Time may be best part of school's J-Term

As his students tinkered with their “robots” Friday morning, New Hampton High School science teacher Chad Pemble explained why the school’s J-Term is so valuable.“When you’re doing things like this, a normal class period just doesn’t give you enough time,” he said. “You’re just getting going, but you only have 45 minutes, and it’s time to clean up and put away. This is why I love doing this. It gives them a chance to really explore robotics.”Pemble decided to offer the class during the two-week “J-Term” for a couple of reasons.First, because he no longer teaches physics, he doesn’t get a chance to unveil the unit during the regular school year. Second, he wanted to get students excited about careers like engineering so for two weeks, he has about a dozen students not only building their own robots but also making changes to them so those robots can do different jobs.— For more on this story, see the Jan. 8 New Hampton Tribune.