Solar Car team drives towards new goals

By Kristen Shepard Staff Writer A dedicated group of students uses welding tools, wires and wheels work in a place where the sky is the limit. The Coppell Solar Car team is unlike any high school organization and is planning success in their future by driving full speed ahead. Under the guidance of Mike Yakubovsky, the 43-member Solar Car team is one of the best in the nation. This group of high school students aspires to compete with the top engineering colleges and corporations in the world, and their hard work and dedication is putting them on track to do so. The solar car team has a past of success and high-performance. Each year, the…

Yakubovsky, Engineering department round off a great year

By Lance McCaskey Staff Writer The hard work and determination of STEM Academy lead teacher and Solar Team coach Mike Yakubovsky made this summer one for the record books for the engineering department. Yakubovsky led the Solar Car team to Texas Motor Speedway for the Solar Car Challenge. Every year the Winston Solar Car Team gives out awards, and the Randall Murphy Award is considered one of the most prestigious. It is given to the teacher who they feel inspires not only their team, but also the entire Solar Car community to do the best they can. The committee felt Yakubovsky encompassed the entire award and has earned his success through his work. “It was…

Solar car team races into competition

Laura Kattilakoski Staff Writer Building cars is typically left to the professionals, but the members of Coppell High School’s engineering team have spent hours upon hours after school to complete their very own solar car for a national competition. “[Solar car is] basically a group of students all around the country that come together, and every team builds their car from scratch,” senior assistant mechanical lead Sagar Patel said. “You do your design work and your own kind of machine shop and make a car that runs successfully off of just solar energy and race it.” To compete, each team must build a car that runs purely on solar powered batteries. The competition this year…

Open House tonight to feature another year of student excellence

Ashley Attanucci Web Manager Coppell High School is holding its annual Open House event for all parents and students to visit the halls of CHS after hours and revisit students’ works from this year. Doors will open at 6:30, but families can come and go as they please until close at 8:30. Teachers will showcase students’ works in classrooms and hallways, and parents will have the opportunity to hear raving reviews about their students. It’s a night to meet and get to better know teachers and what students have accomplished since August. All teachers are required to attend Open House, and all administrators will be in attendance as well, so don’t miss out on this…

Engineering Expo inspires aspiring engineers

Laura Kattilakoski Staff Writer With today’s world being so technology oriented, it seems reasonable to assume that engineers make up a growing number of the population. However, in reality, the numbers of engineers are actually dwindling. Every year, Coppell High School hosts an Engineering Expo to get students excited about the possibilities in an engineering field. This year’s expo takes place on November 7. It will feature guest speakers, as will as engineering projects taking place at CHS. These projects include a solar car, an underwater ROV (which as a remote operated vehicle), among other robot and rocket projects. Last year’s expo had about 2000 attendees, and Coppell’s School of Engineering hopes that many more…

CHS to introduce Career Academies for incoming freshmen

By Daphne Chen Starting with the Class of 2015, CHS will be introducing Career Academies in order to encourage freshmen who already have an interest in a certain career. The three academies are the Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Academy headed by science teacher Mike Yakubovsky, the Public Services Academy headed by science teacher Brenda Brinkman and the Emerging Media and Communications Academy (EMAC) headed by KCBY-TV director Irma Kennedy. This new model is part of the Strategic Planning process that began in October 2006 as part of an effort to create smaller learning communities within CHS. “We realized that you can’t just motivate kids,” CISD Superintendent Dr. Jeff Turner said at a Jan….

Engineering fundraiser to be the Main Event

By Ashleigh Heaton Entertainment Editor This Sunday, Jan. 24, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., Main Event Lewisville will be hosting a fundraiser benefiting CHS’s School of Engineering. However, to get into the event, you must present an invitation at the door (sort of like a Golden Ticket, for all you Wonka fans out there.) The invitation is good for four people and allows you to buy a package of unlimited bowling, billiard, laser tag, glow golf, rock climbing, gravity ropes course, and a $5 FUNcard for only $20 per person. For each package purchased, $5 will be donated to the engineering program here at Coppell High. Main Event Lewisville is located at 2070 S….

FIRST robotics kickoff this Saturday

by Divya Kumar News Editor This Saturday, December 9th, kicks off the start of FIRST Robotics competition. Nationwide,  high school teams have the opportunity to begin preparing for the competition, which will take place six weeks later. At the Kickoff, the CHS FIRST team can meet up with other teams around the area in order to compare notes, pick up the Kit of Parts, which contains the necessary components in order to build the robot, as well as getting to know other people in other schools and districts competing. Over the course of the six month course, the FIRST group members will be asked to design a robot to fulfill certain required tasks at the competition…

Engineering Expo provides potential possibilities for engineering students

Story by Melissa Brisco Video by Haley Powers Hovercraft bowling, rocket launch simulations and meeting with prestigious colleges and companies make for a fun and educational Sunday. The Coppell School of Engineering hosted the annual Engineering Expo Sunday, Nov. 15. The Engineering Expo is a free event that is put on for high school and middle school students interested in exploring engineering and learning more about not only the classes offered at the high school, but also about the colleges and universities that offer competitive engineering programs and the companies that offer high paying and exciting careers in the engineering field. The event took place from 1 to 3:30 p.m. in the Coppell High School…