Ever since its release just over five months ago, Fortnite Battle Royale has been dominating the video game world. The online third person shooter game has already attracted 45 million players.Epic Games, Fortnite’s developer describes the game simply as “one giant map. A battle bus. Fortnite building skills and destructible environments combined with intense PvP combat. The last one standing wins.” Most people can get the jist of the game with only a short explanation.

In the most recent “AP Report to the Nation,” data released by the College Board revealed that many Advanced Placement courses across the country are dominated by one particular gender. Although this report analyzed AP tests taken by the Class of 2013, data from Burlingame High School’s 2018 spring semester shows that some AP courses on campus are still overwhelmingly taken by one gender.

Jim Chin just might be the most interesting person ever to have set foot on Burlingame High School’s campus. The AP European and Modern World history teacher is the teacher-advisor for BHS’ Model United Nations (Model U.N.) club, the Teacher-Coach of BHS’ Mock Trial team, and an absurdly fast grader of student work. He has also fended off a gang of muggers with a foam sword.

Of the many cryptocurrencies, currencies that are based on computer generated encryption, Bitcoin is the quickest growing and most popular, leaving some wondering about the function and legitimacy of it.Bitcoin was introduced in 2009 by a mysterious computer programmer with the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Since then, the currency has seen an explosive but volatile exponential growth, from one bitcoin valued at $0.06 in 2009 to one bitcoin costing $9,000 in 2018.

One hundred and one year-old Carroll Schmidt remembers a time in Burlingame when fire engines were horse-drawn, the town had dirt roads and William H. Crocker would ride down Floribunda Avenue on a horse and throw toffee candies down to the town’s children.“It was like a chicken feed,” Schmidt said. “It was really something to see.”

Athletic teams on campus have seen a decline in commitment, specifically from underclassmen. Not as many students are going out for sports and if they are, then they are not making practices. Athletic director John Philipopoulos has seen that students are not giving sports their full commitment or not participating in sports all together.  

Middle college is an alternative education program that is held at the College of San Mateo. There, students are able to take high school courses as well as ones offered by CSM  to earn both high school and college credit.“High school is not for everyone and people should be able to have the opportunity to transfer to other schools if they think that BHS is not the right fit for them,” said college and career advisor Jonathan Dhyne.

Athletic teams on campus have seen a decline in commitment, specifically from underclassmen. Not as many students are going out for sports and if they are, then they are not making practices. Athletic director John Philipopoulos has seen that students are not giving sports their full commitment or not participating in sports all together.  

In early October, a series of fires swept through the Wine Country; aided by strong winds and arid conditions. Thousands of acres of land were scorched by these fires that burned through everything in their paths. When such an event happens only an hour or so away from Burlingame, those who live near can only wonder whether or not such an event could ever happen here, and what they can do to help prevent it.

So far, 2017 has been a great year for the Iron Panthers, Burlingame’s robotics team. In this semester alone, the “student-built, student-run” team has beaten a world champion team sponsored by NASA, competed in semifinals and finals, and even won a tournament by a huge margin on Nov. 19.

The holidays are not the only time to give back to the community. In fact, many local food businesses donate their extra food at the end of the day to charities all year long. The Samaritan House is a popular charity of choice for businesses such as Safeway, The Cakery and Kara’s Cupcakes.

The following is an interview with Mr. Migdow, long-term substitute for Ms. Berglund.

Football and basketball games are staples of Burlingame culture. At the peak of the fall and winter sports seasons, a student’s typical Friday night usually consists of cheering on the players and following the games.

All students feel the immense stress of school. There are tests, homework assignments, extracurricular activities, projects, college applications and more. But how can this stress be managed? Teachers often dump all of this on students without real solutions to them. However, Spanish teacher Sr. Martinez works to help students manage their stress with his weekly meditation classes.

Walking past school after the final bell, it is common to see cars full of students and their friends driving off campus, blasting music, and heading home after a long day. Whether they know it or not, these students are breaking a basic California driving law. California is one of the few states that imposes a restriction on all minors’ driver’s licenses that restricts their ability to drive around friends and younger family members.

The Band of the West is the only sea cadet band in the United States. Six Burlingame High students play with the band: Lilli Hirth, Madison Kong, Verona Teo, Vanessa Teo, Ella Tarara, and Madelyn Tarara.Band of the West is a unit of the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps, which is a youth program sponsored by the Navy that teaches “leadership, musicianship, basic seamanship, courage, self-reliance, and discipline,” according to the band’s official website.

The problem of test overlap has become a serious concern for students, and the implementation of a more regulated test schedule is a necessity.The United States Department of Education has declared boundaries for teachers to abide by when assigning and creating tests. Some of the testing regulations include limiting the amount of tests students take to maximize learning time, accurately track the progress of students and equally represent a student’s needs.

The College Board has adopted an indispensable role in high schools and the college application process.For many Burlingame High School students, the month of May is a frenzied cycle of crash courses, practices tests and the AP exams. The College Board regulates these AP exams and also controls the SAT and SAT subject tests that are required from each student who wishes to apply to college.

Psychology is a long-established class, but this is the first year students are doing semester-long 20% Time Projects which are in-depth research projects about any psychology-related topic. The idea is that students spend 20% of their time in the class on the project.

On Tuesday, Oct. 24, sophomore Brendan Creeks spent the last hundred yards of his cross country race stumbling and crawling to the finish, barely getting one hand across the line before race officials had to carry him off the course. He earned first place, finishing just three seconds before the next runner, before completely collapsing.

The Animal Rights club will be screening the movie “101 Dalmatians” on Dec. 8 in the alumni room in order to raise awareness for their cause.The movie tells the story of a litter of dalmatian puppies who are kidnapped by the villainous Cruella de Vil, who wants to use their fur to make into coats.

Despite belief that students’ privacy at school is protected by the 4th Amendment, students at school have few to no rights guaranteed by the 4th Amendment according to state, district and school policy.