With this remarkable school year ending, students reflect on some of their favorite projects from the 2023-24 school year.
Throughout the year, students have accomplished incredible things. Now that May is finally here, it is time to reflect on past projects that have enlightened students. Junior Gavin Hadley said that his EDD class has been an eye-opening experience.
“I think [my favorite project was] EDD, because the whole class is one massive project, and that whole process has just been really fun,” Hadley said.
Final projects have become more popular with time, and are especially used in elective classes to take stress off students. Sophomore Natalie Owen said her favorite final project was making a gingerbread landscape for Horticulture l. It was enjoyable because it was hands-on and very tasty.
“Before this unit, my designs always looked too busy and out of order but this project helped me learn how to bring all the points of landscape design together into something that looks good,” Owen said.
Classes that are for students who enjoy a challenge teach the importance of staying caught up and also time management. These important lessons are taken with them through high school and out into the real world.
“I learned that time management is really important and it’s also nice to stay organized as well, which are things that I haven’t been very good at in the past,” Hadley said.
More relaxed classes such as Horticulture l allows many students to try new things. Another class that is very intriguing to students is the rhetoric of horror class is only offered to seniors and also counts as an English credit. Senior, Kinsley Peterson, said her favorite project from the class was writing her very own horror story.
“I would say writing the horror story [was my favorite project] in the rhetoric of horror because Faythe let us use creative liberty and we got to write about something that scared us. Which isn’t something you normally do in classes,” Peterson said.
Student-led projects tend to be more favorable. Students are used to being the ones taking tests and making sure they have everything done before the last day but when roles are flipped, ideas change. Owen said that if she had to make her own final project it would be something interactive.
“It depends on the subject, but I would make a final project something similar to this. Something that’s hands-on and creative, that all students can be involved in and have fun with,” Owen said.
The structure in high school classes is to learn the content, and then take a test at the end of the semester to prove progress has been made. This format is commonly used because it prepares students for future college classes. Although most students such as Peterson would prefer to create a project for the final.
“I would rather do a final project [because] it’s a lot less stressful than trying to study for a test that you don’t really know specifically the content for,” Peterson said.
