Focus On: Academics

With the new school year underway, the students at MHC Academy are eager to learn new facts and figures, while taking on new and challenging courses. Active learning is taking place all throughout the campus. Involving students in the classroom activities requires the students to access their understanding of the subject and the skills needed to complete the task. Below are some highlights from the first month of school. 
 
Finance:
How will you invest your resources? The students in Mrs. Green’s finance class participated in a group activity using a predetermined amount of Skittles candies to represent their income. After the first round of decisions, their income is reduced and trade offs began. This activity was a fun and informative way for our students to learn financial literacy and begin to think about strategies for saving and spending. All leftover skittles were enjoyed by the girls!
 
Forensic Science: 
What do counterfeit-proof currency, prevention of forged products, and ransom notes have in common? You guessed it: Forensic Science! Students in Mrs. Snyder's Forensic Science class have explored the syntax of ransom notes combined with handwriting analysis to discover the behaviors that lead investigators to the culprits who wrote them. On the heels of handwriting analysis, students cooperatively designed currency, with technology embedded, that prevent counterfeiters from successfully duplicating it. Before they could design their creations, they studied the uniqueness of U.S, currency and the methods used by the FBI to discover it. Their current project is to create an informative iMovie to warn their peers of the adverse consequences of purchasing "knock off" or pirated products. In essence, if an item seems too cheap, it is likely forged or pirated. Students made their classmates aware of the problem in an infomercial; some of these were presented on the Morning News.
 
Environmental Science:
This year, the environmental science class would like to introduce our new recycling program. We have recognized that we are producing a lot of non biodegradable products and it is harming our beautiful earth. These plastic products from America are being shipped right to Asia and are dumped into our great oceans. We want to help and do our part to stop our earth from being destroyed by getting students involved in our journey to a clean school and hopefully one day a clean earth. For this program, we would like to have all students participate. We want to achieve this goal by having people volunteer for service hours, having a rewards system per grade, and by allowing each grade to have a chance to show that they want to be involved in the change. We will be providing each classroom with a recycling bin and we hope to have volunteering students go around collecting the non-biodegradable products to bring them down to the provincial house so that it can be recycled properly. The environmental science class is very excited to embark on this journey with the whole school, of making our beautiful earth clean again, the way that God intended for it to be. Written by Isabella Benedict and Rasneli Paulino