Articles by Xander Giaccone

News & Features January 25, 2017

Trump Happenings: The First Five Days in Office

Are you looking for an article with “alternative facts”? If so, then you’ve come to the wrong place. As you probably know, Donald J. Trump took the presidential oath on Friday at noon, beginning his term as president. Trump has made numerous promises during his campaign, and he hopes to fulfill as many as possible. Throughout the five days that he has been president thus far, he has been trying to repeal ObamaCare (the Affordable Care Act), build a longer Mexican border wall, and more. On Inauguration Day, January 20th, Trump was sworn in. After the swearing in, he made a passionate and rather unusual speech acknowledging that we must put “America first.” After the inauguration, a controversial photo surfaced, comparing the crowd at Barack Obama’s inauguration to the crowd at Trump’s. On a much larger scale, women’s marches took place on all seven continents (see upcoming article on the Women’s…

News & Features, Opinions January 18, 2017

Intro to Mini-Courses

What are mini-courses? Mini-courses are an activity that the entire middle school participates in where we all pick an activity and are involved with that for three days. They are educational but also extremely fun. Mini-courses allow for bonding between grades and meeting different people than just your best friends. The mini-course program allows for a relief from average learning and instead adds more interactive, experience-based learning. Last year, I did the Pasta Workshop mini-course in which we made at least eight pastas from scratch. Mini-courses provide unique and interactive experiences for you to learn about a subject of interest to you. Teachers never do the same mini-course twice so this year there will be new mini-courses. In fact, teachers have started to brainstorm ideas, so I took it upon myself to interview one anonymous teacher. How far into the minicourse brainstorming project are you? The teachers are early in…

News & Features, Opinions January 11, 2017

Study Resources for Students

Throughout the year tests are often a key source of stress for students, but this can be avoided. Students often feel overwhelmed or scared, even when they have studied. The problem isn’t usually that students don’t study, they do. The problem is that they don’t know how to study for different subjects, especially math. We hope to show you different resources and ways of studying so you can ace your next test. Bad Study Habits We all have bad habits when it comes to studying. Many people believe that these habits are harmless, but they can do some damage on your overall education. They may seem to be the low hanging fruits; maybe the test is tomorrow and it’s midnight, but breaking them will do much more in the long run. The following unhealthy habits should be broken. Multitasking. Killing two birds with one stone will not help you. As…

DIY February 10, 2016

Make Your Own Imperial Star Destroyer

We have been working very hard on making a large imperial star destroyer outside of newspaper in the makerspace. We made it out of cardboard, duct tape, and laser cut circles. It took weeks of recess and lunches to create it, and we hope that you enjoy the time lapse video we have made.

News & Features December 16, 2015

FCS Food Competition

This year, Friends’ Central School is having a schoolwide food competition to determine a new dish for the cafeteria. The winner will receive the honor of having their dish featured on the FCS menu. So far, the competition is just beginning, but word is even faculty and staff are now allowed to compete. 32 entries, but only 1 can win. As an exciting kickoff for the intense food competition, we had a selected group of student judges, who tasted and voted on their favorite. The jury has decided and “Waffle la Waffle” dominated five votes to three votes. Although the chicken was amazing, the idea of a waffle breakfast sandwich (WITH BACON) was pure genius and Chris Meade ’20 triumphed in this round and is moving on to his next competition (THE SEMI-SEMI-SEMI-FINALS). The winner, “Waffle la Waffle”: Buffalo chicken wings:

Opinions December 9, 2015

Top 10 Board Games

Dungeons and Dragons: 9.4 Dungeons and Dragons is an amazing role playing game in which you create a character and play the role of it in a fantastical world. You will go on epic adventures with thousands of ending, fight fantasy monsters, and work through intense riddles. This game has the option to play pre-made adventures, or you can create your own representing your personal taste. Also you can play as the dungeon master where you hold the balance of the world that you create in your very hands and can decide whether or not you’re brave fighters, wizards, clerics, and thieves will survive or die. This game has a huge variety in age requirements but it could be ages 10+ or 16+. It all depends on the adventure.

DIY December 1, 2015

Life Hack #2: Make a Bigger Condiment Cup

Welcome back! I have another weekly life hack for you, and this one is special because it can be implemented in our very own cafeteria. Get a paper ketchup cup and be prepared to be amazed by this life hack. Warning: this life hack may not work without this type of ketchup container: Now that you have your container, let’s improve it. These cups are made by folding a round piece of paper in a repeated pattern. We are going to unfold it. Now that you have your container, let’s improve it. These cups are made by folding a round piece of paper in a repeated pattern. We are going to unfold it. If you completely unfold it it will look like this: So, obviously we don’t want to completely unfold it. Instead we will notice these small folded triangles and unfold every other one. Like this, look below: Unfold…

DIY November 11, 2015

Life Hack #1: Party-Style Chips

Life Hack #1: The easy opening of chips or Cheetos for party-style distribution! Step 1: Lay the bag on it’s side and pinch the top (see photo below). Step 2: Bite the piece of plastic that you have pinched until it tears. Step 3: Next, stick the tip of your finger into the chip bag and slowly rip the plastic in a spiral fashion–being careful not to let the spiral end–until it is open to the extent you wish it to be. Next, pull harshly and quickly up to remove the spiral of plastic that you have ripped. Finally, enjoy your delicious snack!