L'écho Du Collège

L’écho du collège

September 2011 The student-run, student-written ISB Middle School newspaper Volume 1, Issue 1

Reportages sur les nouveaux 4 e Ed itoria l Cinq nouveaux 4e, venus des quatre coins du monde. Interviews. L’écho du collège est Herbert (Wen Di Gao): I am from la nouvelle publication Beijing, China. I came here because des élèves du collège there are many good colleges. Also, I de l‟ISB. Elle leur per- did not want to take the high school met d‟écrire des arti- entrance exam in China. The environ- cles sur des sujets qui ment is cleaner but otherwise it is the les intéressent et qu‟ils same. School in China was longer but Alex (Zhi Kai Xiu): I am from Quing- souhaitent partager the breaks between classes were long- dao, China. I came because I thought I avec la communauté. er too. I like to play soccer and piano. would like it—and I do! As a matter of Dans les mois qui I have been to the US before: in 2008, fact, I like it better than what I knew viennent, les numéros I went to Boston, Las Vegas, Hawaii, before. School is very different from vont se développer et and Washington DC. China: I stayed in the same class all day, s‟enrichir d‟articles it was much harder, and I had more Simon (Yuan Di He): I am from Nan- variés écrits en fran- homework. I also had to wear a uniform jing, China. I came so I could experi- çais et en anglais par and the school was very strict about it. ence a new environment. I like it here les élèves. Otherwise, I like to play basketball and so far, and this environment is differ- Un grand merci aux I have been to the US before, last Febru- ent from the one I knew before. professeurs qui ont ary. School was a lot longer in China, too. montré tellement I like to play soccer, and I had never Tamara Muñoz: Je viens de Cuernava- d‟enthousiasme et come to the US before. ca, au Mexique. Je voulais venir pour d‟intérêt pour le projet apprendre l‟anglais. et à Mme. Lemp pour J‟aime beaucoup son soutien et ses en- monter à cheval! couragements! Une des choses dif- Bonne lecture! ferentes, ici, c‟est (Continued on page 9) Caroline Rice, éditeur en chef From left to right: Edom Yilma, Alex Xiu, Simon He, Herbert Gao, and Tamara Muñoz.

Science & Nature

Canal Renovation Revolutionizes Shipping

For now, most of the world‟s shipping relies on a 37.5% bigger boats. It small hole between the Atlantic and the Pacific should double the Ocean. About a mile long, a few hundred feet amount of goods that wide, and over 100 feet deep, the century-old Pan- pass each year, and less- ama Canal is being expanded. en the number of cargo The $5.25 billion project, expected to be fin- ships mooring on the ished in 2014, is the first ever expansion of this coast, waiting for their important shortcut. It will allow much bigger cargo turn. ships to easily reach the United States. This will “No one can predict the force East and Gulf Coast ports to enlarge their full impact of the ex- Maximum ship sizes, before and after harbors and cargo-handling facilities. pansion. But for start- Right now, the Panama Canal has two sets of ers, it should mean faster and cheaper shipping of some locks that can handle ships as large as 965 feet goods between the U.S. and Asia.” - Henry Fountain long and 106 feet wide, a size named Panamax -- By Gustave Ducrest which means an average of only 35 ships a day can pass through the canal. With such a low number of ships able to pass, dozens of ships are left to wait for a day at least. Right: Left: map With the two new set of locks (one on each of Central

Copyright FlickrCopyright side), another 15 boats per day will be creating a America and new Panamax. It will be able to handle more than the Panama Canal

Terra Botanica Axé sur la végétation, Terra Botanica est un parc de loisirs angevin qui a ouvert ses portes l‟année dernière seulement. On y découvre quatre sections: le Végétal Convoité, qui raconte le expéditions vers des terres in- connues pour cataloguer des plantes rares; le Végétal Généreux, qui montre toutes les plantes que l‟on utilise au quotidien pour, entre autres, la cuisine et la méde- cine; le Végétal Mystérieux, qui raconte tous les secrets des plantes: les mystères de l‟ADN, le voyage d‟une goutte d‟eau dans la plante, la forêt primaire avant l‟ar- rivée de l‟homme; et enfin, le Végétal Apprivoisé, qui montre comment jardiniers et horticulteurs ont réussi à manier les plantes pour en faire de beaux jardins. Dans

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chaque section, une ou deux attractions sont marquées “A NE PAS MANQUER!” Ce sont en général des spectacles ou des animations, par exemple: l‟Odyssée botanique, une petite croisière en barque racontant l‟histoire des fleurs; ou bien les Grandes explorations, un court film à propos d‟Alexander von Humboldt, botaniste renommé, et de sa traversée de l‟Atlantique dans des mers mouvementées. Terra Botanica est un parc splendide, fleuri et rafraîchissant. J‟ai adoré les balades au milieu des fleurs et des plantes, des buissons et des arbres.. J‟ai aussi beaucoup apprécié le fait qu‟il y ait des panneaux explicatifs partout: j‟ai appris, par exemple, que le bambou sort de terre avec son diamètre final et comment la plante utilise l‟H2O et le CO2 pour créer ses sucres. J‟ai aussi aimé le fait qu‟il y ait vraiment un peu de tout: on a vu une serre abandonnée et une vraie serre, ce que cultivaient les boulangers (blé, seigle) et les pharmaciens (plantes médicinales). Ce qui est bien avec ce parc, c‟est qu‟il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde: des histoires sous un chêne pour les plus petits, un film en 4D pour les plus grands. Je conseille vivement ce lieu à tous. J‟y ai passé une su- perbe journée et je pense que Terra Botanica ne fera que s‟améliorer. Vive le végétal!

By Caroline Rice

Global Warming and Coral Reefs In 1998, over 18 percent of the world‟s coral reefs died. In the western part of the Indian Ocean, 90 percent of the coral reefs were bleached, and though some of them can recover, many cannot. When the ocean is too warm for the coral reefs, they get rid of their food-producing algae, which keeps them alive, and they turn to a pale white color. This is called bleaching and many corals around the world are dying from it. And the reefs aren‟t the only ones suffering from the increasing temperatures. Because of the disap- pearance of coral reefs, fish diversity has been split in half in some areas of the ocean, reducing marine life. Dead reefs deprive fish of food and shelter, and researchers have found that fish diversity dropped the most near coral reefs that had been eroded with a „dust‟ called silt, which “chokes” them. In the Seychelles Islands, north of Madagascar, there were a lot of reef losses from bleaching in 1998. Nicholas Gra- ham, a tropical marine biologist, says it‟s unlikely any of those reefs will recover. In a study of these islands, scien- tists came to the conclusion that isolated reef ecosystems will suffer the most from bleaching caused by global

oceans, especially our coral reefs.

Coral reefs in the Seychelles By Paloma Hepler

The Lego Team I am Elijah, a former member of the Lego team, and I am proud to present this year‟s Lego team. If you are familiar with the S.E.P. Robotics course then you already know about the technical side of the Lego Team: we build robots using Lego that we enter in a yearly competition. With every year there is a new competition, and with every competition comes a theme or subject on which the competition is based. Last year, the topic was bio-engineering: how can we fix problems in the body such as blindness, deafness or diseases like cancer. The Lego robot performs different tasks, also known as missions, on the playing field and corrects the problems it encounters: a broken foot, bad cells (all made in Lego, of course) etc... If you think this all fun and games, you are wrong, the members of the Lego team take the competition very seriously and have to make a presentation on an idea that can help fix a problem. Last year we did a presentation on how a T-Shirt could help someone blind go where they need to go without relying on anything else. Most importantly, I must present this year‟s members of the Lego team: Gustave Ducrest, Kevin Elkoury, Emma Condie, Lennart Nielsen, Zachary Yedidia, Noah Couturier, Jules Astier, Benjamin Sarfati, Olivier Brunache, Karim Khalil, and Clara Miller. Our coaches: Thierry Hubert and John Ellenburger. I want to thank Mrs. Lemp and Kevin‟s mother, Janine, for keeping us focused and helping

By Elijah Koblan-Huberson The Lego logo made out of Legos! Sports NBA Cr isis The NBA crisis is a problem that owner of the team makes. The team income. Hopefully this would slowly developed as more and more problem with the departure of prevent the dramatic collapse of players decided to leave the NBA certain players, like Pau Gasol, is the National Basketball and go to Europe. This crisis started that really good teams, such as the Association. because the players thought it was Lakers, would vanish from the top By Lennart Nehrbass unfair that the owner of the team of the charts. This, in time, might should be entitled to more than half lessen the total revenues of the of all the team revenues. Even NBA. Worse, imagine the Celtics though basketball players aren‟t becoming the worst team in the exactly poor, they could make league just because the owner almost twice that money if the greedily takes more than half of the

owner would take a smaller share. team‟s revenues. That would be a FlickrCopyright A good player, like Paul (the truth) tragedy for Celtics fans, such as Pierce, makes, on average, $18.5 me. A simple solution would be to

million per year. Imagine what the cut down the owner‟s share of the Tony Parker, leaving the NBA

Voyages

My Alaskan Experience This summer, I went on a cruise to Alaska. Whenever I thought about this previously completely unknown place, I envisioned a native and wild landscape, covered in ice. Later, I found out that this perspec- tive is only one of the many Alaska possesses. Throughout the trip, I visited three ports of call: Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. The cruise departed from Vancouver, where we embarked on our ship and sailed towards Ketchikan. The cruise ended at Whittier, where we took a bus to Anchorage. The first port, Ketchikan, is nicknamed “The Salm- on Capital of the World”. I strolled through the quiet streets of this port while listening to the constant sound of the rain. Because it rains a lot in Alaska, even during the summer, Ketchikan measures its rainfall in feet, not inches. Totem poles occupied the middle of parks and the sides of the road. I discovered something I did not know existed: reindeer salami. In Ketchikan, I saw wild salmon swim in the creeks for the first time. Juneau, the cruise‟s second stop, is Alaska‟s capital and third most populated city. My family went on a tour with local tour guides and we got to hold wild salmon in our bare hands. The heavy and slippery fish wiggled as they tried to free themselves from our grasp. This experience was very special as the creek was very shallow and the salmon were actually swimming upstream to spawn. We also went to the Menden- hall glacier. The glacier was spectacular and nothing like we had ever seen. The different shades of blue gave us our first glimpse of what was to come several days later when we sailed through Glacier Bay. In Skagway, we took a train ride on the very railroad tracks that were built during the Gold Rush. Beautiful views unraveled before our eyes throughout the trip. Alaska seen from up in the mountains is truly amazing. In the afternoon, we walked through the small and quaint town of Skagway, peering into shops and enjoying the nice weather. Later, we went gold panning. I was so surprised when everyone found specks of gold at the bottom of their pans! Even though fog settled over Glacier Bay, I felt like it complemented the serenity of this kind of landscape. From the side of the ship, from time to time, we would hear thunderous noises: glaciers calving. Calving occurs when a chunk of ice breaks off of a glacier and falls into the water, causing huge waves. Ar- riving at Anchorage, we picked up a car and drove to Denali National Park. Quite a bit of wildlife was spotted: caribou, moose, eagles, bears, and Dall sheep. This was a very memorable trip that creat- ed many experiences to be cherished again and again.

By Audrey Lee

Arts & Spectacles

The Blue Man Group Before I went to this show, I didn‟t really know what because the Blue Man Group was using paint (and to expect. Music, comedy, and paint - I knew that, other materials, too). They made art with gumballs and everybody did. But that was just the tip of the marshmallows, which was...interesting. They iceberg. First off, the audience was laughing for at interacted a lot with the audience -- inviting one least half of the show. And we had to wear ponchos, woman to share a meal, and making a human painting with another person. They used pipes as instruments, which was cool. One of my favorite things they did was put paint on the drums, and by doing so, splashing us. They also mocked how much we rely on technology (computers, cell phones, iPods, etc...), which I thought was interesting, because they are one

Copyright: the BlueMan the Group Copyright: of the few people to admit it. There were strobe lights, and a lot of the things they used glowed like the pipes and toilet paper, which they showered us with at the end of the show. All in all, I thought it was an amusing and colorful performance that was definitely out of the

ordinary. The Blue Man Group in action with the paint on their drums By Paloma Hepler

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Critiques de livres

Il était un capitaine

Par Bertrand Solet 1894. Alfred Dreyfus, français d‟origine alsacienne, juif, est arrêté sous prétexte d‟avoir livré des documents secrets français à l‟ambassade allemande. Mais cela est faux: ce sont en réalité quelques militaires importants qui manœuvrent pour faire emprisonner Dreyfus car il est juif. Sa famille, sachant que les preuves ne sont pas très fiables, tente de prouver son innocence. Le “coupable” est condamné au bagne à perpétuité. Quatre ans plus tard, l'affaire ressort au grand jour. Le colonel Picquart fait des recherches et découvre que le vrai traître est un certain Esterhazy. Dans les mois qui suivent, les événements s‟enchaînent. La famille de Dreyfus attire l‟attention de plusieurs personnes haut-placées sur l‟affaire; puis deux choses importantes arrivent: Esterhazy est acquitté et Emile Zola publie “J‟Accuse...!”, en faveur de Dreyfus. Ici, l‟affaire est arrivée à un point où elle devient un problème national, et il n‟est plus vraiment question de Dreyfus, mais des juifs et de l‟antisémitisme. Ce livre raconte l‟histoire de ce pauvre homme qui a marqué les opinions de l‟époque. Solet raconte l‟histoire à travers un jeune journaliste. C‟était très clair et j‟ai bien com- pris ce qui se passait. Je recommande ce livre à tous, garçon ou fille! Par Caroline Rice

T h e C an dy Sh op Wa r By Brandon Mull

The Candy Shop War may be an odd name for a book, but it is strangely accurate!

Nate, Pigeon, Trevor, and Summer are best friends. They are all in fifth grade. One day, on their way home from school, they stumble across a new candy shop! There‟s only one catch, the owner of the candy shop, Mrs. White, wants them to commit crimes in exchange for magical candy! The children must decide if Mrs. White‟s motives are good (she said that she‟s trying to find a treasure that actually belongs to her) or bad...

All in all, this book is very good. The author spins a tightly wound, action packed, and suspenseful (don‟t forget hilarious) story. I recommend this book to people who like suspense and candy! By Valentine Fagan

Nouvelles D’anciens

Laura, en 5e l’année dernière, a déménagé et nous raconte sa nouvelle vie. Où habites-tu maintenant? A Florence, en Italie.

Copyright International Schoolof International Florence Copyright As-tu commencé à apprendre l’italien? Est-ce plus dur ou plus facile que l’anglais? Oui, j‟ai commencé, et je pense que l‟italien est plus facile que l‟anglais car il y a plein de mots qui ressemblent au français. Dans quel genre d’école es-tu? Quelles sont tes premières impres- sions, et comment est-ce different de l’ISB? Je suis à l‟école inter-

nationale de Florence. C‟est très different. On change de classe pour Le collège et lycée de l’ISF. chaque matière, les heures de cours durent entre 40 minutes et 2 heures. Et je ne parle qu‟anglais. Je trouve cette école beaucoup plus stricte que l‟ISB. Les italiens restent avec les italiens et ceux des autres pays restent avec ceux des autres pays. Qu’est-ce qui est différent de Boston dans la vie de tous les jours? Qu’est-ce qui te frappe le plus? Wow… qu‟est-ce qui est différent… tout!!! Il n‟y a pas plus différent! La langue, les routes, les maisons, le temps… Mais ce qui m‟a marqué le plus, c‟est le paysage. A Boston: des bâtiments modernes de 50 étages, la ville… A Florence: des vieux bâtiments de 3 étages, de la verdure, de la verdure, et encore de la verdure. Dis-nous quelques plats italiens que tu as mangés et que tu as aimés. Pizza et pâtes! Fais-tu des activités? Sont-elles différentes de celles que tu faisais à Boston? Je ne fais pas d‟activités pour l‟instant mais je vais peut-être recommencer le foot. Est-ce que tu t'es fait de nouveaux amis? Je trouve que j‟ai plus d‟amis qui viennent d‟autres pays qu‟à l‟ISB. Par exemple, à l‟ISF (International School of Florence), j‟ai des amis des Etats-Unis, de France, d‟Angleterre, de Chine, du Pays de Galles, d‟Ecosse, d‟Australie, du Vénézuéla, de Russie, d‟Allemagne, de Hollande et de plein d‟autres pays. Je trouve que j‟ai plus d‟amis de nationalités différentes qu‟à l‟ISB. J‟ai même une amie de Boston! Est-ce que tu as commencé à visiter la ville et la région? Non, je n‟ai pas encore visité Florence. J‟ai juste aperçu la ville en passant. Qu'est-ce qui te manque de Boston? Les grands bâtiments modernes me manquent. On n‟a pas ça à Florence. Et aussi tous les bons moments que j‟ai passé avec mes amies. Elles me manquent énormément!!! Qu'est-ce que tu aimes en Italie? Eh bien, pour l‟instant… pas grand chose. A part les bonnes pâtes. C‟est vieux et je n‟ai pas l‟habitude de ça. Je préfère Boston à Florence sans hésita- tion. Je n‟aime pas les vieux bâtiments, les monuments… Bon, je suis allée à Cinque Terre avec mon école (c‟est loin de Florence) mais c‟est le plus bel endroit que je n‟ai jamais visité en Italie. C‟est vraiment super joli!

Cinque Terre

Reportages sur les nouveaux 4 e (suite) que je peux sortir dans la rue. Aussi, tout le monde parle anglais et il fait froid. L‟école n‟est pas très differente, car au Mexique, j‟étais au lycée français, et c‟est un peu partout pareil. J‟étais déjà venue aux Etats-Unis : Hus- ton, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Hawaii, Miami, Chicago, Boston, et Indian- apolis. Ce que j‟aime bien, ici, c‟est qu‟il y a beaucoup à faire. Je n‟aime pas trop que tout le monde parle anglais car je ne comprends rien! Mais j‟aime aussi ma famille d‟accueil.

Edom Yilma: I am from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I came because over here, there is more international diversity. I think it is very nice here, it is bigger than my previous city and the culture is different. School is different because I get to take new classes such as Spanish. The school is also bigger than my previous school. Before coming here, I had been to Florida, New York, Virginia, Des Moines, and Washington DC. I like to play basketball.

Propos recueillis par Gustave Ducrest et Audrey Lee

Devinettes & Citations

This thing runs but cannot walk, sometimes sings but nev- “I must have er talks. Lacks arms, has hands, lacks a head but has a face. a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes What is this? me as much “De toutes les passions, la as a week seule vraiment respectable sometimes to me paraît être la gourman- make it up.” dise.” Where is the tallest Mark Twain Maupassant mountain in the US?

L’équipe des journalistes: Gustave Ducrest, Valentine Fagan, Paloma Hepler, Elijah Koblan-Huberson, Audrey Lee, Sophie Lee, Lennart Nehrbass, et Caroline Rice.

L’équipe des relecteurs: Florence Manoukian, Kristen Mitchell, Delphine Picard, Kimberly Stirling, Chantal

Sweeney, et Véronique Valdettaro.

Alaska McKinley, Mt. clock; A Answers: