With so many people recognized though, the entire PAC was filled with all ranges of family members, to the point where people who weren’t there so early had to sit in the Orchestra and Choir rooms, watching on setup screens with audio played from speakers. That alone is enough to show just how many students have high GPAs and who have parents and family that care so much, too.

But taking out the variable of families and friends, just how many people there were the ones who actually made the GPA requirement? How many students made the cut?

In each grade level, students were called to the stage if they met the GPA level stipulated according to their grade.

148 Freshman met the minimum of at least a 3.80 GPA
103 Sophomores met the minimum of at least a 3.80 GPA.
85 Juniors met the minimum of at least a 3.75 GPA.
118 Seniors met the minimum of at least a 3.70 GPA.

Over all, 454 BHS students met their grade’s GPA standard.

Slither.io is played much like the game Agar.io that was released last year, where now you gain in length instead of mass because you are a snake. The object of the game is to become as long as possible and make it to your servers leaderboard, of where you keep playing until you meet your untimely demise when you run into someone. When you do so, you go back to where you first started, a small and puny snake.

“If I’m bored, it’s easy to pull up”, says Sophomore Ethan More. “I only play it in class, and even then it’s only when I need some entertainment.”

But with the game being so easy to pull up, it also makes it easy for some students to play when there is work to be done, causing some teachers to have issues with students playing Slither at the wrong time. Despite these problems however, Slither seems to be unyielding in its consistent and common play by the student body.

The scene changes to a boat zipping across the water, tugging at the arms of younger teenage girl on a wakeboard. Skipping from wave to wave, her smile only emphasizes the utter delight she finds in being flung behind a boat at 45 miles per hour, even with the slight discomfort in her arms as hold on desperately.

Again the scene changes, but this time it feels different. No laughing can be heard, no smiles can be seen. A sense of bitterness can not only be seen on this person’s face, but seems to emanate through the inside of their car. Looking at the clock, a scowl comes across their face as they fully realize the time. It’s 7:00 AM on a Saturday, they should be sleeping in, but work calls. Reluctantly, they pull their keys from the ignition, open the car door, get out, only to close it once again, and only then do they walk into their first day of their Summer job.

It’s unbelievable sometimes, what you may hype up to be amazing, but then someone else may see that same thing and dread it. Summer is only one of many of those things, and it is just around the corner, bringing varying emotions with it. For some people it brings feelings of joy and freedom, meanwhile for others, it brings a feeling of dread as they have to return to Summer jobs or various tasks now added to their already busy plate.

“We have 35 kids signed up, and we have 15 to 25 kids here working on the robot on any given night”, said tech-ed teacher Benjamin Wandmacher as he pulled out a calculator and typed some numbers into it. “We have put roughly 200 hours into this project altogether.”

With the amount of time and dedication put into the group’s robot, the Roboherd hopes to bring competition to its opponents in this year’s competition run by FIRST. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and the group hosts robotics events in many places in the US and elsewhere.

For the Roboherd though, there is a lot that is going to need to happen in order to move on to the next competition.

A regional robotics competition starts off with practice rounds, where you work out problems with your team’s robot. Then, teams are placed randomly in groups of three called alliances. No one is eliminated at this stage, but the goal is to earn the most amount of points for your alliance.

Teams are then ranked based on points earned, and then the top eight teams are able to choose two more teams who did not make the top eight to form the final alliances. The new alliances compete with each other, and the top team moves onto the next competition level.

So far as who usually wins or is the top team, Wandmacher explains that, “It all depends, any team could win, unlike football and track. It really depends on the situation, robot, and other variables.”

One of these variables is what the competition game is each year, as every year robots need to be built for different purposes and goals in order to win. This year’s game is called Stronghold, and is explained briefly by Junior Jim Ostvig as an “obstacle course mixed with a basketball game played by robots.”

FIRST releases an official video every year detailing the new years game, and no team knows what type of robot they’ll have to build before the video is released.

This year’s regional competition will be held in Duluth on March 4th, as the Roboherd hope to bring it to the table and move on with their robot to the next level of competition.

McCormick, along with some friends he gathered together in the final weeks of his eighth grade year, created Team Superior, a competitive gaming group. The group size ranges from between 7 and 10 total players, with some players invited to the group on occasions when the total number of players online is lacking on certain nights. The group varies in what games they play, but Counter Strike: Global Offensive sees the most play time.

With so many players, McCormick explains that Superior can sometimes have little communication between teammates, and that it is something that the team needs to work on as a whole.

“We really need to work on communication,” McCormick said. “All of us on the team know each other, but some at the same time don’t. We have players from three different grade levels, so sometimes it’s tough to communicate at times.”

What Team Superior sometimes lacks in time or communication when compared to other starter teams, they make up for in professionalism, with McCormick using his skills in Adobe Photoshop to make a common logo and profile picture for each member.

“Someday, we could probably become an actual team that plays with the pros, but it will take time and effort in the long run,” McCormick said. “A large amount of this group seems to be wanting to do that.”

Big Questions features questions about philosophical topics where students will have dialogue and share opinions on related viewpoints. These viewpoints and topics will be used to provide help and learning, as well as helping to improve students leadership in the school. Not only this, but guest speakers will be coming into the class to talk to students and answer their questions.

By just being there, these speakers are providing students with examples on how to become leaders and what steps can be or are necessary to become leaders as well.

“This (Bison Time) stems from the need to help students embrace ambiguity and rethink what it means to be a leader through action,” said English Teacher Ryan McCallum. “I’m going to do this by introducing people with extraordinary careers that are somehow connected to Buffalo High School.”

McCallum goes further into detail, describing that there is going to be NBA coaches, doctors, lawyers, designers for Apple, pro photographers, published authors, and even game designers coming into school to talk to students. With all of these guest speakers, McCallum hopes that participating students will not have their hands, but instead their heads full of new and innovative ideas on leadership.

“Students from Buffalo need to learn from people who have become successful from taking risks, asking questions, and being leaders,” said McCallum. “I intend to help them do that.”