New Electives Offered at NHS

This year, Newburyport High School is proud to introduce a handful of new electives that students can choose from. They range from chemical sciences all the way to executive leadership so you are bound to find something you are interested in. 

These electives have been created by each teacher which showcases their dedication and interest in teaching the subject. Although there are many elective opinions, a few have been selected to hear from specifically. 

First off there is “The Untold Story: Exploring the Lives and Legacies of Little-Known Changemakers” taught by history teacher, Mrs. Osgood. 

According to Mrs. Osgood, this elective contains “three units 1) Voices from outside the political arena, 2) voices from the youth, 3) voices from the edge. We study four people in each unit, and most students have never heard of any of them even though they have had a significant impact on American History. We learn through some pretty powerful documentaries, reading their works…yeah. I mean increasingly people are more and more interested in stories that aren't, you know, typical. Each unit there is a project based assessment and then the final project will be a big project where students are exploring an unsung hero of their choice.” 

When asked why students should consider taking this semester long electives, Mrs. Osgood stated that “I think students have found it fulfilling and eye opening and you need to take a history elective and this is one of your opinions so if you are perhaps not attracted to sociology or economics or something then I think this is a good option. I think that it is fun and I think the students are finding that it is making them think differently.” 

Mrs. Osgood’s elective is currently running and will run again over the duration of next semester and it is a beneficial class for students who enjoy history, or just want to learn and be exposed to new people that are not typically taught in usual history classes.

Another new addition to the list of electives is Toxicology, taught by Mrs. Taggart, one of Newburyport High School’s chemistry teachers. According to Mrs. Taggart, “Toxicology (to put it simply), is all about toxic chemicals. But the truth is, and this is part of what we will learn…is that any chemical can be toxic in the right dosage or exposure.”

“It’s very interesting, we talk about the environment, we talk about our bodies, we talk about climate. There's all different kinds of things, and I’m telling you, if anything is going to help us with these climate risks. It’s going to be chemistry. Chemistry is at the root of all of the environmental problems, in my opinion, that we have on this planet.” Mrs. Taggart stated. 

When asked about why she wanted to create and teach this elective, Mrs. Taggart replied “I needed something to compete with the Survival Science class (which is the coolest), just kidding! What really happened is years ago, I had come across this toxicology curriculum as part of another class and I just sort of put the files aside and said you know ‘maybe that’ll happen someday’. And this year was just the perfect opportunity!”

The structure of each class is “very much a mix of little lectures to introduce the information and then a little group work as well as independent work. And the classes are certainly good meaty classes where students learn something, but it’s at a slower pace. We don’t have to push so much content and students can redo work . It is definitely more relaxed, if it’s possible for a chemistry class to be relaxed.” Mrs. Taggart explained. 

Also to be noted is that Mrs. Taggart is currently teaching an Organic Chemistry elective in addition to Toxicology which she encourages students to take because “if you are thinking about doing anything at all in the health sciences, I strongly suggest that you take the organic chemistry semester long elective because very often in organic chemistry classes in college that's where the students just can't do it and they end up changing their major…they hit a wall. I think some college professors take a little bit of pride in that. So I just think it will help them through that class.”

On another note, there has also been the addition of CLIPS into many students' school schedules this year. CLIPS is an executive leadership program in which students are trained as peer mentors, they gain skills to become successful executive leaders. Peer mentors are assigned to a group of freshmen and the idea is that the mentors are there to guide them through their first year of high school through organizing events and activities to help them feel comfortable and confident in Newburyport High School. 

Maria Greco, a peer mentor in CLIPS stated that “My experience in CLIPS has been really good. It's gotten me out of my comfort zone with activities and training so we've had to do in the summer and at the beginning of the school year so it's definitely benefit me in that way because usually I'm nervous to do things in groups, but we have to do that a lot in CLIPS so that's definitely benefit me. I really do enjoy it overall and I like my small CLIPS  group a lot.”

When asked what typical CLIPS meetings are like, Maria stated that “meetings usually take place in the library and when we have a meeting with just the mentors, we usually talk about how the last meeting with our freshman went, and everyone usually shares their opinions on like what we could do differently or what the freshman liked or didn’t like.” 

Finally, Maria was asked what the role of the peer mentors is and what the point of CLIPS is, to which she responded“ I think the role for the mentors is that you're just trying to make the freshman be as comfortable as they can in the new school because obviously it's really scary going into a brand new school especially the high school when you're the youngest people and so the whole point of CLIPS is just try and get them to get out of their comfort zone and meet new people.” 

These are just some of the new electives offered but there are many others, in addition to the typical electives offered. No matter what, you can find something that sparks your interest and you can learn something new in every elective.

Lily DeJordy