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Endorsement Stories

Stay up to date with the latest stories about academics! From student projects to student successes, see what's going on with our academic department. 
Congratulations to Valor's TSA Team!

Congratulations to Valor's TSA Team!

TSA Flight Endurance was a great success. Sydney Baller ('23) took 3rd in State with a flight time of over 1 minute! Ryan Peters ('25) (featured on the left) sustained flight for over 35 seconds. Great job flight endurance team!

TSA Fashion Design Technology team took 2nd in State with their amusement park theme ride costume. Mollie Porch ('23), Anderson Porch ('25), Sydney Baller ('23), and Liana Hase-Penn ('23) made a lively design with 3D printer earrings to top it off! 

TSA Dragster is a supercharged event as students puncture a CO2 cartridge to launch a hand-crafted car down a 40 ft track. Students learned CAD to design their cars. Then used a band saw, drill press, and lathe to bring their creation to life. Watch the 5-second clip below to see Brady Williams ('25) dragster in action! 

TSA Forensics team Peyton Brown ('23) and Liana Hase-Penn ('23) took 2nd in the State in Forensics! Through dedicated study and extra practice in various techniques, they put their investigative skills to the test and had an incredible performance!  

TSA Video Game Design team created The Wonderous World which is a quick-paced goofy platformer. There are 7 unique levels, each with its own interesting artifact for the player to explore. Conrad Clay ('25) and Breck Massey ('25) made it to the semi-finals with their creativity and advanced coding.

TSA System Control Technology team Breck Massey ('25), Kale Pankoski ('25) and Kai Pankoski ('23) took 1st in State. The team put their problem-solving skills to the test and were able to use some advanced code and a Vex kit to create a device that would allow only 15 people entry into a store at one time.

More Endorsement Stories

“If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, you don't understand it well enough yourself.” 

Mrs. Herscovici's Entrepreneurship class finished their unit on "Exploring Opportunities" by researching famous entrepreneurs. In small groups, students researched an entrepreneur of their choice and were made aware of how many times these entrepreneurs had to fail before their ideas became successful. In the midst of this research, we have been discussing the importance of being able to explain our learning. Essentially, “If you can't explain it to a six-year-old, you don't understand it well enough yourself.” ― Albert Einstein.

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Calculus Speed Trap

If you travel 40 miles per 60 minutes, what’s your average speed per hour, or what’s your average rate of change (the change in distance over the change in time)? Are they different? Students in AP Calculus played cops and speeders last week in class. Students had the opportunity to use real radar guns and math to try and see if they could catch their classmates speeding along Fairview.

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Humanities Alumni Update

The Humanities program honored its first class of graduating students this past May 2023 during Valor’s commencement ceremony. We want to regularly include comments from graduates to help give a sense of how the Humanities program prepared them for the next phase of their lives. For our first alumni check-in, we asked Ben Leikam to reflect on how his time in the Humanities program prepared him for college. Here are his thoughts...

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STEM Night 2023

STEM Night was a great success, as students showcased their work through capstone projects, clubs, and competitions. Over 30 projects and interactive demos were highlighted during the evening. In addition, select students received awards for their innovation, creativity, and service through STEM. 

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