First Two Weeks

by Bailey Sheetz and Erin Stapleton

First Day of School

- As we arrived to Massanutten Regional Governors School on August 11th we were greeted by a strange man playing the bagpipes with a GoPro resting on his hard hat. As you might imagine we were all a little scared, but we have grown to love him and his passion for rocks.

- We all gathered on the lawn to take attendance; then we were assigned our first task as Gov School students. A water relay race!!! We broke into our class groups, and we quickly realized the strongest link. The juniors. Specifically J2, the better half of the junior class.

First Impressions

- We began truly meeting each other when we gathered inside to begin icebreakers. The juniors were told to pair up with a student that was not from their home school and learn 2-3 facts about them.

Canoe Trip

- On the second day of Gov School we went on an 11-mile canoe trip. About 75% of us capsized within the first quarter mile. A glaring statistic. We stopped to eat our soggy packed lunches about halfway through the trip. It was smooth sailing the rest of the way home.

Design-a-thon

- This was our first chance to meet the seniors and get a sense of the highly collaborative environment of Gov School. We were assigned groups of two juniors and two seniors, and we worked to create solutions to real-world water quality issues. After researching, sharing our ideas with other groups, and revising, we presented our ideas to the entire Gov School. This project helped us get an idea of what we'd be doing as students at MRGS - in-depth research, analyses, and formal presentations.

Pickles Project

- This project, dubbed "Pickles Will Kill You," was our first cross-curricular project as Gov School students. The project was between our English and Statistics classes. Our task was to devise a seemingly outlandish claim and be able to support it with statistical evidence, whether it be truthful or falsified. This helped to teach us how to identify false claims and data, as well as to identify logical fallacies in writing. We all really enjoyed seeing the ways other groups supported their crazy claims!

Meeting People from Other Schools

- Throughout the first couple of weeks, everyone got a good chance to meet new people from other schools. The first day water activity, the canoe trip, design-a-thon project, and the Pickles project all helped us make new friends and forge new connections with people we had never met before!