Eighth-graders learn about courses at Electives Fair
Eighth-graders from Warwick Valley Middle School visited Warwick Valley High School for the Electives Fair on Tuesday, February 11th to get a feel for the many course choices – beyond the core curriculum – that are available to them next year and beyond.
“Providing students with an opportunity to learn more about the courses and to discuss them with current students in this type of forum results in a better outcome for the student as they begin to register for courses in the high school,” said Dr. David Leach, Superintendent.
In the high school’s Media Center, the eighth-graders visited stations that were set up for biomedical science, arts, music, computer science, Future Farmers of America and robotics and led by students who are in the classes. The eighth-graders, learning about the elective offerings in each of the areas, will be registering for next year’s courses shortly.
“I feel if you really enjoy this stuff and you want to use this for college or something, this is definitely the class you should take because even now I use this in my real life,” Lila Vega, a junior, told a group of students. Vega was one of four high school students showing the eighth-graders about biomedical sciences. “Now that I’ve taken classes, I see it and it’s definitely worth it.”
“This is project-based, self-directed learning,” teacher Eric Tillinghast said of the biomedical sciences program. In the program, students can take one course per year from 10th to 12th grade.
They can earn college credits and do college-level labs. “It’s a lot of nice exposure that most high school students don’t get the opportunity to do.”
Vega likes the hands-on nature of the courses. “It’s a lot of projects and working hands-on with dissection. With a bone, we identified what gender and what age (the person was).”
