SAIL project takes wind

March 22, 2010  
Filed under Features

Current events, culture, history, nuclear power, energy consumption, and societal safety rarely have anything in common with each other. All of that has changed with the introduction of the trans-curricular project by the Chapin High School SAIL program.

SAIL, or Success Acquired In Learning, is a program started in 2006 by Assistant Principal Akil Ross in an effort to reach out to kids who were underperforming in school.

The program initially began as an after-school book club, but quickly grew to a full-fledged learning experience involving five teachers and a core group of ninth-graders.

This spring, SAIL is experimenting with a new trans-curricular project that will invoke elements from Physical Science, Mathematics, and Humanities. The project will focus around each of these core areas and expose students to a pressing current issue facing the United States.

“The issue the students will be addressing is nuclear energy, and whether or not we should embrace it in our daily lives,” said SAIL Coordinator Lesley Nichols. “It is an aspect of our society that is highly controversial, and most people in society don’t know a lot about the issue.”

Students participating in the project will research the issue to draw their own conclusions.

“Humanities students will be reading Hiroshima and learning about the first-hand effects of nuclear weaponry,” said English teacher Mr. Tim Anderson. “In Global Studies, we will be dealing with some historical and cultural aspects of our nuclear drive, and in science we will be learning about the specifics of how nuclear energy works through equations and scientific simulations.”

According to Mrs. Nichols the trans-curricular project is not just a straight educational project.

“While learning about the nuclear issue is the priority, we also want to be able to show you can still have fun in school while learning. Education is meant to be fun- sometimes.”

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