Imagine it’s the first day at your new elective class. You’re nervous, but also excited to meet everyone. Then you realize that the class isn’t what was expected. The content is boring, assignments are half-baked, and the teacher goes on and on the entire period. Or, on the other hand, you could have an interesting teacher and engaging content. The difference is hard to tell with just the description of the classes. To get a good insight on electives, you would need to talk with teachers and students and hear their thoughts into how the class is.
Environmental Science
Only open to 9th and 10th graders, environmental science is a course where you explore the environment and how it works throughout every level. It is taught by Mr. Filler, with many overlapping topics with his 9th-grade biology class. The class has a heavy focus on human-environment interactions while giving insight to modern problems, such as climate change and human-caused extinction. Ninth grader Brandon Guevarra explained, “Environmental science is a really interesting class in my opinion. It is quite difficult though.”
Speech and Debate
Speech and debate is one of two classes this year that are only open to seventh graders, the other one being journalism. They have many projects in the class, including everything from Lincoln–Douglas debates to putting on the morning announcements. Krishna Garg stated, “In speech and debate you have to be detailed and have a lot of nuance.” Since many of the assignments rely on having a complete view, the class emphasizes strong attention to detail.
Musical Theater
In musical theater, the goal is to learn about the history of musical theater and get ready for the end of year play. There are many different parts going into the play, such as writing the script, preparing the set, and actually performing it. It is a very loose class, with everyone doing different things at the same time. Hannah Martin, who wrote the script for the play, stated, “My favorite part was probably talking with my friends.”
PE
PE is only open to high school students at FWPA, and is overseen by Mr. Miller. In the class, everyone gets free choice as to what sport they want to play. Tai Bryant explained, “We just kinda do our own thing. In my case it’s basketball or volleyball. The boring people walk.” In the winter, they also have the option to do sports inside such as walking the halls and ping pong.
Yearbook
In yearbook, you make the yearbook and newspaper articles. It is open from 8th grade up, and is heavily project based when compared to Mrs. Nordstrom’s normal ELA and history class. The class is usually split in two to three groups, each of which are doing different projects involving both the yearbook and newspaper as well as other assignments that are sprinkled in. Chase Calhoun stated, “The hardest part of this class is managing the time you have to finish your article with other stuff.”
Even though this is a small portion of the electives available at FWPA, getting advice on what electives to choose is as simple as asking around. Julia Dumar, a current freshman, suggested, “Speak to some of the older grades, since they’ve already been through a lot of the electives. If you are too shy, then you can ask your teachers what each of the different electives are about.”
