Which subject is the most boring to you? If you had to do a very boring task in class, how would you make it more interesting? Jessica Yee, 273, asked these questions of her peers when researching student boredom last summer as part of Central's Advanced Research Program.

Educational researchers (and educators) already know boredom is a big problem. The enduring question is how to combat it. Jessica, who worked with a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor, decided to look for "factors that positively and negatively correlate with boredom and academic achievement," and to discover what anti-boredom strategies students employ. She used free online survey software to devise her open-ended questions, and she created her own multiple-choice questions as well. Then, following best practices, she launched a pilot survey of 10 Facebook friends.

Once school started, she upped the ante by publicizing the survey in the CHS Bulletin and offering community service credit for it.

She currently has about 75 completed responses but wants 200 before she starts her analysis. However, especially for the CHS Home & School Association newsletter, she ventured some preliminary conclusions from her raw data:

- History is the most boring subject.

- Teaching methods are the main reasons for student boredom.

- Students alleviate boredom through group work with other students or multitasking, such as listening to music while working.

- Personal educational goals, such as getting good grades and going to a good college, motivate students to put up with boredom.

"A lot said they would rather work in groups with their friends," Jessica noted. "They didn't like that teachers lecture, just stand in front and talk, talk, talk, talk."

Jessica, whose favorite subject happens to be history, expects to be working on her boredom research for the rest of her Central career. In the immediate future, however, she's focused on the numbers: "I might put the survey in the Bulletin at least one more time," she said. "I know community service is due in May, and people are probably running around looking for hours."

Keeping a well-guarded secret until air time on Friday, April 20, 2012, Central students hit Manhattan to star in MTV's "The Substitute." The Substitute is a game show which pits teams of 10 high school students against each other in sometimes bizarre contests testing both academic and pop culture knowledge. The show sought out Central students some months ago, with the prize of $5,000 in the balance. Lori DeFields, Vice Principal in charge of student affairs, tells of the difficult selection process where 20 students from class 271 were selected by MTV producers from approximately 120 eligible students: "It was very difficult to choose from so many good students, but when MTV approached me, I couldn't pass up the chance for a Central student to earn $5,000 for college."

MTV loosely categorized this contest as the "Drama Club" versus the "The Paper," and the Central students, seated in an MTV "classroom," responded to questions with correct answers running the gamut from "Sigmund Freud" to "Paulie D." In round one, students were tested on "Things You Know," and in round two on "Things You Should Know." In round three, five semi-finalists endured a "Torture Session" where, with their feet in a bucket of ice water, each shouted out all they knew about Disney princesses and the most commonly used words in the English language in 45 seconds, all while rotating in a chair with ice cubes dropping on their heads.

Christeva Smith, who knows her princesses, won and went to the final round, a Family Feud-style contest against the "People's Choice," Katey Schatz, the student voted by the rest to battle Christeva. In a close round, Christeva and Katey guessed the most popular teen answers to compelling issues of the day, such as "Who is the hottest member of 'The Jersey Shore' cast?" and "How many remote controls are in the average teen's bedroom?" Christeva edged Katey out to take top honors and win the $5,000. Katey also won 10 iPod Boomboxes for each of her "The Paper" team members. Daniel Wilhite, a "Torture Session" contestant, thought the whole experience "was awesome." Daniel said he enjoyed seeing "what really goes into filming a national show, where a couple hours of taping are edited down to 20 minutes... "Although taped March 2, all involved were sworn to secrecy. Now that it has aired, those who missed the fun can catch up and watch the show on MTV's website.

Mr. Jonathan Fabrey, IB coordinator at Central, has a unique and exciting opportunity for the International Baccalaureate juniors (272). The IB World Student Conference at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver will take place this July. The junior IB class is a phenomenal collection of bright, creative, open-minded students. There are about 10 students who are very interested in making this trip. The cost of the conference is $800, plus about $500 for the flight. Anyone who can help him get in touch with individuals or local companies that might be interested in supporting our students, please contact Mr. Fabrey.

Newsletter staffers: Interested in working on the newsletter? Contact Dave Kalkstein.