On call: Junior raises sheep for 4-H club
Page 5 Conestoga High School, Berwyn PA, 19312
Volume 73 No. 4
February 21, 2023
Dear Mindy, this isn’t what I asked for
Middle school girls’ squash team wins national championship
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www.spoke.news
A loop of
enrollment:
Conestoga’s rising
student population George Zhang/The SPOKE
By Rohan Anne, Evan Lu and George Zhang, Co-Webmaster, CoEditor-in-Chief and Photography Editor As ChatGPT continues to chat up a storm, some teachers and students are starting to feel a little uneasy about this talkative AI’s rise to power. With its uncanny ability to generate human-like text, it is no
laughing matter that this technology could be used to cheat on exams and assignments faster than you can say “plagiarism.” By giving educators a real run for their money, the consequences of this model could be a real page-turner in the world of education. In fact, the previous paragraph was written by Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) using the prompt, “write an interesting, funny lede for a newspaper article about the
rise of ChatGPT in academic settings, such as cheating in schools.” This is one example of generative artificial intelligence (AI), a technology that can be used to create new content. Research laboratory OpenAI launched the chatbot in late November 2022 before it took to the national stage. TESD Director of Technology Mike Szymendera spent the past two months investigating ChatGPT.
“When we talk about (ChatGPT) internally with teachers and administrators, I demo it and show them what it can do,” Szymendera said. “Usually, a third of the people have never heard of it. The middle third have seen it on the news but never used it themselves. And then the other third — they’ve been using it and really thought about it.” In the Conestoga community, debate around controversial uses for generative AI is common. In
January, the New York City Department of Education blocked access to ChatGPT due to “concerns about negative impacts on student learning.” The decision to block ChatGPT varies by district as AI is not included in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act that mandates school restrictions. Following conversations with other Chester County districts, none of which have blocked ChatGPT, Szymendera remains
undecided on the question of restricting access. “ChatGPT is having its moment, but really what we’re talking about is a whole form of technology. That makes the blocking conversation sort of challenging because you could go block one site, but we’re talking about the concept of artificial intelligence and its effect on education,” Szymendera said. Now, the development of technologies that allow students to
generate novel, unique responses to a diverse range of questions threatens to lower the barriers and stigma of cheating. “We want to learn about (ChatGPT). We want to hear people’s perspectives. We want to help teachers understand it,” Szymendera said. “Ultimately, we want teachers to be empowered to set expectations for how work should be done in their class.” Continued on page 3.
4 courses added to Program of Studies Ben Shapiro News Editor
With more than 150 course offerings, Conestoga provides a wide selection of classes, co-curriculars and ensembles in which its students can enroll. Every year, the school’s administration reevaluates its Program of Studies, a catalog of every course Conestoga offers, and makes changes for the next academic year. For the 2023-24 school year, Conestoga will pilot four new courses: Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry, Comparative Literature: Coming of Age and Community, Comparative Literature: Science Fiction and Dystopia, and App Development 2. Additionally, in accordance with state regulations, Conestoga will offer a more robust dual enrollment program with Drexel University next year. The semester-long Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry course is the science department’s sole addition next year. According to chemistry teacher Dr. Derrick Wood, the class is three years in the making. He noted that the process to build a course from the ground up takes careful consideration. “It takes some time to talk with the administrators about what the strategic plan is for the district, what’s the plan here at Conestoga, what types of course offerings we have and where the needs (are),” Wood said. Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry will be offered at the accelerated and honors levels. It is designed for students who want to continue their education in chemistry either without or after taking the AP course. It will be heavily lab-based and the
first true physical science course offered at Conestoga. Junior Samantha Meaney is currently hoping to pursue a career in either medical research or pharmaceuticals post-college. She is planning on taking Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry next year and is excited to do so as it will allow her to take a third year of chemistry — after taking AP Chemistry 1 and 2 in her sophomore and junior years, respectively. “It (AP Chemistry 2) is my favorite class; I’m super interested in it,” Meaney said. “So, being able to continue chemistry next year is something I really want to do.” Along with its science counterpart, the English department will also see changes in its course offerings next year. However, in addition to simply adding new courses, it is chang-
ing its graduation requirements for students, as well. Starting next school year, students must take one credit in either Comparative Literature or AP Literature and Composition during 12th grade. Accompanying this change, the English department will offer two special topic courses in comparative literature: Coming of Age and Community, and Science Fiction and Dystopia. They will both be offered at the accelerated and honors levels. Assistant Principal Dr. Matthew Sterenczak is excited to hear students’ responses to the new courses. He noted that the best gauge of student interest in a course is seeing how many people take it. “We always want to hear feedback. Actually, the feedback is
who enrolls for those courses,” Sterenczak said. Students will see two additional differences in the 2023-24 Program of Studies. The class previously titled Coding: Games, Apps and the Arts will now be Coding and the App Development course will become a twopart series with the addition of App Development 2. Wood agrees with Sterenczak’s sentiment about student feedback. He finds that by simply asking his students what they are interested in, he is able to scale the popularity of a potential course. “Student interest is definitely a key part of (proposing a new course). Whenever we have the idea, we go to our students and we ask, ‘Hey is this something you’d be interested in?’” Wood said. “We do a lot of informal poling with our classes at the different levels.”
Ben Shapiro/The SPOKE
Studying science: Chemistry teacher Dr. Derrick Wood teaches his fourth period AP Chemistry 2 class. He helped develop the curriculum for the new Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry course over the past three years and oversaw its approval by Conestoga’s administration and TESD’s school board. Wood will likely teach the course next year.
Shrija Krishnan/The SPOKE
Building of books: Some find that the Tredyffrin Library is humid in the summer due to its poor roof. The township’s Board of Supervisors allocated $800,000 to renovate the roof, among other things at the library, over the next five years.
$800,000 allocated for Tredyffrin Library renovations Shrija Krishnan Staff Reporter
The Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors unanimously voted in December to allocate $800,000 for renovations to the Tredyffrin Public Library’s roofing and heating, ventilation and air conditioning as a part of the township’s five-year expenditure plan. The building’s humid air during the summer and rampant drywall cracks are caused by the poor, leaking condition of its roof, aggravated by the buildup of stormwater moisture. The project is expected to start around midMarch and finish by August. The Tredyffrin Public Library building is uniquely made up of three distinct roofs: a brown shingled roof, a rubberized roof with gravel and a “living” roof. The “living” roof operates as both a roof and a functioning ecosystem — it consists of organic matter, which thrives as the rainwater naturally saturates the soil, as op-
posed to draining off the building and into gutters. The three different roofing styles will be maintained during the renovation process in efforts to preserve the building’s historic value. Dave Dudda, the capital improvement manager for Tredyffrin Township, explains that although there are likely better ways to carry out the project, modifying the building would degrade its original architecture. “In a township, you’re going to have people that don’t see the historical value in the building, and say the ($800,000) could be put to better use just building a new library,” Dudda said. “The majority of people, I feel, want to keep the integrity of the historic value of the building. Our goal is to upgrade it where upgrades are needed, but not to the point where it becomes something completely different than intended by the original architect.” The plan is to strip the roof down to its skeleton and rebuild
from there, while simultaneously taking the HVAC controls off the roof to finish building underneath the unit. Then, once the HVAC unit is reinstalled, the project will wrap up with interior fixes to the drywall and windows. F.W. Houder Inc. and Hirschberg Mechanical are the expected roofing and HVAC contractors, respectively. Part of the HVAC reinstallment process is “balancing” the building, a technique designed to ensure the flow of air and heat is consistent throughout the library. Junior Gladys Cai, a summer library volunteer, hopes the renovations will improve the library’s overall atmosphere and working conditions. “It was pretty hot and stuffy, especially since I worked downstairs in the children’s area,” Cai said. “They (the renovations) will make visitors a lot more comfortable while browsing for books, and I’m glad that people volunteering next year will hopefully have a less humid experience than me.”