The freedom to choose electives (and the possibility of landing one of your top choices) is certainly one of the perks of transitioning into an upperclassman. As the first semester of the 23-24 school year settles into a distant memory, let’s take some time to reflect upon onw of the English electives that upperclassmen took:
Examining how scientific progress can create ethical dilemmas for individuals and societies. Students in “Science and Ethics in Literature” engaged with nonfiction and fiction novels, as well as movies such as Jurassic Park, in order to learn about historical and present examples of ethical “gray areas” in the scientific and medical communities.
When asked about why they chose this course, some students pointed out that the course description was “intriguing” or that it “sounded fun.” Indeed, the course asks the students to contemplate questions like “should science ignore humankind’s cultural tastes in favor of unbiased inquiry?”Questions like these may spark curiosity, confusion, and possibly even uneasiness. One student commented on how he “wasn’t quick to understand” the content of this elective, since it asked him to consider many perspectives that goes into answering a question such as the one mentioned above. However, through this training of thinking, he said that he’ll “take a lot more from [this] class throughout my life than almost any other class in high school.”
“Science and Ethics in Literature” not only surprised students by the depth of its content, but also by the diversity of its assignments. A student-favorite was the “Teach a Lesson” assignment, which allowed students to design a class by themselves centered around, well, whatever mediums they would like to teach a chapter on John Irving’s The Cider House Rules with. Some groups used games such as “trashketball” and Jeopardy to review plot points. Some engaged students with classwide discussions on themes, others even brought snacks that related to the food featured in the chapter they were teaching! However, the “Teach a Lesson” assignment had its competitor: one student expressed his enthusiasm for the final project because it “allowed for lots of freedom.” The final project asked students to either write an essay or create a project that engages at least one text from the course with outside sources. After the final project’s due date, Ms. Wrambel’s museum-room opened up with a new gallery full of new artworks of various mediums, some of which are still on display.
For many, expectations of this course from the beginning were either met or surpassed. But one student thought that the course “would be more focused on ethics” and would have benefited by having “more examples of how [ethics is] relevant in different applications”. Unfortunately, “Science and Ethics in Literature” is out of rotation for rising juniors and seniors the upcoming school year.
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