What even is at MRGS?

by Will Lucas and Sophie Williams

At Massanutten Regional Governor's School (MRGS) the students are provided with many opportunities, in the form of the large number of resources available to them. These resources benefit the students everyday and are one of the many reasons that one should be interested in MRGS. They allow the school to provide a deeper understanding and larger involvement in one's education. Every student at MRGS has used these resources a multitude of times, and this blog, written by two students, will highlight some of the many resources provided.

Book Selection

The very first thing I noticed when I took a tour of MRGS, was the sheer number of books Mrs. Moyers fit into her English classroom. And mind you, it’s not a very big classroom. However, one of the many perks of going to gov school is the second library you have access to, even if it is small. From classics to horror to romance, Moyers's magical library could supply you with years worth of reading (except if you are Mrs. Moyers who reads one average on book a day per year).

I have taken advantage of the variety of good books here, and I recommend you do as well. If you ever need a book suggestion, Mrs. Moyers is an excellent resource. She often spends time utilizing her encyclopedic knowledge of the books in her classroom to ensure that students receive a perfect read. She said it was very difficult to chose just one book to recommend because everyone has different tastes, but she personally enjoyed reading the book, The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Students at MRGS are excited about the wide variety of books available and can’t wait to check out books like All American Boys by Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds. Personally, I am looking forward to reading a wholesome book called My True Love Gave to Me, a book full of short stories about the winter season.

Virtual Reality

A newer resource that has been provided to the students of MRGS this year are the twenty-five Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. The use of the headsets has been limited to a few times to test how they work and potential problems that could occur when using them. Personally I think the addition to the headsets to the classroom has been very beneficial and interesting. It personalizes the learning experience and gives students a better understanding of a topic through hands-on learning. We recently used it to visit Southwestern Kansas, a location tied to a book we are reading for class, it was really interesting to see the landscape. Additionally, a group project used the headset to display a 3D model they built.

Audio Booth

Located in Mrs. Moyers's room, the audio booth is a great place to record audio. The booth, while small, provides a quiet, concentrated space where you can create high quality audio for various projects such as podcasts. In a coming podcast project, the booth will see extended use. We have been studying different podcast styles, and we are looking forward to trying them out for ourselves.

3d printer

A resource at MRGS that I haven’t been able to familiarize myself with yet is the 3D printer located in Mrs. Klus’s class. The resource may not always be used, but knowing that, if need be, it's always available. Listening to the constant hum of the machine on Fridays, it is exciting to wonder what the seniors are making for the day. Sometimes it's part of their research project, and other times it's just a fun design.

Movable Whiteboards

We are also lucky to have access to a large amount of moveable whiteboards. These whiteboards are used a lot, most recently for the data expo. The expo was the final project for the MRGS juniors Statistics I class. In this project we were tasked with creating a statistical question and appling our newfound knowledge of statistics to it. Many of the groups came up with interesting questions as depicted in the pictures below. The whiteboards were quite useful in creating and displaying the information needed to be successful in our project. At the beginning of the year, we also used them for our Design A Thon. These whiteboards are scattered throughout the classrooms and are very helpful for brainstorms and presentations (or for doodling).

Poster Printer

As we mentioned earlier, the Junior class was working on a data expo (some examples above are the whiteboard pictures). To wrap up the project we had to make a research poster using the poster printers. It was a new experience to download the template and compile something that large. I was surprised about the amazing quality of the pictures. Overall, it really is such a useful piece of technology that I am so grateful to have access to!

Greenhouse

At MRGS we have access to a small greenhouse located right outside the school. To test the best methods of fescue seed generation, we used the greenhouse to help for a project that will be happening in the second semester. The greenhouse provides great experiences through hands-on working, and later in the year, when everyone has more experience with the greenhouse, it is sure to become one of MRGS’ favorite materials.