckled up.  The students also got to test the drunk goggles to simulate what it would be like to drive while under the influence.  The purpose of the entire evening was to help students to be safe drivers.  Officers also showed the class some videos and crash pictures to make students more aware of how the choices they make can impact them for the rest of their lives.  Thank you to the Nebraska State Patrol for putting on a great demonstration.

The Fairbury FFA Chapter had 46 members compete at the 2017 District 5 Career Development Events (CDE) Contest on Tuesday, March 7th at Southeast Community College in Beatrice. These 46 members represented Fairbury FFA well by showing how hard work and dedication can pay off. Fairbury FFA was named district champions in the Farm Management, Agronomy and Ag Biotechnology Contests. Fairbury FFA also had some individual district champions with Brandon Hinrichs placing 1st in Oxy/Acetylene Welding, Sarah Huss placing 1st in Agriscience, and Ashlee Griffee placing 1st in Ag Biotechnology and Agronomy. Below is a complete list of all the team and individual results for the Fairbury FFA Chapter members that competed in the District 5 CDE contests.
The welding contest consists of a team of three members where one member has to Oxygen-Acetylene (O/A) weld, one member has to Shielded Metal Arc Weld (SMAW), and one member has to Gas Metal Arc Weld (GMAW). Fairbury had two welding teams compete in the district contest with team one consisting of Jerod Hughes who placed 13th in the O/A division, Jacob Maschmann who placed 13th in the SMAW division, and Brock Barton who placed 8th in the GMAW division. The second team consisted of Brandon Hinrichs who placed 1st in the O/A division, Jesse Graves who placed 9th in the SMAW division and Austin Barnts who placed 15th in the GMAW division. The Fairbury welding team placed 4th overall in the district 5 welding competition. Brandon Hinrichs, Jesse Graves and Brock Barton will represent Fairbury FFA at the 2017 Nebraska State FFA Convention.
The Agronomy team one placed 1st overall and consisted of Ashlee Griffee who placed 1st, Micheala Buchli who placed 5th, Delaney Miller who placed 8th, and Kaylee Sipek who placed 13th individually. Tori Likens, Olivia Koop and Bryn Livingston also competed in the Agronomy Contest.
The Agriscience team two placed 4th as a team and consisted of Sarah Huss who placed 1st, Taylor Runge who placed 2nd, and Cora and Kennedy DeBoer. The Agriscience team one placed 8th and consisted of Dalton Peterson who placed 19th, Devin Wanamaker who placed 11th, Joe Melcher, and Bret Cole who placed 4th overall.
The Ag Sales team placed 6th. The team consisted of Kennedy DeBoer, Devin Wanamaker, John Kerwood and Dalton Peterson.
Fairbury FFA was represented by one Meats team with the team finishing in 12th place and the team consisted of Zach Holes, Althea Esteller, Jon Engelman, and Garret Ragland.
The Floriculture team placed 7th overall. Team members include Jordan Ruhnke who finished in 9th place, Shavara Kroeker, Althea Esteller, and Paige Livingston.

The Livestock Management team one finished 17th. Team consisted of Michaela Buchli, Tori Likens, Delaney Miller, Keylee Sipek, and Bryn Livingston . Team two placed 19th and consisted of Kane Hasselbring, Dominik Ramirez, Olivia Koop and Madison Black.
Fairbury was represented by a Vet Science team that placed 4th overall with the team consisting of Patrick Ondrak placing 10th, Natalie Stapaules placing 13th, Paige Livingston, Sarah McCown, Miranda Heidemann and Kristin Branson.
Fairbury FFA had one Natural Resource team with the team placing 3rd overall. This team consisted of Carson Bohlmeyer who placed 8th, Jesse Graves who placed 10th, Jacob Maschmann who placed 15th, Blake Bauer, Brock Barton, and Trevin Arnold.
Fairbury FFA was represented by one Nursery and Landscape team who placed 4th overall. The team consisted of Jon Engelman who placed 8th, Autumn Branson placing 9th, Jared Engelman placing 19th and Kane Hasselbring.
Fairbury was represented by an Ag Mechanics team, which placed 4th overall and has made it to the state contest. The team consisted of Carson Bohlmeyer placing 2nd, Logan Slater placing 9th, Blake Bauer placing 19th and Jerod Hughes placing 21st.
The Fairbury FFA was represented by one Ag Biotech team that placed 1st overall. The team consisted of Ashlee Griffee placing 1st, Taylor Runge placing 4th, Jared Engelman placing 5th, and Jordan Ruhnke placing 6th.
The last team to compete for Fairbury was the Farm Business Management team that placed 1st overall. The team consisted of Patrick Ondrak placing 3rd, Bailey Taylor placing 4th, Brent Hirsch placing 5th and Madison Black placing 13th. It was a great day for the Fairbury FFA Chapter and all members had a great experience in developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success.

For the month of March, Alfred D. was selected as Student Worker of the Month for his excellent job skills.  He is the assistant to Mr. Schweitzer, PE teacher at Central and Jefferson Intermediate.  We would like to congratulate Alfred for this achievement.