High School News – February 2023
This month was full of hard work, delicious treats, and persuading speeches. Our high school, along with the middle school, had a day of service at Camp Maranatha. It was a time for them to be Servant Workers to help support a camp who ministers to hundreds of people throughout the year. It was incredible watching the students go outside of themselves to serve others. They took this task very seriously and did an incredible job of being the hands and feet of Jesus. They did tasks such as wood stacking, cleaning, organizing, emptying spaces, and baking. Each student had a job to do that was important and helpful, and the high schoolers were good role models for the younger members in their work crews.
The yearbook team has been very busy collecting pictures, proofreading names, creating pages, and advertising their yearbook sales all year long. Believe it or not, the yearbook had to be submitted for print before we left for winter break! We can’t wait to see all the hard work and effort the team has put into the yearbook–it is a beautiful representation of our incredible school commUNITY.
In art class, the high schoolers finished the paper mâché projects they started with Mrs. Buck. Those who finished earlier sketched wooden figures in different poses: stationary, action, etc. After these projects were finished, they moved on to a new student-led project. This came about after a class discussion about different types of art they would be interested in learning more about and trying for themselves.
Baking class has been a blast this year. They have baked so many fun desserts. Some have come out delicious and other were a total flop. The students are learning how to follow a recipe and how to work together for a tasty result!
In chemistry students began the hard work of stoichiometry. It combined what they learned in the last five units, and let’s be honest, it is hard. There were many understandings that had to be employed as students navigated the math and different types of chemical reactions. Why do we study stoichiometry? Most people will never use these complex understandings of elements ever again unless they sit in a college chemistry class or go on to a field in chemistry, however, doing something hard is good for all of us to wrestle with and helps set students up for success when the next challenge comes. Biology students finished a long unit on genetics. God’s design in our cells and the structure of DNA is awe-inspiring! The precision and mechanics of replication, translation, and transcription point to our God who has created incredible order and beauty in the way living things function. This month they also began the follow up unit on heredity, which helped students understand more about God’s order and themselves. Why are their eyes more like mom’s than dad’s? Why is their sister so tall? How come my earlobes are detached like my Aunt Sally’s? Through both of these classes, high schoolers continue to marvel at who God is and how he is inviting them to participate in his story (the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth)–Ps 19:1-4.
This month in Humanities: Civics and Social Systems, students dived deeply into the U.S Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and other foundational documents of the American government. They first studied the foundational philosophies upon which the United States was founded and then looked at the application of those ideals. How did they do this? First, they combed through the Declaration of Independence, identified ideas such as popular sovereignty, consent of the governed, and the right of revolution. With the war for independence over, students looked at the first attempt made at a nationally unified government under the Articles of Confederation and how this is supplanted by the U.S. Constitution. Students in Humanities: Migration and Change studied the French Revolution this month—a time of immense change in world history which some historians have called the dividing line of history—the moment when modernity began and the old ways ended. The death of the king (Louis XVI), the Reign of Terror, and the rise of an empire (under Napoleon Bonaparte) ushered in the Age of Revolution whose effects can still be felt today in politics and society. From this point in history, rapid and unprecedented development occurred in the industrial revolution- where our upper-class students found themselves in a world of new ideas and new inventions. During some of their classes, they used the skills of persuasive rhetoric and confident body language, which they had been working on, to deliver individual speeches. While they attempted to sell an invention from the 19th century, the real lesson learned was how to speak to a crowd, how to display confidence, and how to convince other people with carefully selected words.
Way to go high school. Enjoy your winter break!
