Students not attending lab classes

     Colleges require students to have attended a certain amount of science labs in high school to show understanding and experience in the topic. An extra .2 credits are added to a science class here at Hamburg to signify a lab period. A problem at HAHS is that many students are double-stacked and unable to attend lab periods due to another class scheduled during that time. 

     Mr. Lowe brings up a point, should the students not attending lab be given those extra credits? Such credits are a signal of college requirements, so should the students who do attend have to drag the others along? Mr. Lowe takes the mindset of college and high school students. As for colleges, he says they are expecting a number of hours and labs yet some students are not receiving them. Concerning the students who do attend lab periods, he sees it as unfair to them. 

     Another science teacher, Mrs. Ottoviani, says that this scheduling issue is problematic, but the students have to attend their other classes, and she does her best to keep all students caught up. She acknowledges that students want to take many classes and the counselors are trying to satisfy those wants.

     Jarepsy, an honors physics student who attends the labs, says she has no strong opinions on this topic. She also admits that lying to colleges is not the right move, but at the same time, the students did not create their own schedules.

     Overall, whether students who do not attend science labs should be given the extra credits or not, is not an issue easily solved.