Envirothon strikes again!

Congratulations to the Indiana Academy's Envirothon Team:

The Indiana Academy's Environmental Warriors competed last week in the State Envirothon contest in Vincennes, IN ( home of all things Harrison) and finished in the top 5. Following the requirement to present on a topic concerning renewable energy in Indiana, the team gave a presentation on the history & future of the Trenton Gas Fields (located right around the corner from Muncie!). The actual test, and hour and a half long written, multiple choice exam, concerned itself with 5 major categories: Forestry, Aquatics, Wildlife, Soil, and Current Issues. In each category, the team placed well. When not presenting or answering questions on natural resources, the team was inundated with the history of the Northwest Territories. Jamie Trost highlights her time at the competition: “We got to see a giant peach. What’s more to love?”

Congratulations go to Haley Waldkoetter, Barbara DeLarm, Grace Casimer, Kayla Gurganus, Jon Hilsmier and Jamie Trost.

Vive La France!

As in the past years, this year again French students at the Academy have participated in "Le Grand Concours," known in English as the French National Contest. The hour long test is very intense and includes listening comprehension, grammar, reading comprehension, and syntax. We compete on the National level against thousands of students from all 50 states. So, Bravos should go to all French students! In addition, I am very proud to announce the superb performance of the following students who placed in the top 15 in the Nation!

Level 1
Kayla Gurganus
Nikki Wilkes
Kaleb Morris

Level 2
Lauren Gibbons
Crayle Vanest

Level 3
Emily Atkinson
Brennan Murphy
Mallory VanMeeter
(Brennan will receive a medal as he has placed 5th in the state and 8th in the nation!)

If you see any of these students, please don't hesitate to congratulate them on their hard work and perseverance!

favorite easter candy

the Burris photography and yearbook participated in a poll for this years favorite candy they received or wanted for easter


Chocolate bars (dark or milk)---3
Jelly Bellys--- 2
Sour Patch Kids--- 5
Butterfinger--- 2
Skittles--- 3
Starburst--- 3
Swedish fish--- 1

Music Review: Another Night Alone by Mac Miller

Another night alone by Mac Miller is a good song. He is talking about the nights that there is nothing to do and when you are alone. He talks about sitting down and writing lyrics and making new beats. Miller is on the rise to be a great artist. He has the talent and ability and also has the connections to make himself a celebrity. Knowing the right people in the business world will always help you and get you a break that you need to show what you have to offer the world. Miller is taking full advantage of knowing Wiz Khalifa. He and Wiz are friends and Wiz is already a big time star. Miller is making songs with him in hope to make it to the status of his friend. Mac Miller is a great artist and i believe that he will do big things in his life and be very rich. This song helps him because he is relating to the common person, not just the rich or famous.

April showers cause trouble for baseball

The Burris Owls Baseball team has played only six games in the month of April while seven have been canceled due to rain. Not only irritating for the entire baseball staff, but the athletic directors suffer as well. When asked about the baseball schedule being difficult to coordinate with rain-outs, Athletic Director Ray Dawson simply pointed at a calendar on the wall filled with dates to the brim on all school events and other sports dates. He then said, “Well take a look at that calendar and tell me its easy to just reschdule games.”

This has been one of the wettest Aprils in history accumulating over 7 inches of rain in just this month alone. With that being said, the baseball teams around the county and state have been suffering a loss of games fromtheir schedules. 

This has been the trend this spring with all the other teams in the county and even the state as athletic directors have the difficult task of trying to make up all games being rained out. Dawson said, “Well it’s so hard because we sometimes make these schedules three or four years in advance so when we have to reschedule these we have to go off of what our school calendar is like and match it with others to try and make these games up.” 

Most of the games canceled so far have been non-conference games, but as they continue to pile up many of these games will end up just being canceled. Dawson said, “We absolutely have to play the conference games because those arethe rules, so as these games continue to be canceled our options go down and we may even have to cancel future games with non-conference opponents just to get in the conference ones.”  

Dawson said, “This has simply been the worst spring since 1995 when I took this position at Burris.” 

Ideally for the Owls, half of there schedule should have been played by now, which brings the issue if the Owls will be able to play the remainder of their games on top of their cancelations.

According to a survey of 22 burris high school students, they ranked their favorite web browsers in the order below.

Firefox 3

Google Chrome 11

Internet Explorer

safari 8

The two most popular web browsers happen to be the newest browsers as well.

'Soul Surfer' review

by Derek Packard

The newly released movie, "Soul Surfer," is an inspirational true story about a girl who is a surfer in Hawaii. The story implies many religious views as well as quotes several scripture from the bible. The true story is based of a girl named Bethany Hamilton and the struggles her and her family experience due to a tragic run in with a shark.

Bethany was in the middle of a great surfing rise, she was heading into the Junior National tournament. During one of her training sessions she was attacked by a shark. The attack made her lose one of her arms and for ever took certain abilities away. At first Bethany will struggle, both physically and mentally with the attack. She even begins to suffer spiritually.

Thanks though to some help from a youth pastor her family and several other members of the community she is able to get back up on the surf board and do her best with what she has. During the climax of the movie strong spiritual moments are enforced. If you are offended by spiritual actions, then you will not want to watch the climax of this movie.

Overall I would give this movie an A. It was put together extremely well and is a true story. I would recommend this movie to both the religious as well as non religious, because it is something that people need to see. It shows how strong a girl was through one of the most difficult times in her life and was able to make the best out of it and try to continue on with out even her self physically holding her back.