12
The Bear
Band holds concert in auditorium
Keaton Norfleet
Staff Writer
On December 6, Band Directors
Samuel Ogilvie and Beth Wirtanen-Ober-
notle, along with student teacher Eliza-
beth Gosztola, held a 5th-12th grade
concert band performance in the high
school auditorium.
The concert began around 6:00
pm and concluded around 8:00 pm.
The 5th, 6th, and 7th-8th grade
band performances were all directed by
Wirtanen.
The 5th-grade band performed a
total of thirteen short pieces; they played
“Hot Cross Buns,” “Mary Had A Little
Lamb,” “Larry Had a Larger Lamb,”
“Lightly Row,” “Kayak Attack,” “This
Old Man,” “Pizza Pie,” “Rigatoni Tortel-
loni Pasta,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little
Star,” “Ode to Joy,” “Jolly Old St. Nich-
olas,” and “Jingle Bells.”
The 6th-grade band played
“Valiance” by Robert W. Smith, “Me-
chanical Monsters” by Randall D. Stand-
ridge, and “Santa Goes Wild West” by
Rob Grice.
The 7-8th grade band played
“On the Edge of Tomorrow” by Michael
Sweeny, “Blue Sky Horizon” by Randall
D. Standridge, and “Holiday Bobsled
Run” by Robert Sheldon.
The high school 9-12th grade
band was introduced to the audience by
Ogilvie.
Before the performance, Ogil-
vie expressed some thoughts and con-
cerns about the performance. He said,
“The band is prepared. Some aspects of
Lego League travels to FIRST competition
Keaton Norfleet
Staff Writer
The 2022 FIRST Lego League
teams departed from the middle school
on December 10th at 11:15 pm and
headed to the Putnam Museum &
Science Center in Davenport, Iowa.
The team arrived around 12:00
pm, and went directly to team check-in,
where Matt Cain, the Lego League spon-
sor, confirmed the team's arrival, and a
spot in the competition.
Both West Branch teams, 56187
Turtle Power and 56188 Turtle Thunder,
formerly Screaming Goats, set up their
robot and other paraphernalia in the pits,
and figured out their schedule.
In the coming weeks before
their competition and as the priority work
started to become slim, a few members
of the teams transitioned from robot and
project work, into making designs and
small trinkets to wear and handout at the
competition.
Each team designed a logo for
their team. Cain printed multiple sheets
of paper with their logo for cutting out
and creating buttons. The teams even
built themed boxes to hold their buttons.
They also had t-shirts with their team
logo.
Newspaper Throwbacks
Will Tidrick
Staff Writer
Issue: 2
Page: 2
Date: November 7, 2002
Story: The Rat Menace
Mice are a common thing to have in a lot
of buildings, but rats are a different story.
In the fall of 2002, a rat was discovered
in the art room and caused panic for the
entire class. The current art teacher at the
time, Miss Judge, screamed until the rat
had fled the room from all of the terror.
Students ran towards the rat to try and
corral it out of the room. The rat then ran
under Mr. Roberston’s door, never to be
seen again. All of the reports of the rat
caused the school to take action against
it, and put down rat traps in hopes of
catching it.
Issue: 4
Page: 1
Date: January 31, 2002
Story: Crowded classes cause discom-
fort
During the first semester of 2002, a major
problem in the school was that there were
just too many students to even fit into all
of the classrooms. There were so many
students in speech class that 12 students
who couldn’t fit into the class had to be
Michael V. Sexton, CLU,
ChFC, AFIS
112 W Main St, West Branch, IA
319.643.4128
agentmichaelsexton.com
Farm Bureau Property & Casualty Insurance Company,* Western Agricultural Insurance Company,* Farm Bureau Life
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Clubs & Orgs.
November 24, 2022
our technique and musicianship were a
close call in the preparation process, but
I think the band is fully capable of putting
on a great show.”
The band performed three
pieces: “Reign of Fire” by Jeremy Bell,
“Torch of Liberty” by Karl L. King,
which was directed by Ogilvie, and
“Loch Lomond,” arranged by Frank Ti-
cheli, which was directed by Gosztola.
Gosztola said, “I don't think
there is a single conductor on the planet
who doesn't get a little bit of performance
anxiety. Of course I was nervous taking
the podium at the concert, especially be-
cause the piece I conducted holds so
much significance, not only to myself as
a performer, but to the world of music
repertoire as a whole.”
“Loch Lomond” featured many
soloists, including seniors Philip MacGil-
livray, tenor saxophone; Lynden MacGil-
ivray, French horn; Carver Boelk,
clarinet; Baylee Piegors, clarinet; Kaylee
Kettler, piccolo; Lynzi Dykstra, alto sax-
ophone; and Emmersen Thomas, alto
saxophone.
Gosztola, student teacher, said,
“I have greatly enjoyed and valued my
time at West Branch, and I will cherish
these memories for the rest of my career.
I can't think of a better school and com-
munity to have had my student teaching
experience in. The community I grew up
and attended high school in is a lot dif-
ferent than West Branch.”
Gosztola also helped in the pro-
cess of teaching the 2022 Marching
Bears and even took part in teaching a
jazz piece for the jazz band.
Along with the team, mentors
Eli Garrett, 7th grader, and Keaton Nor-
fleet, sophomore, accompanied the stu-
dents at the competition.
When the robot was taken out of
its container, the team noticed that the
robot had received significant damage
during the trip to the competition.
Every team made their way into
the central meeting and game room,
where MCs welcomed each team, and
gave a brief talk about what the competi-
tion day would look like.
With two minutes and thirty
seconds on the clock, the round began.
Turtle Thunder had technical
difficulties with their robot through-out
the game, and at the end, only received
90 points. Turtle Power received 145
points.
At 1:45 pm, both teams headed
upstairs to the judging rooms, where they
presented their innovation projects.
Before the competition, on
Tuesday, November 8, Cain and the Lego
League students joined a video call with
science professors from the University of
Iowa.
The professors were Civil and
Environmental Engineer, Tori Z. Forbes,
and Environmental Scientist, Emily Fin-
zel.
taught in the auditorium at a different
time. For Spanish 1, there were 25 stu-
dents in seventh mod, and 31 students in
eighth mod. Principal Steve Hennesy
liked that the classes were full and
thought that it provided a more inter-
active environment for learning. Ho-
wever, students were getting so annoyed
with the amount of people in each class
that many just dropped classes that had a
ton of people.
Issue: 7
Page: 1
Date: May 23, 2002
Story: Fake IDs get students into local
bars
In the spring of 2002 multiple students at
West Branch High School admitted to
getting into bars with fake IDs and pass-
ing as 21 year olds. The students had
stolen someone else’s ID from Penn-
sylvania and also had gotten them from
friends at their work. The 21 year old
went to the D.O.T. and lied about losing
their ID. Then with the extra ID, they
sold them to the highschool students.
Websites at the time were allowed to le-
gally sell fake IDs but according to the
Iowa City Police Department, most of the
fake IDs circulating around were just
stolen from people who were actually 21.
She added, “To say I was nerv-
ous about student teaching is an under-
statement. I had no idea what to expect,
and I was terrified the students wouldn't
like me or respect me. The West Branch
band program welcomed me as one of
their own from the very beginning.”
Gosztola plans to teach in Iowa
for the next couple of years and has no
preference between directing and teach-
ing middle school or high school.
Gosztola ended with this state-
ment: “I want to thank Samuel Ogilvie,
Beth Wirtanen-Obernolte, and Jessica
Taylor for all their support and wisdom
over the last 16 weeks. I have learned
more than I could have ever imagined
throughout this process, and I feel so
lucky to have such knowledgeable and
experienced mentors.”
After the performance, Ogilvie
said, “They performed well! In many
ways, they met expectations.What it boils
down to is that they played well with mu-
sicianship and dedication. We spend
weeks rehearsing this music and then
only get one take at the concert.”
At this moment, Ogilvie’s plans
for the upcoming semester are not en-
tirely clear. He hopes to take a new ap-
proach to the pops concert in quarter
three on March 9, 2023. He is not sure
what type of music he wants his band to
play, whether it be video game music,
theater tunes, or something different en-
tirely. However, he wants to stay away
from movie music.
“My band is great. I get to work
with 59 of West Branch's finest. This year
is the first year that we were able to start
The students presented their in-
novation projects to the professors in
search of feedback and constructive crit-
icism.
Students of team Turtle Thunder
presented their project as a miniature hy-
droelectric dam device.
In summary, when you turn on
your faucet, water running through the
pipes will spin a wheel inside the pipe.
The wheel would be connected to a
motor, when it spins, it will generate elec-
tricity that will travel to a generator that
holds backup or emergency power.
Students of team Turtle Power
presented their project as a power gener-
ating floor.
In summary, a floor would be
slightly lifted from the ground. The floor
would be connected to a spring. When
the floor is stepped on, the floor falls,
compressing the spring and spinning a
motor which would generate electricity
that would be stored in a generator.
Each team built models of their
innovation projects.
The professors gave each team
a brief critique about their presentation
skills. The two teams were then reminded
of the six core values, and Cain gave
them a bit of insight on how the presen-
tation aspect of the competition was
Show choir girls travel to Pella
Nora Ziehr
Staff Writer
When all your teachers are
male, it can be very difficult for the
young girls of show choir to apply vocal
techniques, since they are being taught by
someone with a completely different
vocal range than them.
In response to this issue, on De-
cember 8, Chris Reed traveled with the
female members of CJU45 to Central
College to work with clinician Sarah Van
Waardhuizen.
“It was exciting to finally have
a female clinician to learn from. With
male clinicians, they can't demonstrate
the tone or pitch that we are singing. With
out in our new band room. That led to a
much more efficient start to the season.”
He added, “What is especially
impressive this year is how many fresh-
men we had go out for band. I'd say that
close to 50% of the band is new this year,
which is awesome but comes with its
challenges. I love the energy and enthu-
siasm that the band is bringing.”
Lynden MacGillivray plays French
horn at the Dec. 6 band concert. Photo
by Brooklyn Nash.
going to go for them.
Each student was expected to do
and say something during the presenta-
tion, as the core value “inclusion” sug-
gests.
The professor’s feedback
helped the two teams when talking to the
judges and themselves during the presen-
tations.
After each project was pre-
sented to the judges, the two teams had
around half-an-hour to wander the mu-
seum some more.
The second match took place at
2:35 pm.
This time, Turtle Thunder was
on table two, while Turtle Power was on
table one, which meant that both teams
were going up against different teams.
Turtle Power suffered diffi-
culties this time, with an outcome of only
65 points. Turtle Thunder however made
better progress with 100 points.
The third match began at 3:10
pm.
Both teams made improvements
with Turtle Power earning 175 points,
and Turtle Thunder 120 points.
At the end of the competition,
students loaded onto the bus and headed
back towards West Branch.
A Lego League team discusses its plan
with a referee. Photo by Keaton Norfleet.
Dr. Waardhuizen being a treble singer
and a very talented one as well, she could
demonstrate the sound that we were striv-
ing for,” said junior Nina Torkelson.
The group traveled 2 hours both
ways to get to this clinic. Unfortunately,
the clinic itself was only 45 minutes long.
Although the clinic was so
short, it was very well received and bene-
ficial to the singers.
“I think that even with the short
amount of time we had with her, she was
still able to offer amazing tips and tricks
to help us in the future with our projec-
tion,” said junior Ashlynne Nash. “She
had more knowledge on how to work
with young women and got through to us
better.”