Under the Spotlight: Environmental Science Environmental Science classes provide an oppourtunity for students to learn about the world outside by: MALLORY SWOPE staff writer Students in Ian McGurn’s Environmental Science class during the 2018/2019 school year were given the opportunity to further their learning of ecological relationships by building aquaponic systems. They spent weeks working to perfect the habitats that host both plant and animal life preparing to display their projects for all of CHS to see. All was going well as they started putting them up section by section, and it was time to commence the final step: running water through the system. “They completely stopped working and flooded the hallway,” McGurn said. While other aspects of the class might come across as more difficult than others, Environmental Science, as well as some new extensions of the course, can provide students with educational yet unique experiences. TCAPS requires high school students to earn a minimum of three credits in the science department prior to graduation, of which Biology and either Physics or 6 // BGQ // January 2020
Chemistry are non-negotiable. CHS offers a number of different courses that can fill the place of that third credit outside of the classes predetermined by upperlevel administrators, including: AP Biology or AP Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, Biomedical Science, Environmental Science, and a new offering to CHS this year, AP Environmental Science. In the 2018-2019 TCAPS Course Selection Guide, Environmental science courses are described as “[integrating] major branches of science: life, physical, chemical and earth, with environmental topics to provide students with a scientific knowledge of our planet earth, its many interconnected systems, and the ways in which human activities affect it.” Lisa Johnson began teaching Environmental Science at CHS for the first time this school year. “I was actually the teacher who requested we bring AP Environmental Science (APES) to CHS because I felt there
