On February 19 and 20, the eighth grade students came to the high school for an elective showcase. The elective showcase is held to introduce elective options to the upcoming students. During the showcase, staff and students share about their electives and experiences in the classes. This helps the eighth graders make a more educated decision when picking classes.
The students started in the auditorium and were given a brief presentation by Mr. McGinley, Mrs. Fink, Mrs. Wyles-Herbert, and Mrs. Machamer. After the brief presentation, students were split into four groups by homeroom and traveled throughout the building to learn about the wide variety of electives provided at Hamburg Area High School. National Honor Society members acted as tour guides for the groups and helped to guide the students to each location.
There were four locations in which teachers and students presented information about the arts, humanities, business technology, science, engineering, industrial, history, social science, and language electives. Mr. Brown, Mr. Borger, and Mr. King spoke about their engineering and industrial electives including Engineering Essentials, Materials Processing, and Game Theory and Design, among others. Mrs. Keck and students spoke about the business and technology electives such as Sports Entertainment and Marketing and Business Fundamentals. Mrs. Bucheit spoke about science electives such as Environmental Science and Forensics. Mrs. Benvenuto presented the history and social science electives including Pennsylvania History, World Cultural Geography, and US Military History. Mrs. Stevens spoke about German and Spanish electives. Mrs. Jackson presented the music electives including Piano, Voice, and Exploring Music Technology. Heaven Lee, Sophia Garretson, and Sophia Cruz-Garcia spoke about the various art electives such as Drawing, Painting, and Ceramics. Tia Adam and Bethany Stufflet presented Publications, and Mrs. Eshbach spoke about Video Communications.
The NHS members also provided some commentary about their experiences and gave advice when there was extra time. Amelia Gassert notes, “I definitely thought it was a neat way to get the eighth graders exposed to electives. In my eighth grade year, we did not have the showcase, and I feel like it would have really helped me make my decisions and maybe lead to me making different choices.”
Overall, the eighth grade elective showcase is a very important event that provides upcoming students with more knowledge about the options they will have in the future. It helps them to make more educated decisions about what classes they will want to take and gives them a glimpse into what high school can offer them.
