Issue 4, Volume 13

6th graders create
miniature golf courses in
math
How design changes
everything
Mixed media paints
landscapes
Swimmers at Clay
Students go for gold at
ISSMA
Dive deeper into AVID
Coding Club
March Madness
Behind the scenes of the
Clay Classic
Teacher’s Hidden Talents
The Rubik’s Cube

Sixth grade students are digging and
rambling through their favorite art supplies,
figuring out which materials would be
perfect for the mini golf projects.
Walstrom’s sixth grade advanced math
classes are beginning a brand new
assignment. It comes in all different shapes
and sizes-literally.
Three weeks of excitement, thrill,
creativity, and mathematics are underway
before the deadline. Francesca Gobbi-
Belcredi explains all the hard work that
they do to prepare.
“The mini golf courses are going to
help with my knowledge of surface area
and volume of 3D objects,” she said.
The sixth grade hallways are filled with
groups of students tearing, cutting, and
constructing the mini courses. They utilized
materials such as green paper, cardboard,
and scattered supplies that brought from
home. Since they are mini, Gobbi-Belcredi
says they cannot exceed the limit of sixteen
feet.
The main purpose of the project is to
work with your team and use materials to
build something you can reference for
ISTEP. When it comes to the test, they can
remember the lessons and geometry skills
used and help bring success.

And how it can change everything
Story by Conner Colbert
The stress of the designers accumulate
as they develop a presentation that will
please their audience. An intriguing
presentation will secure them a place for a
good grade. The design of the presentation
could determine whether they will be
approved.
Design is a critical element in any
presentation of information to entice the
viewer to continue on.
“It is laying out information in a way
that allows the reader to learn,” Mr. Evan
Williams, journalism adviser, said.
Some of these features may be
intriguing word choice, gripping visuals, or
superb visuals. At some point in anybody’s
life, they have to deal with design, they
have to create something that looks visually
enticing. The more popular form of design
is visual, the viewer can see the effort that
the designer put into it much easier than
something like a story.
“In a company, it is important to have
dedicated designers because that means you
have people why directly focus on how
your company looks,” Nathan Ferrell,
eighth grade, said.
Many jobs need the work of a designer,
some of these jobs include being a
photographer, a videographer, and graphic
designer. All of these jobs have something
in common, they all speak to an audience
visually. In this category, designers need to
rely on visuals and not typography, this is a
key part as is may be easier to entice the
viewer.
They may continue to look at the
design as it is an effortless task to view
something visually rather than reading it.
Typography is more prevalent in either
newspapers, magazines, and online articles.
This type of design may be more difficult
of a task to get the viewer as enticed as
visual journalism, but once the writer does
so, the reader will stay enticed.
“Visual journalism uses graphics and art
to inform the reader, while typography just
uses written word,.” Williams said.
Many classes in Clay Middle School
implement design into their curriculum,
these classes being Newspaper, Yearbook,
Digital Video Production (DVP),
Computer Design 1 and 2, Digital Learning
1 and 2, et cetera. These classes teach
students the design process and what is
good in a design,
"It is important to teach students design
in school because it encourages them to
structure their creative process of building
and designing,” Miss Michelle Nelson,
technology teacher, stated.
Brianna Guntz
paints a colorful
in Mixed Media
class.
Photos and captions by Emily Garnes
During Mixed
Media, Heath
Giesel works on
her art.
The class paints 2 to 3 times a
week together. Their artwork
is graded, and, sometimes, put
on display.

Swimmers at Clay practice nonstop to prepare for championship meets
Story by Griffin Hadley and Nick Frische
he whistle blows and the
swimmers climb up onto
the blocks. The starter tells them to
“take their mark” and they
anxiously wait for the sound that
starts the race.
Racing is what swimmers live
for and at the Carmel Swim Club
they are dedicated to practice and
prepare to strive in racing
situations.
For swimmers at Clay, March is
the most important month of the
year. Divisionals will take place
March 3-5 and age group state will
take place March 10-12. Both
meets are very important for
swimmers and what they have been
training for all season. But getting
to the state meet is no easy task.
Every single day swimmers are
training in and out of the pool for
what is to come at the end of the
season.
David Gabrick, eighth grade,
who has been swimming for five
years, said swimming helps keep
him out of trouble.
“I’m very excited for
championship season,” Gabrick
said. “It is an exciting time of year
to see where your hard work has
gotten you.”
Swimmers are very dedicated in
what they do. Some swimmers at
Clay practice up to 18 hours a week
with about 14-15 hours a week
being the average practice time per
week for a swimmer.
Along with the dedication,
swimmers also like to have fun.
William Kok, eighth grade, has
been swimming for six years.
“Swimming is fun, you get to stay
active, and you get to be with your
friends,” Kok said.
Kok along with Gabrick is also
very excited for the championship
season to come. “I am excited
because this season I might be able
to swim more than one individual
event and be on some of the good
relays,” Kok said.
“Swimming takes a lot of hard
work and dedication,” Gabrick
said.
The swimmers put in a lot of
practice but it all works out when
they see the results when it counts
in the championship season.
Scan this code to see
a video interview
with one of our very
own Clay swimmers!
Below: Downtown at the Natatorium at IUPUI the pool
is calm before the big race that is about to begin. The Nat
will be the destination for Age Group State, which took
place March 10-12. Photo by Griffin Hadley

Giving back to community is what fellow seventh grader enjoys
Story by Zainab Idrees
Giving back to the community. That’s what seventh grader
Cady Armstrong focuses on every day. This school year, Cady has
done around 60-65 hours dedicating herself to bettering the community
through her service, and she has more goals that she aims
to accomplish.
“My goal is to do 105 hours this school year, and even more
during the summer,” she said. Cady first started doing community
service through SRA, a club here at Clay Middle School. “I didn’t
want to do it at first, but then I realized how much I loved to do it.
I just kept on doing it and that was the result,”
Along with doing community service, Cady has sponsored a
wolf and an elephant.
Cady helps with band try-ons, participating in soup kitchens,
leading middle school tours, and more.
“It’s enjoyable, and it makes me feel productive. I love paying
it forward,” she said. She often participates around the school, in
Carmel and in our capital, Indianapolis.
“It’s not fun unless you find something you do. You have to
want to do it. Take your time figuring out what you want to do.
Don’t rush into anything. Once it’s your passion, it doesn’t feel like
work.”

Going For Gold
Band, Orchestra, and Choir are ready to scale ISSMA for a gold ranking.
ISSMA is a music middle school competition where any preforming art classes
can go and get judged for Bronze Silver or a Gold ranking!
Story and page by Carter Inskeep and Jacob Gold
Choir
Choir went to ISSMA this
year with 7th and 8th grade.
They sang “Windy Nights,
Ubi Caritas, and Let Me Ride.
We interviewed 7th grade
choir student Kathleen
Lemme about ISSMA! Scan
QR Code below to watch.
Band
7th and 8th grade Band went
to ISSMA in March this year.
They performed “Epic
Adventure,” “Cyclone,” and
“The Cluster, Fluster, Bluster
March.” If you follow the
QR code down below you
will find an exclusive
interview with Nicolas
Zimmowitch!
Orchestra
Orchestra went to ISSMA
this year with the 7th and 8th
grade. They played “Irish
Sweet no. 2,” “Country
Legend,” and “Appellation
Sunrise.” We interviewed
Orchestra student Janelle
Patterson about their
performance. Scan QR Code
below to watch.

Going Deeper Into AVID
We asked 7th grader
Jiani Carillo about
AVID:
Q: How has Avid helped
you?
A: It has helped me get
better grades and
improve my social skills
with others.
Q: How do you organize
your binder?
A: I organize by keeping
each class in its own
divider, and having A
and B days separated.
Q: How has the Cornell
Note-Taking System
helped you?
A: It has helped me take
better, more precise
notes.
The program Avid stands
for Advancement Via
Individual Determination
and is new to Clay Middle
School this 2016-2017
school year. As Avid is not
a motivational program,
students must have to
have a desire to succeed
and to improve their
grades. Like Jiani Carillo,
many other Clay students
use the Avid program to
achieve better
organization, grades,
studying skills, and
overall academic
experience.
Infographics and page by Chloe Tapnio and Sope
Koya, Story by Mia Stowell
Have you ever needed help with staying
organized but you didn't know how?
AVID is a class where students learn
organizational skills and how to take good notes.
The class is open to sixth, seventh and eighth
graders. AVID started off as a high school class,
and now it is open to middle school students.
Many students wonder if they should take AVID
and if it will help them.
“The ideal AVID student would be someone
in the middle and might need help with
organization, study skills, note taking,
motivation, and reading and writing,” Mr. Evan
Snyder, AVID teacher, said. “In my three years
of teaching, teaching AVID has been the most
eye-opening and fun, and I plan on teaching
AVID again next year."
Students have to interview to get into AVID.
Eighth grader Alaina O’Rear shared her
thoughts on AVID. “I enjoy AVID because it
helps me stay organized and helps me with my
study skills," Alaina O'Rear, eighth grade, said. “I
think AVID will help prepare students for
college, especially if they take AVID in high
school."
For sixth graders, AVID is only taken for a
quarter, but for seventh and eighth graders it is a
whole year.
“AVID helped me become a better student,
and get my homework turned in on time," Molly
Maroney, eighth grade, said.
One of the skills students gain by taking
AVID, is taking good notes. The note system
that AVID uses is Cornell notes, which is
designed to help students take notes that they
can study from.
Mr Snyder said that, “Cornell notes help
students in two primary ways, they help structure
the notes in an easier to understand way and,
they motivate students to return to their notes
deliberately”.
“I don’t enjoy taking notes that way because
you have to put in extra work, but in the end
they really do help me study for my tests”, In
conclusion,
AVID is a class that will help students grow
and be more successful in school, and help get
students get ready for college. It will benefit any
students that have trouble with organization and
need a little extra help. AVID will prepare
students for college and help them with their
organization.

Students learn how to
play floor hockey
Story by Xander George
The seventh grade wellness classes ended third
quarter by playing floor hockey.
The students are learning the basics of floor
hockey.
“It is fun to play and it is good exercise,” Mikey
Kolic, seventh grade, said.
They learned how to pass, shoot, goaltend and
handling. They did this by going to 10 different stations
about these particular skills.
After two classes of these stations, the students
were divided into teams to play a round-robin tournament.
“It is very intense and exciting,” Nate Madden,
seventh grade, stated.
Students enjoyed this sport because some say it
is something different. Seventh grader Karli Cuniffe
said, “I like floor hockey very much, but it is not my
favorite unit. I would rather be doing volleyball.”
“I like teaching this sport, because the students
have fun and get a little competitiveness in them,”
Miss Caitlin Engel, wellness teacher, said.
“I like hockey because I play the sport and
enjoy watching it,” Joseph Youkilis answered.
These students hope to play this sport next year
as eighth graders, so they can improve on this sport.
Former Computer Club has become Coding Club
Story by Max Ruderman and Nisesh Basavareddy
Students at Clay are learning more languages than just Spanish,
French and German. Some
coding languages are JavaScript,
Python, Ruby, C++.
These languages are learned
through Coding club which is a
club that includes sixth, seventh,
and eighth graders that have the
interest in making games, as well
as learning the different coding
languages.
“Coding Club started this
year as a renamed version of
computer club which had been a
club run by Mrs. Alt [A former
computer teacher] for years,” Mr.
Evan Snyder, the Coding Club
Teacher, said. Snyder’s says his
favorite part about Coding Club
is seeing the students' passion of
code come to life.
To join coding club, students don’t need to have any prior
experience.
“Part of coding club is giving opportunities for different
learners to learn code and to get better at different types of
coding,” Snyder said.
Coding Club also gives the
opportunity for students to
meet other students with
similar interests. Abhi
Chalasani, a student in coding
club, said, “I like to work with
people with similar interests
and coding club allows me to
do that.”
Adi Ariyur, a student in
coding club, is currently
working on a platformer in
Scratch, a block-based coding
website, which involves NPC
(An in game character that
has preset code to do actions
automatically). On the
contrary, “Right now we are
going around to different
websites and games to change and create games to learn the code
better,” Abhi, a more casual coder, said.

Inside the Classic: Behind the
scenes of Clay’s student news
Story by Danny Rhoad
The clicking of the keyboards and mice keeps on going. It doesn't
stop. It keeps growing louder and louder. Then it
stops. The stories are finished. The Clay Classic
magazine is done.
People often think that the Clay Classic is only
a magazine. It is a wide variety of news. “We want
to turn it into not just a magazine but a full blown
news organization. We have video
announcements, and a website. We want to give
kids a different way to see news.” Mr. Evan
Williams, journalism advisor said.
Clay Middle School used to be considered a
junior high, and it had a newspaper called The
Clay Junior High Life. That newspaper was under
the direction of Mr. Mark Smith, who is now
Watch this video and take a
tour of the Clay Classic
room.
Clay's assistant principal. Then, 13 years ago,
Clay became a middle school. When Williams
took over as journalism adviser, he told students
to create names for the new newspaper. The
students then came up with two names. The
Clay Classic and the Clay Factor.
The Classic stuck.
Besides the magazine that gets handed out a couple times a
quarter, students design many other things. Eighth grade journalism
student, Nick Frische, said, “We also take pictures, do video
announcements, and make various infographics.” An infographic is a
short story or a visual image such as chart or data to show the reader
some sort of information.
One major hit that the Clay Classic organization has had is video
announcements. Video announcements are aired
every Friday morning. It is an informative program
that tells students and staff what is going on around
the school each week.
“It is used to learn basic broadcasting skills, and give
some entertainment to the school on a Friday
morning.” Williams said. Video announcements is
also the most popular part of the Clay Classic.
Williams hopes to post more interviews and short
broadcast videos on the different social media
websites the Clay Classic is using.
Students are the main base of the Clay Classic. The
students are the workers who are behind the scenes
but also in front of people and
interacting. Students do write stories and make the
newspaper, but they are also in front of the camera
and making different videos for the viewers. “We
have to make a 2 page spread, infographics, video
announcements and all of those contribute to the
Clay Classic.” Frische said.
The Clay Classic is not just a news source. It is
news source that is taking aim at becoming more professional and
exciting to the viewers. Williams said, “Being able to have the kids
create their work, then publish it and put it out tho the viewer is a lot
of fun. This is really no different from a professional news, it's just
with kids.”

Teacher’s
Hidden
Talents
The Clay Classic interviewed random people around
the building to learn more what makes up Clay Middle
Sixth graders
experience iPads first
during third quarter
The school iPads have rolled out to students to
login and start using them. Sixth graders got to get
them first. The students and teachers we’re very
excited about them. Within the month, all grades
had logged in and used them.
Mrs. Sanders, 7th grade wellness teacher, has a
talent no one knows. In high school, Mrs. Sanders
joined a rock band. Whenever her friend from LA
comes in town, Mrs. Sanders gets on the stage, and
sings with her.
Mr. Carr, eighth grade social studies teacher, has
four unknown talents. He can do voice
impressions, had a professional bowling license,
was in a tv commercial, and was in the background
of a movie.
Did you know the 7th grade social studies teacher,
Mr. Stewart is a certified scuba diver? He thinks
it's really relaxing to be in the ocean with fish all
around him. He has scuba dived in Mexico,
Taiwan, Caribbean, and more.
Did you know when Mrs. Nass was in middle
school she rode show horses? Her name was
Chelsea. Mrs. Nass rode her twice a week, and
loved it.
Mrs. Fulp, eighth grade science teacher, does a lot
more than just teach her students about science.
She says that at home to her dogs, she is a dog
whisperer. She can tell when she needs to let her
dog out and it needs fed. She trained her parents
dog within a weekend!
Mrs. Sickles, is a resources IA for the eighth grade.
She's a teacher in school, a knitter, and oil painter
after school. She has been doing this for a couple
of years now, and loves it more and more every
time she starts a new project. She choose these
activities to help her relax.
Miss Martin, eighth language arts teacher, is a very
fast reader. Currently on February 21 , 2017 she
has read a total of almost 14 books this whole
year. She hopes to read a lot more throughout the
year.
Focused on Logging in , Sophie Harris and Mallory
Crinklaw are hard at work in Mrs. Myers sixth grade
Social Studies class. Photo by Kevin Yi
Story by Andrew Caito
and Kevin Yi
During third quarter,
the sixth social studies
students were the first to
use the new school iPads.
Mr. Brian McGuckin,
sixth grade social studies
teacher, said this will be
an exciting thing for the
sixth graders, as well as
everyone else in the
school.
Unlike iPads students
can use at home, the
logins for the school
iPads are more secure
since so many students
use them.
Mallory Crinklaw,
sixth grade, was one of
the first people to use an
iPad during Mrs. Kristi
Myers’ sixth grade social
studies class.
“I like the new
t e c h n o l o g y b e i n g
introduced at Clay this
year,” she said.
She said they are very
easy and fun to use.
She said they used
t h e m t o g a t h e r
information for their
social studies class. We
have used them for
getting information for
activities in social studies.
With all the new
technology available to
students, Crinklaw said
the hardest part is the
passwords.
“Definitely logging on
and remembering all your
passwords and my
Student ID number,” she
said.
¨We have had so
many new technologies
introduced this year, and I
think the iPads will be the
biggest and most fun
technology for them to
use,” McGuckin said.

The Rubik’s Cube has existed for 37 years.
Here are some cool facts about it. Page by
Max Ruderman
The Rubik’s Cube was invented by the Hungarian
Inventor, Ernő Rubik. The first official world
record of 22.95 seconds was set by Minh Thai at
the 1982 World Championship. The current
world record stands at 4.73 seconds by 21 year old
Australian Feliks Zemdegs on December 11 2016.
From 1982-2017 the world record has been
lowered a total of 31 times.
Scrambling: Mixing up the cube in a randomized way.
F2L: Solving the first and second layers simultaneously
by pairing together corners and edges.
CFOP: (Cross, F2L, OLL, PLL) The most common
method of solving the Rubik’s Cube quickly. This
consists of getting a plus sign on a side, solving the rest
of the first two layers simultaneously, making all of the
last layer the same color, and finishing the rest of the
cube.
WCA: World Cube Association
+2: In a competition, if the competitor stops the timer
but the cube is still one move away from being solved,
2 seconds are added onto their time.
When you think of someone solving the
Rubik’s Cube, you think of someone just
solving it with both hands. However in
competitions, there is no shortage of ways to
solve it. These are known as 3x3 subsets.
One-handed. WR: 6.88 seconds
With Feet. WR: 20.57 seconds
Blindfolded. WR: 18.5 seconds
Fewest Moves. WR: 19 moves
Multi-Blind. WR: 41/41, 54:14
Largest Cube Ever Made: 22x22x22
Largest Cube Solved Blindfolded: 9x9x9
Largest Rubik’s Cube Ever: 5.2 feet (1.57
meters)
Largest Mass Produced Cube: 17x17 by the
Holiday Season of 2017 (Currently 13x13)
Smallest Rubik’s Cube Ever: 7/32 inches
(5.6mm)
4x4
5x5
6x6
7x7
4x4 Blindfolded
5x5 Blindfolded
Rubik’s Clock
Skewb
Square-1
Pyraminx
Megaminx
2x2
Since 1982, there have been around 1,500,000
solves in competition on the normal 3x3
Rubik’s Cube alone.
There are about 64 cube producing companies.
The fastest time that someone has solved a
Rubik’s Cube not in a competition, is 3.52
seconds.
Solving a 5x5 Rubik’s Cube blindfolded is an
official event and the world record for it is
currently 4:42.06
The unofficial Multi-Blind world record is
49/50 in under an hour.
There have been approximately 350 million
Rubik’s cubes sold.

The Carmel Distance
Project helps keep
Clay runners in the
race
Story by Jackson Brune
Many middle school runners do not run enough
after their season is over. Runners will be out of
shape when they come back to school in the fall. The
Carmel Distance Project helps these runners,
exploring their skills, while also having lots of fun.
Runners are then in shape when winter comes and
leave the club with a good experience.
The Carmel Distance Project is an after school
running club, going from late October to Early
December. The runners in the project mix from
elementary to high school, although most are in
middle school.
The club met on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:00-
5:30 p.m. at the Carmel High School all the way until
December 10. Every runner in the club joined for a
different reason. Some are trying to get in shape,
while others are shooting for varsity at their school.
The Carmel Distance Project is a locally run
club, featuring different coaches from rivaling middle
schools like Clay and Creekside. One of the coaches
on the project is Miss Allison Martin, a language arts
teacher at Clay middle school. She has been a runner
and coach for 5 years now and she said, “The project
has made me appreciate how talented Carmel
runners are and how different schools can work
together.”
There are a total of about 80 runners in the club,
who usually go on to compete in the USA Track and
Field Junior Olympics representing Carmel.
A runner in the project is Alex Pellegrino, who
also is on the Clay cross country team. He joined the
project because he loves running and has been doing
it for 2 years now. Alex’s favorite aspect about the
experience is that he gets to travel to states like
Florida, Alabama, and Illinois to participate in
regionals, which then leads him to the junior
Olympics.
Lucas Lemme is also a runner on the Carmel
Project who joined to get faster and compete with
friends. He has been a runner since 4th grade and his
favorite thing is running road runs on the Monon
and around Carmel. Lucas also likes winning the
meets at other schools, competing against different
organizations. The Carmel Project has helped him
improve his endurance and speed while also having
lots of fun.
At the practices, the coaches fixed the form of
their runners and pushed them to be their best.
Coaches will plan out courses around Carmel and
runners will be pushing each other to go faster.
The Clay Classic is Clay Middle School’s student
newspaper. It is written, photographed, edited, and
designed by the students in Mr. Evan Williams’
journalism classes. You can also find updates about
Clay on Twitter: @ClayClassic and visit us at
www.clayclassic.today
Clay Middle School
5150 E. 126 St.
Carmel, IN 46033
Administration:
Mr. Todd Crosby, principal
Mr. Mark Smith, assistant principal
Mrs. Lori Katz, assistant principal
Mr. John Corcoran, Jr., activities director