the little mermaid: a deep dive into the 2024 spring musical
Why Conestoga needs to place a cap on AP courses
Page 6 Conestoga High School, Berwyn PA, 19312
Volume 74 No. 5
March 5, 2024
Junior becomes first to qualify for bowling tournament
PagE 9
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Rodents spotted in ’stoga
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Mareska Chettiar/The SPOKE
Squeaky situation: A mouse runs across the floor of Room 200, shown from multiple angles. Students and staff have seen an increase in mice since winter break, and after The Spoke learned that a mouse lived in Room 200, reporters staked out the room to lure the mouse out of hiding.
By Jui Bhatia and Aren Framil, Co-Opinion Editor and Co-News Editor In the early morning of Jan. 29, as science teacher Dr. Derrick Wood set up for the day and began his classes, he was
greeted by an unexpected visitor — a mouse. “I saw a student that came for some extra help before school. He paused at the door, and he said, ‘I thought I saw something,’” Wood said. “About five minutes later, I saw a mouse come into the room from the hallway right as my first few classes were starting.”
With help from science teacher Dr. Scott Best and junior Charlie Gawthrop, Wood captured the mouse and released it outside near the track. Wood had also previously found mouse droppings in his classroom. Wood is not the only person to have spotted a mouse or evidence of mice in the school. Senior Anika Kotapally said that mice have
been present in the music wing for multiple years. She recently started spotting them in the upstairs atrium wing, finished in 2021, where Wood currently teaches. “I saw a mouse run across the hallway from Mr. Trainer’s room to Mrs. Wolfe’s room. It ran right out of Mrs. Wolfe’s room and right into Dr. Best’s room,” Kotapally said. “I don’t want to kill
them — that’s not the way — but it is just insane.” Other students have seen mice in the hallways and large spaces such as the cafeteria, atrium and library. Sophomore Shriya Bhattacharya said that she has seen mice in the cafeteria during lunch. “It was just roaming around here. Then it went back in the vending machines, and then the
adults came and caught it,” Bhattacharya said. Social studies teacher David Zimmerman has consistently seen a mouse in his room since winter break. He nicknamed the mouse “Jerry” and said it occasionally comes out during class. “It’s a little bit embarrassing, frankly. Students are pretty
good about sort of rolling with the punches. But if we were having a parent meeting or something and a mouse rolled out? That’s not what you want,” Zimmerman said. “I think (the school is) trying. I do think they’re making an effort to try to get the mice.” Continued on page 3.
Courses added to Program of Studies Mareska Chettiar Photography Editor
Howard Kim/The SPOKE
Study space: Students review class materials and work on homework assignments in the library. Teachers stopped their administration of midterms and finals around four years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some courses will bring back cumulative exams in the 2024-25 school year.
Cumulative exams to return in 2024-25 school year Howard Kim Co-News Editor
Starting in the 2024-25 school year, cumulative exams will return on a course-by-course basis at a time that teachers will be able to decide. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting interruption to school, Conestoga administration removed midterms and finals four years ago. Starting next school year, each department will decide which courses within its subject area will have cumulative exams and at what point in the year they will administer them. Instead of reinstituting midterms and finals fully like they were in the past, most courses will only have one cumulative exam per year. Each department will choose when the cumulative exams will be, allowing for flexibility in the way teachers assess students’
progress depending on their own curriculum. Some departments, such as English, business/technology and visual/performing arts, are leaning toward not adding any exams into their courses. “Our major assessments are usually portfolio, project or performance based,” said Amy Cruz, visual/performing arts department chair. “In terms of curriculum, these changes will not affect us.” Other departments, such as world languages, science and mathematics, are planning on reintroducing cumulative exams into some classes. “For the world languages department, we decided that we are going to give a (cumulative) exam in the courses at the halfway point through their programs,” said Stacy Katz, world languages department co-chair. “It might happen anywhere from March, April,
May, June — something toward the end of the year instead of halfway through the year after the first semester, and that gives teachers some flexibility.” Even within the same department, every course will adapt to the changes differently depending on how rigorous the material is, what course level it is and whether it already has an AP or Keystone exam. “We didn’t feel that any of our AP classes should require a final because they’re taking AP exams in May, and just a few weeks later, they would take a final which seems a little bit excessive,” said Allison Long, mathematics department chair. “But we did feel, for example, in (some of) our AP classes, that it would be helpful to have a cumulative assessment like a midterm.” One of the most significant motives for bringing back cu-
mulative exams is to provide students with more exposure to longer, college-style exams before they graduate. As AP and Keystone exams are the only cumulative exams administered at Conestoga currently, some students do not receive much experience with such assessments. “At first, it’s a little bit annoying, but in reality, it’s probably a good thing because it’s better to have exposure to a large cumulative exam. Kids that don’t take AP classes are going to have no exposure to one before they go to college,” junior Brendan Crump said. “It’s definitely a positive for people that aren’t going to be paying for AP exams because they still get some practice on the cumulative exams before college, which I’m assuming (have) midterms and finals (that) are a lot more difficult than even the AP classes.”
The Program of Studies for the 2024-25 academic year includes five new course additions: Asian American Studies, Sports and Entertainment Marketing, Journalism Foundations, Robotic Engineering and Studio Session. It also renamed the Geometry course. The social studies department has been developing the Asian American Studies course for more than five years, led by teacher Stephanie Matula. The class will be a 0.5 credit semester elective, available to juniors and seniors. Asian American Studies will briefly cover the history of Asia and focus on the topic of Asian immigration into America, cultural development and Asian American contributions to the United States. Matula emphasized that people who are not Asian American are also welcome to take the course. “Wanting to take Asian American Studies and African-American Studies is a way of becoming more culturally competent,” Matula said.
Journalism Foundations will cover the basics of journalism for students interested in journalistic reporting. It is a 0.5 credit semester course offered to all grades. Although it is helpful for prospective reporters, the course will not be a prerequisite for student publications. “We’re hoping to appeal to a lot of younger students,” said English department chair Karen Gately. “Perhaps they may have an interest in enrolling in one of our amazing publications.” Robotic Engineering will center learning around three robotics platforms: VEX Robotics, Dobot Robotics and Crumble. The course allows for flexible instruction for students with varying levels of background knowledge in robotics. Jeffrey Conner, a business and technology teacher, will teach another new semester elective: Sports and Entertainment Marketing. It will focus on career opportunities within the sports and entertainment industries. The course is primarily project based, worth 0.5 credits and open to all grades. “A lot of us don’t have the ath-
letic abilities to be a professional athlete or the abilities to be a professional actor, but we still want to follow our passion, and there’s many ways to make a career in (sports and entertainment) industries,” Conner said. Studio Session is a new 0.5 credit course in which students from all grades will be able to explore different genres of music including pop, rock, jazz and country with opportunities to learn different instruments. There will also be “jam sessions,” during which students will meet and create music. “It’s a class that’s unlike others in the area,” said music department chair Christopher Nation. “It’s basically a class for students that just want to get together and make music.” Sophomore Kussh Mital supports adding elective courses and believes they allow students to explore new interests and topics. “I think it can lead people to avenues of interest that they didn’t know they had before,” Mital said. “That could lead them to more after school activities, like the robotics team or other avenues that are just not school.”
Mareska Chettiar/The SPOKE
Course creation: The 2024-25 Program of Studies includes several new courses for students with various interests. Teachers worked within their departments to develop the courses, which the Conestoga administration then approved.