Two visiting Sengalese artists spent Monday morning with students who study French for an in-house field trip. Zeinixx, a graffiti artist and poet, and Karismatik Diksa, a hip-hop producer and rapper, are both Global Artists in Residence at Arts For Humanity Voices in Boston. The event was sponsored by Milton’s Francine L. Bustin Memorial Fund.

The morning began with a screening of compilations from the “Democracy In Dakar” documentary, which showed how the vibrant music and art scene in the Sengalese city inspired a youth voting movement. Then Zeinixx and Diska spoke in French about the work they do and answered students’ questions in both French and English.

Emma Bradley ’20 and Kiran Biddinger ’20 wanted to perform a “complicated” lab experiment for the Honors Biology class they took as juniors. One year later, their findings have been published in a scientific journal.

“It was really difficult to figure out what we were going to do,” Bradley said. “We were in the lab all the time, for weeks straight.”

Their report, “Temperatures of 20°C produce increased net primary production in Chlorella sp.” was accepted by the Journal of Emerging Investigators, a monthly publication that features the work of middle school, high school, and college students. The work must be sponsored by a faculty member—the duo’s sponsor was Science Department Chair Julie Seplaki—and undergo an extensive editing process before it can be published.

The robotics team is on a roll this year, with three robots qualifying for the U.S. Open Robotics Championship in Iowa in April. Under the leadership of team captains Diego Domenig ’20, Avery Miller ’20, and Tony Tao ’20, the team participates in VEX Robotics, which challenges students to design and build robots that compete against others in a small arena where the robots complete certain tasks for points.

Freshman Ryan Shue, who drives one of the robots, says, “It’s great to work with people who have the same interests as you. And it’s a fun way to apply that interest in and knowledge of engineering.”

The Winter Dance Concert represents the best mix of creativity and physical prowess at Milton, says Nyla Sams ’20, a dancer and choreographer in this year’s performance.

“It combines music, culture, athleticism, and beautiful visuals into two entertaining hours,” she says. “Also, everyone is in dance concert! You have die-hard theater kids and football players on the same stage. Everyone is there to support one another and have fun, so the energy is just amazing.”

Respectful disagreement is essential in a functional democracy, Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons told students.

“The best way that we can do what is best for our citizens is to have open and frank discussions about what we need to do,” said Mr. Lyons, who spoke at the Conservative Club assembly. “We can disagree and respect one another. We don’t have to be angry about the things we believe in, but we should stand up for what we believe in.”

A “remarkable” number of student writers and artists were recognized in the Massachusetts Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the nation’s longest-running competition to identify creative talent among students. Thirty-one students earned 43 writing honors and 19 students earned 34 art honors. Last week, Ms. Baker and Mr. Nobles announced the winners at assembly.

In writing, Anne Kwok ’21 received numerous awards in poetry and fiction including three Gold Keys, one Silver Key, and one Honorable Mention. For her poem “Aubade For My Sister,” she also received an American Voices and Visions Medal, the highest regional Scholastic honor.

“It is one of the more abstract poems I’ve written,” said Anne, who currently takes the creative writing course and the poetry half course. “I’m experimenting with new forms of writing and exploring different poetry forms.”

What is the absolute likelihood for a continuous random variable to equal an exact value?

As they listened to their peers present their group projects, students in emily bargar’s Accelerated Calculus class agreed that the answer is zero. This was just one facet of Phoebe Mugford ’21 and Allison Reilly’s’ ’20 impressive presentation titled “Probability Density Functions and Radioactive Decay.” After an overview and examples of probability density functions, the two presented their findings on the probabilities on how particular atoms will decay at given times.

Ms. bargar said all of the projects had to involve something about integrals, using their textbook as a starting point for ideas. For their project, Noah Lippa ’22, John Matters ’22 and Charlie Volpe ’20 used integrals to find the center of mass of shapes. They built three shapes—a 2D plate, a pyramid shape, and a complex 3D shape—and then found their center of mass, showing the resulting formulas as well as photos of the shapes balanced on the top of a standing whiteboard marker.

Using research conducted on three continents, Jana Amin ’21 has been working for nearly two years to deepen the understanding of a twentieth-century Egyptian princess whose story was only partially told.

Princess Fawzia Fuad, at one point the queen of Iran, received worldwide attention for her beauty—she was often compared with Western movie stars—during the glamorized coverage of her 1939 political marriage to Iran’s crown prince, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

It’s been an impressive season for the girls’ swim team, who have won their last five meets. This past weekend at the Eastern International Swimming and Diving Championships in Pennsylvania, the team placed 12th out of a field of 28. Team captains Mary Howley ’20 and Leydn McEvoy ’20 both placed in the top 8th in their individual events–Mary with 2nd in the 100 butterfly and 4th in the 100 backstroke and Leydn with 6th in the 500 free and 8th in the 200 IM.

Both the girls’ and boys’ teams are often out of the spotlight, practicing and competing off campus throughout the winter season. These dedicated swimmers spend long hours in the water, working hard to improve their form and times. So Mary and Leydn make it a point to instill some fun into the practices and meets.

“This year, to get our team members more excited to do well at meets, we started offering candy prizes,” said Mary, who competes in the 100 backstroke, 100 fly medley and the 400 relay. “Everyone who swims the 500, the longest race, gets a ring pop. And after every meet on the bus ride home, we choose an MVP for boys and girls, and there are more prizes.”

The student one-act plays are a venue for student directors and actors to showcase their wide-ranging talents on and off stage. This year there are three one-acts, completely directed, performed, and tech-supported by students.

Brie Lewis ’20 and Eloise Maybank ’21 are directing No More Mister Nice Guy featuring four actors: Owen GwinnLandry ’23, Alex Paulino ’21, Talia Sherman ’22, and Nancy Tao ’23.

Eloise said the play is centered on the character Sheldon Grimes. “He is the pinnacle of goodness, but he finds himself in serious trouble with the law, his crime being this very virtue of kindness. Sheldon must work to rectify his behavior, with help from two cops and a ‘professional.’”

Eloise said that the dystopian society reflected in the play, which is written by Jonathan Rand, “not only lends itself to hilarity but presents underlying commentary on corruption within today’s justice system plagued with profiling. It begs the audience to ponder what truly is good—the law or what you personally believe to be right. We chose this play because of this nuance and, of course, because it made us laugh really hard. We hope everyone enjoys it!”