Bloomington High School South, The Gothic, 2005, Page 45

Description:	(Above:) Sophomore Sean Bockdilutes an acid during a titration labin Mr. Rapps chemistry class.Students created their own base toreact with elements. (Right:)Physicsteacher Mr. Blair reviews for thefinal exam with his class. A 3x5notecard was allowed during thetest.ScientificdiscoveriesStory by Lauriel ChambersHere at Bloomington South, strange things happen on the third floor. A fetalpig lies on a table; beakers are filled with dangerous chemicals; flames glowbrightly in a dark classroom. As unique as they may sound, these findings arecommon in Souths science labs. For students, science is an essential part of aschedule, filling at least four of those 42 credits needed to graduate. Whilemany required courses can seem boring and endless, science makes learninghands-on, through labs, projects, and demonstrations.Labs were common in the science classes at South. In Chemistry, studentsturned copper pennies silver by heating them in acid and then turned themgold by applying heat from a flame. In Earth/Space Science, the classidentified various rocks by doing experiments to observe their properties. Inbiology, students took part in the famous fetal pig dissection and examined owlpellets. Labs helped students learn new concepts that would be hard to graspby just reading a textbook. [I like labs because] you can make your ownconclusions, instead of having someone else do it, sophomore Nick Covey said.Though science classes did have effective teaching methods, there were timeswhen things didnt exactly go as planned. The situation was a classdemonstration, and what I thought the concentration was, it was not, causingthe demonstration to not work. Of course it was me who didnt label the bottle,chemistry teacher Paul Farmer said. Students had their share of mishaps too.The second day [of life science] I dropped my pencil, leaned to the right to pickit up, and the desk just completely flipped over, and everybody was laughing.The sub had to come over and help me pick it up, freshman Kelly Coveyrecalled. The noticeably small desks in the science rooms were the source ofmany student complaints.While some students viewed science classes as just a fact of life, others tookthem intending to use that knowledge in a future career. Although theirmotives were varied, students in science classes were all given the samethings: the skills required to draw conclusions and the knowledge needed tobetter understand their world.Science 43
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomsouth/id/7320
Collection:	Bloomington High School South

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