Stories this week at Wake Forest

High Schoolers from 35 States to Debate

Wake Forest’s debate team will host the National Earlybird Forensics Tournament Sept. 11-13. More than 160 high school debate and speech squads will arrive on Friday, Sept. 11, from 35 states to compete in the three-day season opener. They will compete in three debate categories (Championship-team, Junior Varsity-team, and Lincoln-Douglas) and seven individual categories (Impromptu, Extemporaneous, Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Duo-Interpretation, Original Oratory, and Congress). Competitions will take place at three venues: Wake Forest (in Carswell Hall), North Forsyth High School and Mt. Tabor High School. Students will give more than 2,000 individual speeches and compete in nearly 800 rounds of debate during the weekend. The registration tent will be set up at Wake Forest in front of Carswell Hall from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 11. The awards ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13, in the Magnolia Courtyard. Contact the News Service for a complete schedule of the weekend’s events.

Nobel Laureate to Speak at Opening Convocation

Oscar Arias Sanchez, former president of Costa Rica and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, will deliver the Opening Convocation address, “Diversity, Globalization, and Human Security: A Call to Responsibility,” at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, in Wait Chapel. Immediately following convocation, Sanchez will be available for questions during a brief press conference in Reynolda Hall, Room 208. The free, public event will officially begin the Year of Globalization and Diversity, a yearlong series of events focused on the world’s development into a more global community.

Astronaut Brings Toys in Space to Earth

Former astronaut Rhea Seddon will help more than 1,400 North Carolina students learn important physics principles with some of their favorite toys Tuesday, Sept. 21. “Toys in Space” is a Science STARS program at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum Annex. During the 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. program, students will watch videotape of astronauts in space playing with Slinkies and other familiar toys as they test out the same toys on Earth. “Toys in Space” features Seddon, a veteran of three shuttle flights-including one of NASA’s first “Toys in Space” payloads in 1985 aboard the Shuttle Discovery. The program also features Carolyn Sumners, director of astronomy at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences and author of the best-selling “Toys in Space” curriculum developed from the NASA experiments. To arrange interviews of Seddon or Sumners, contact Sharon Carter at 750-0233. Science STARS is an affiliated program of Wake Forest University.

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