Leesville Road High Students have many options when choosing which classes they would like to enroll in. This year, students are now open to take Marine Ecology. Ms. Harper, an Earth/Environmental Science and Chemistry teacher, now is the sole teacher for the class. “I really wanted to teach marine ecology,” Harper said. “I saw that as my chance to really pull back a lot of the stuff that I used to do when I was working at Duke”.
While Marine Ecology is not unfamiliar to Leesville — the class lost its teacher and was removed from the course list. “We were told last semester, if we could get enough students to register for the class, that we could have it,” Harper said.
Towards the end of the spring semester of the 2017-2018 school year, Harper campaigned to many of her chemistry students asking for those interested to try and register for the class.
The support for the class quickly spread as many chose to register for the upcoming fall semester. The 2018-19 school year marks the reintroduction of the class, as Harper strives to make it as interesting and as educational for all students taking the course. “I am also trying to get us to go on a field trip in a couple months, and try and get us down to the coast,” said Harper.
Although the class is in its infancy, the students seem to have good opinions of Marine Ecology. Sonnet House, a junior, said, “The beginning of every class is exciting as you want to learn about the subject and not just sit and take notes for 90 minutes and I believe this class won’t do that. I think real learning will take place.”
The class is an exciting elective for those interested in pursuing careers within the science field. “I just got really interested in it because I think it’s a really cool and really interesting elective,” said Harper. “It is more difficult than people definitely think, so I really hope they [students] get a better idea of whether or not it is something they could potentially major in down the road.”
The Marine Ecology class will end their year with a final project instead of a final exam in which they will highlight their knowledge and demonstrate their creativity.
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