SPARTAN PRESS 2015-2016 SPARTAN PRESS EDITOR IN CHIEF

MALLORY LANG

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Spanish Club

2

Koalas

3

Too Much Computer Time

3

Our Earth

4

Puzzle

5

!! ! S N

S O G

A T R PA

VOLUME 3

MARCH

2016

Star Wars By: Mallory Lang A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away… was the movie series Star Wars. This movie series is by far, hands down, one of the best! It is funny and action packed, but there is also romance and big WHAT IF’s. This series is about Jedi's, good and bad, and revenge. Throughout the series, there is always a good side and a bad side. There was the Empire, Sith, and the First Order which are all bad. There is also the Jedi's, the Rebels, and The Resistance who are the good guys. You may know Luke Skywalker, or Darth Vader who have a lot of tension. The series is well written, acted, and viewed. The seventh movie in the series came out on December 18, 2016. I loved the movie and saw it three times. I walked into the theater knowing nothing about what would happen and walked out loving the movie. The first three came out in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. So people have waited about forty years just to finish the series. My dad was five when Star Wars Episode IV came out, and now he is forty-two and can’t wait to finish the series. A lot has happened in the movies and George Lucas Films is doing a good job. Star Wars is funny, serious, romantic and action filled. The lightsaber fights, and whenever someone uses the force, it’s great. As they would say in the films, “may the force be with you.”

SPANISH CLUB UPDATE Spring is here and it is time to rummage through our closets! The Spanish Club will be collecting GENTLY USED bathing suits & GENTLY USED summer clothing for the children in the Migrant Education Program. All donations will be DIRECTLY distributed to the children of the Migrant Education Program which has a site in Long Branch and in Manalapan. The Migrant Education Program provides academic services, counseling services, family support, health services, and referral services. These children and young adults are RECENT immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala that live in Freehold Boro, Asbury, Neptune and Red Bank. Many of these children have no summer clothes whatsoever and hopefully we can help them! We will be collecting gently used bathing suits and gently used summer clothing for sizes Infant – 17. Collection boxes will be located in front of the FAS Gym. The clothing collection starts at the end of April and continue through May. Muchas gracias! :)

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Koala bears By Ema Frazo You may know these cuddly animals as koala bears, but they not a bear at all. In fact, they are a marsupial (a marsupial is a pouched mammal). After giving birth the females carry their babies in their pouch for about half a year, and when it grows into an infant it goes on the mother's back or clings to her belly until it's about one year old. Koalas live in eastern Australia where there are eucalyptus trees which are their favorite source of food. They spend most of their time in eucalyptus trees, and it's rare for them to even leave them. Their sharp claws have opposable digits which easily keep them aloft. During the day they doze, sleeping 18 hours. When they're not asleep, they feed on eucalyptus trees, mainly at night. Koalas don't drink much water since they get most of their water from the moisture of the eucalyptus leaves. They eat a lot for their size—about two and a half pounds of leaves a day. They even store snacks of leaves in their pouches and in their cheeks. A special digestive system (a long gut), allows koalas to break down the tough eucalyptus leaves and remain unharmed by the leaf’s poison. These fluffy mammals were widely hunted during 1920s and 1930s, and their populations plunged. Koalas need a lot of space, about a hundred trees per animal. This is a pressing problem as Australia's woodlands continue to shrink.

To Much Computer Time By Ian Lang Being on the computer for more than two hours a day is bad for you. It is bad for your eyes, it is bad for your health, and it takes away time you can be spending with your family. Too much time on the computer is bad for your eyes. The brightness of the screen can hurt your eyes because you need to squint if it is too bright. Having the screen too close can give you a headache because your eyes need to strain to see everything. If objects move too fast on the screen, your eyes will hurt. Scientists predict that somewhere between 50% and 90% of people who work on the computer screen have some kind of eye symptom. Being on the computer for a long time can be bad for your health. First, it takes away time you could be playing outside with friends. This is good for you socially, because you talk to them and feel good when you are around friends. If you are on the computer for too long, it takes away time you could be exercising, which helps you to stay in shape. It is also bad for your neck because you may be looking down or up at the screen, and you will get a stiff neck. If you are on the computer too long it takes time away from your family. Families need to interact with each other and socialize. Also, you should be playing a board game with your family instead of being on the computer by yourself. You can tell your family your emotions and feelings instead of holding them inside, which you would be doing if you were on the computer. I think you should only be on the computer for 30 minutes to 1 hour each day, since being on the computer for more than 2 hours a day is bad for you. It hurts your eyes and can cause you to need glasses. It also is bad for your social, emotional, and physical health as well. It can also be bad for your family. PAGE 3

What We Do Wrong to Our Mother Earth By Simone Moore and Britney Tran This earth is warming up, and as a result some animals are dying off and may be extinct—especially in the Artic. This kind of warming is known as Global Warming. We were the ones who caused Global Warming. If you have seen our first article in Issue 1(See the Newspaper Club Issues on www.wlbschools.com), we have given a lot of information about Global Warming. Not only have we caused Global Warming, but we have done something terribly wrong to our Mother Earth. Such as dumping trash everywhere, cutting down forests, and polluting the air, which is damaging our atmosphere. The result of all of this may be scary, but you can reduce the risk of that by helping our planet! You may be wondering, “what can I do to save the Earth?” Well, you’ve come to the right article! Here are three main ways to save our Earth. Together we can make the Earth better, like it was back then. The first main thing is that we need to stop dumping all of our trash just anywhere! The trash is starting to sink into the earth, and the crazy thing is, you can’t fix that unless you are crazy enough to find trash underground and dig for it like treasure. No one has really thought about how this is affecting us. Most people think that dumping trash in various landfills or into the ocean is ok, but really, it’s not. This harms animals that live on land and the ocean. This can lead to wildlife becoming endangered or extinct! We have recycling bins for a reason, to recycle! It’s that easy, but now you’re thinking, what would we do with all the trash? We can’t burn it, or dump it in the ocean, or dump them into landfills. It is important that people begin to use reusable products that don’t need to be thrown away. That way, we get less trash which will help us in the long run. Another thing we can do is to limit the cutting down of trees in the forests. Although it’s important to cut down trees for houses, crops, resources, and space, we have to be careful of cutting down forests because you would ruin an animal’s habitat. Animals and easily be displaced or go extinct in their habitat is affected. Plants and trees also give us oxygen to breathe. So if there are no plants or trees, this will greatly affect us. The last thing that we most definitely need to stop doing is polluting the air. If you drive for long periods of time, you are adding to our pollution problem. If we continue to do this, we’re going to damage our atmosphere. We’re sure you know what the atmosphere is, but if you don’t, let us explain. Our atmosphere is the envelope of gases surrounding our planet. The atmosphere keeps all of our oxygen in and unhealthy air out. If you pollute, the atmosphere would become damaged which will be harmful for us. We could go on and on about what we can do the help heal Earth, but maybe we should start out slow. So please help heal our Mother Earth.

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