Useless Projects

by Jason Baker

Projects in school have been tedious and boring. Some students think projects are useless, while others believe they are a waste of precious time that could have been used more efficiently. From the roller coasters of the math classes, to the seaweed in the biology room, all these projects had to have been assigned for some reason. Perhaps it was the teacher’s procrastination while making projects, or perhaps the teacher was just following the example of other teachers around the world. The projects that the teachers portray these days are somewhat childish.

Some projects that do not pass the maturity level are the bridges that were assigned to be built in Physics. Senior Ariel Garcia says, “The bridges that were assigned was a complete waste of time, the project did nothing to further our education except in glue and Popsicle stick.” Why do teachers want to burden our lives with this filth of glue and constructs? Although when speaking with teacher Mr. Wood, he had stated, “there were mainly two reason why I had assigned this project. For starters I wanted the students to have fun. Second I wanted students to see and feel how with very light weight materials a structure such as a bridge can be molded into a structure that can hold a lot of weight, for example last year, with 300 Popsicle sticks and glue, students constructed a bridge that held one of our heaviest football players. So therefore I wanted students to see that design is more important than the materials they utilize, by using a scientific design you can greatly multiply the capacity of a bridge. Although in this lab I didn’t have the students use any physics equations.”

In another project, Mrs. Strand had students create seaweed plants made out of felt and rope hanging from her lights. Senior Chrissy Demuth says, “that making the reef was fun, but it was like a second grade project.” Many people think that way about most of the “challenging” projects that the El Segundo teachers assign their students.

While in Spanish, Senora Okeefe came up with the idea to make flags of other countries in order to remember those countries that speak Spanish. It was a fun project, and had the students working with construction paper, scissors, and glue. Junior Lidsey Richter states, “Making flags was a complete waste of my time, it had absolutely nothing to do with learning Spanish, and I felt like I was in first grader all over again.” The flags were an enjoyable project, and it got students out of speaking Spanish for one or two days. Also now you will know what some countries speak Spanish and what colors they are.

One good thing about these projects is that the teacher gives a lot of points for completing them. So therefore if the student does them, then he or she will get points for doing a third grade project. Some students feel like their time is worth more, so they do not finish them. These students tend to fail classes. So students in the end of all the uselessness should just complete the idiotic assignments and reap the point benefits.