Maddy Dumais, Social Media Editor
Global Health:
This year, VHS offers three new classes: Global Health, Robotics, and Sports Statistics.
In Global Health, students will be learning about how topics including poverty, food distribution, and water pollution affect public health around the world. They will also be learning about organizations that work to resolve these issues. Students will have very little homework in the class and most work will be done in the classroom.
“They have one article or one video a week that they just have to be prepared to discuss when they come in,” said Global Health teacher Melissa Kehl.
The class will include a few labs looking at nutrition and epidemiology.
“Epidemiology is the study of disease spread around the world,” said Dr. Kehl. “We will be doing some labs around the spread of malaria.”
Students will also do a final project which will focus on one country.
“The very last thing that they do [in the class] is they pick a country and then look extensively at what the issues are regarding health, disease, and mental health issues in that country,” said Kehl.
Students will also get to go on a field trip to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation has put a lot of money into global health issues. They are researching technologies that will help with common health issues in third-world countries.
“[Bill and Melinda Gates] have a few things they’re really working on, like malaria.” said Dr. Kehl. “They’re looking into how they can get low budget technology into third-world countries to help with things like preventing mosquito bites and the transmission of malaria.”
Global Health is not taught in many high schools around the United States, so Dr. Kehl is learning along with her students.
“It’s my favorite class to prepare for,” said Dr. Kehl. “I get to learn so much.”
Robotics:
Robotics is another new class at the high school this year taught by Susan Swan. Students taking Robotics will learn how to build and program the robots in class. The students started working with legos and did a bridge challenge the first week of school. Now they have started to move into using the robots. The robots used in the class were bought by the school last year.
“This is the first challenge where they’re programing the robots,” said Ms. Swan.
In the class students use EV3’s, which are a simpler robot than those used by the Robotics Club.
“We are going to use the basic robot for the first half [of the semester,] and for the second half we are going to move on to the more advanced robot,” said Ms. Swan.
Later this semester students will attempt some of the challenges also done by the Robotics club who are preparing for their competition in January.
“We won’t actually send a Robotics team from our class, but we will try to solve some of those problems the Robotics club is solving,” said Swan.
Though they share a name, the robotics club and class are very distinctly separate.
“The club has been established, they have students who have been doing it for many years, whereas in the class we have a wide range of experience,” said Ms. Swan. “You don’t need any experience to take the class.”
The class has only one girl this semester and Ms. Swan would love to see more students and especially girls interested in robotics. If the class gets a larger student interest it could be offered both semesters.
“I want to get more students in, I want to get more girls,” said Ms. Swan. “We have to have at least 15 students for it to run. I really want to get people to consider signing up for it in the spring.”
This is Swan’s first year teaching Robotics.
“I’m new to Robotics, I’m just learning the programs,” said Ms. Swan. “I’ve gone to a couple [robotics] classes and I’m going to another one in November.”
Sports Statistics:
In Sports Statistics, which is taught by Per Lars Blomgren, students will be using a lot of math students have likely seen in the past, fantasy and real sports statistics, and a lot of probability. The class uses a mix of materials to learn from real world examples along with textbook curriculum.
“We will be pulling some stuff from books, from newspapers, and lots from the internet,” said Mr. Blomgren.
Luckily, the homework load shouldn’t be too overwhelming for students.
“Their homework might be to watch a baseball game, or watch Sportscenter, or take statistics on a certain basketball game,” said Mr. Blomgren.
Students may do a project focusing on one sport of their interest. However the class does not begin until second semester, and most of Mr. Blomgren’s ideas are not yet set in stone.
“I’ve been thinking of doing some projects involving digging deeper into what students are passionate about,” said Mr. Blomgren. “Say a student is really interested in gymnastics, they can look at all the Olympic results from the last few years.”
The class isn’t offered until spring semester; however Mr. Blomgren is anticipating it with baited breath.
“I am very excited to teach it,” said Mr. Blomgren. “I just love looking at the sports section of the newspaper and just devouring the numbers from games.”