PLTW Biomedical Innovation Class - Student Research and Design Solutions to a Problem of Interest  
In the spring, The Kansas City Stem Alliance hosts a Capstone Competition for the Greater Kansas City area where students can enter their projects into three different categories and present them to judges who are specialists in that particular field of science. Due to Covid-19, the event looked a little different this year, but the students were able to present their projects virtually.  

Three Categories:

1. Biomedical Research and Design (Placed top 10 out of 164 teams)

          Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Blood Screening by:

          Cole Hadley
           Yahya Ahmed

2. Biomedical Engineering Design (Placed 7th out of 95 Teams)

          Early Detection of Ectopic Pregnancies by:

          Abby Wagner
           Sage Lagud
           Jillian Shepard    

3. Innovation Design Award (Placed top 8 out of 77 teams)

          The Effect of CRISPR-Cas12b Genome Editing on the CCR5-Δ32 Mutation By:

          Elizabeth Simcoe
           Tyler Petty

          Early Detection of Ectopic Pregnancies by:

          Abby Wagner
           Sage Lagud
           Jillian Shepard      

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Liberty North High School took first place in both Readers Theatre and One Act District competitions.  Both teams will compete at the State competitions in April.

The One-Act was a cutting of the full winter play, The Diary of Anne Frank, which tells the true story of several Jewish people who hid during the Nazi persecution of Jews.  Hannah Samson was Student Director, and students Margaret Reams and Ayriana Haney coordinated costumes. David Young was Director, with Rebecca Dempsey as Assistant Director.

The Readers Theatre production, I Wish You Water, used humor and dramatic narrative to illustrate the importance of water around the world. Riley Berkland and Braden Presser were Student Directors, and students Simon Whitsitt, Jake Hagen, and Braden Presser worked with the group on musical underscoring. Kim Lenger was Director.

More than 60 students worked on costumes, set, props, lighting, sound, stage managing, and set crew to bring these winning productions to life.

Owen Adrian – nominated by Curt Kelly (2^nd year)
Owen is building apps for businesses in Liberty, including his Ordering App for Coffee Shops. He is pursuing other ideas that he is trying to turn in to a profitable endeavor. He is very innovative and creative and has learned how to communicate with customers and potential customers.

Piper Baldwin - nominated by Tim Anderson
Piper has already created two businesses. One is a makeup business, and she has traveled to clients in other cities even. The other is an eBay business that allows her to raise money for her travel expenses for the makeup business.

Jackson Bridgeman – nominated by Kristi Soligo Fleshman
Jackson started his business when he was 13 years old - 7 years later, he has a full-blown residential, commercial lawn and landscape business. He is smart, driven, humble, kind and has a great head on his shoulders. This young man deserves recognition for his hard work and tenacity to keep going when the going gets tough!

Cal & Brett Buchanan – nominated by Lorraine Buchanan
Cal & Brett are brothers that started a bait company together 2 years ago. They make custom fishing baits and sell them online to individuals across the country. They work on the business independently and fill and ship all orders themselves during the summer, on weekends, and after school.

Megan Day – nominated by Ashlyn Pope, Melissa Taylor & Julie Day
Megan is an exceptional self-taught photographer who offers her services to quite a few people in the Liberty and greater KC. Her goal is to capture candid, airy, and natural images, which are well-represented on her website.

Madeline Hand – nominated by Christopher Hand
Maddy's Official Photography located in Liberty, Missouri, is run by 10-year-old Madeline Hand. She started her photography business over 9 months ago with a focus on using local girls to model for pictures. This is meant to empower young girls to help instill confidence and to feel good about themselves. 

Paiton Hodges – nominated by Christopher Hand
Paiton's cupcakes are delicious and unique. Her motto of "Made with love and guaranteed to make you happy!" shines through her enthusiastic entrepreneurial spirit. She is a smart, unique and determined business owner that enjoys sharing her love of cupcakes with the Liberty area.

Brandon Homan  – Jodi Homan
Brandon was nominated, because he can handle his responsibilities of owning a lawn mowing business and has hired his brother. He keeps his grades up and can handle his sports schedule plus be involved in his Scout troop. He is also involved with FCCLA and National Honor Society.

Grant Houston – nominated by Jane Stanley (2^nd year)
Grant has always been interested in finding ways to make money. At the end of his seventh-grade year, his aunt introduced him to selling on eBay and he began by selling used clothing and sporting goods. This year through Northland CAPS, he started a drive to collect shoes for the less fortunate and has collected close to 200 pairs.

Savana Lee – nominated by Jeffrey Lee
Savana built and sold a food truck business, as well as, launched her own makeup line and mobile beauty salon by the age of 19. 

Addyson Moffitt – nominated by Bryan Moffitt (2nd year)
Addyson participates in the Girls on the Run program and is an excellent student and leader within her school. She has raised over $58,000 for clean water for kids in Africa in two-years! She was the leading fundraiser for Team World Vision in the Kansas City area and the 5th highest fundraiser in the entire United States.

Mitchell Neth – nominated by Jared Mellema (2^nd year)
Mitchell began serving with us at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church when he was in 6th grade. It was at that time that we realized a distinct ability to use technology to tell impactful stories. His influence is seen throughout Liberty outside of his work at Pleasant Valley, in his work with Niles media group, and various projects at LHS.

Grace Priebe – nominated by Jeanette Priebe
Grace formed Priebe Pampered Pets 3 years ago.  She is the heart and soul of the company. I consider myself her business manager. She is very hands-on with the business, and I am her right-hand woman. We have had 8 dogs at once, and we have been booked every summer from mid-May until school starts.

Neeley “Bryant” Schmitz – nominated by Jeffrey Lee
From a young age, Bryant developed creative ways to earn money. When he turned 14, he started his lawn and landscape company. His business began to grow rapidly. He started with residential mowing in the Liberty area, but now services both residential and commercial customers throughout the KC metro area.

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Liberty North High School Wins 3^rd at State One Act Competition

Liberty North High School theatre teens’ one-act production of Quilters won 3^rd place out of the top 15 One Act shows in the state.  They ranked first in their first round of seven shows and tied for 2^nd among the top four shows, just two rating points behind the show that was awarded 2^nd place.  Most of the 12 actresses had never had a speaking line or featured moment in a high-school show.

Lily Weaver earned Best Supporting Actress for her emotional portrayal of a young mother whose husband died working on the railroad.  Quilting helped her deal with her grief and embrace life again.

Actresses Elizabeth and Margaret Reams led several of the cast in making most of the 34 quilt blocks, 12 aprons, 24 apron pocket patches, and 12 bonnets.  Margaret and Elizabeth also coordinated costumes.  Actress Hannah Samson staged a scene, and actress Megan Day coordinated most of the props.  Student Nik Baumert conducted the band of seven students, which provided underscoring and scene-change music.  Student Alexa Stein was Stage Manager.  Students Nadia Higareda and Ben Varnell designed and ran lights; students Ben Madrigal and Molly Blackburn designed and ran sound effects.  Students also ran spotlights, organized backstage, and helped with setting up and taking down the set.

One week before the competition, the teens discovered they had been assigned to a stage which was too small for their set.  So they redesigned their set and lights and changed their blocking to fit the new space.

Rebecca Dempsey was the director, and David Young was technical director.  Gretchen Reams supervised the construction of the quilt blocks.