Students Simulate Auto Dealership

A group of students enrolled in marketing classes at Mt. Spokane High School will get hands-on business skills with the help of the automotive industry.

In conjunction with Parkway Chevrolet in Deer Park, marketing teacher Dave Whitehead’s class will operate a simulated dealership on campus for a day in January.

Students involved in the General Motors Learning Applied Business program will be part of different departments within the on-campus dealership: business office, finance and insurance, sales, parts and service.

The class will invite other students to attend their event and act out the role of customer. Faculty, staff and members of the community are invited to attend.

The GM LAB program is designed to introduce high school students to General Motors, dealership operations and various automotive careers. The project also includes guest speakers and job shadowing from Parkway Chevrolet.

The dealership and Chevrolet Division of General Motors provide the class with a $1,200 budget for the creation and implementation of their own simulated dealership.

“Students have told us that GM LAB brings daily studies to life,” said Tony Sgro, President of EdVenture Partners. EdVenture Partners is an educational marketing company based in Berkeley, Calif., which administers GM LAB and other industry-education and School-to-Career initiatives for GM.

Speaking of Mt. Spokane, 26 students there took the Advanced Placement U.S. history exam in May. The exams are comprehensive college-level tests taken by top college-bound students worldwide.

The exam is graded on a 1 to 5 scale. Those who receive a score of 3 or better earn semester or quarter credits at the college or university of their choice upon their college admission.

A top score of 5 was received by seniors Tony Cotto and Erin Graham.

NC to display how they got there

North Central High School presents part one of an original play called “How Did I Get Here?”

Past, present and future North Central students wrote essays about their own lives, which became the inspiration for this story of teenage life in the 20th century.

Students from various periods throughout this century develop friendships and romance in a place where time does not exist.

For example, a girl from the ‘40s is infatuated with a disco swinger from the 70s, and a girl from the ‘90s - who rejects tattoos and body piercings - meets a boy from the ‘40s.

Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the North Central Performing Arts Theater.

Tickets are $4 for adults, $3 for students and $2 for NC ASB cardholders.

For more information call Tom Armitage or Karen Armor at 353-5220.

St. Al 5th-graders study nutrition using lab rats

Fifth grade students at St. Aloysius School are learning about health and nutrition through lab rats.

One group of rats is given a milk-free diet, the other is given a diet that includes dairy foods.

“The students weigh and measure the rats comparing differences in growth, appearance and behavior between the two groups,” said St. Als teacher Kristy Masteller.

“They see how important it is to eat from all the food groups and learn the valuable lesson that it is never too late to change diet habits for the better,” she said.

Students take full responsibility in caring for the rats and will be given the opportunity to adopt them as pets at the end of the five-week program.

The Washington State Dairy Council co-sponsors this program with many schools throughout the state of Washington.