After a year of attending Governor’s School online, the seniors and juniors return to campus for the first time for the 2021-2022 school year. Although online school permitted students to stay remote at home, returning to campus gave students learning experiences that were restricted before by the home setting.
For each strand offered at Governor’s School, students are often taught through hands-on learning opportunities. The Biology/Chemistry strand students work with microscopes, chemicals, and animals to learn. The Engineering and Computer Science students regularly collaborate to create codes, apply physics concepts, and run experiments to apply classroom material.
Ellen Jones, a York High School senior in the Biology strand, said, “The most interesting experience was probably dissection because we weren’t only learning it, but we actually got to see the structures and hold them in our hands.” Last year’s graduated Senior Biology class completed the dissection unit through virtual webquests, but the senior Biology class this year was able to physically explore and touch animal anatomy.
The juniors did not attend Governor’s School during the virtual school year, so this 2021-2022 school year is their first year on campus along with the Seniors. Chelsea Spivey (Jr.) in the Computational Science strand said, “The most rewarding part of Governor’s School was the hands-on labs we got to do nearly every week. The labs allowed us to test how different physics equations worked in the real world.” Physics concepts were tested by the students through hands-on labs, and not watching a teacher demonstrate the concept through lectures on a computer screen.
Students returning to the Governor’s School campus gave students like Jones and Spivey hands-on opportunities to learn their respective class material.
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