Bethany Christian students took learning to a whole new level last week with the kickoff of the school’s two-week J-term program.
According to Jim Buller, guidance councilor at Bethany Christian Schools, the new J-term is essentially an upgrade to the school’s original Interterm program — a one-week session of non-credit experiential-learning courses offered either in the spring or fall of each school year.
Coined “J-term” due to its placement during the first two weeks of January, the new program replaces its non-credit counterpart with a myriad of for-credit courses never before available to the school’s middle and high school students.
“Bethany’s original interterm wasn’t long enough for the students to get academic credit. It was just kind of a fun enrichment kind of thing,” said Calvin Swartzendruber, a chemistry and physics teacher at the school who is heading up the school’s J-term Forensic Science course. “With J-term, in the two weeks it’s offered, they’re getting basically a semester’s worth of information, which we’ll actually give academic credit for. So that’s a big difference.”
Through J-term, students in grades nine through 11 can now earn an elective credit in one of 10 offered courses, including: Brazilian Culture; Human Behavior; Winter Sports; Civil Rights; Ceramics; and Comparative Mythology.
“We’ve decided to contain our first week to regular school hours, so we begin the day at 7:50 a.m. and at 3:30 p.m. we are dismissed,” Buller said. “The second week we are essentially allowing travel, so a number of classes will be doing things like visiting art galleries, museums, science labs, etc. In the end, almost all of our high school classes will have at least one overnight experience.”
Buller noted that such experiences could include a trip to Chicago’s Brazilian community for the Brazilian Culture class, or maybe a professional hockey game in Detroit for the Winter Sports class.
“We even have a group that will be traveling to Mississippi for a week for the Civil Rights class,” Buller said.
Previously excluded from participation in Interterm sessions, Buller noted that Bethany Middle School students will now also be required to take courses of their own as part of the switch to J-term.
Middle schoolers participate
Involvement by the middle schoolers will be somewhat different than their upperclassmen, however, with a majority of their time spent on or near the Bethany Christian campus.
“The middle schoolers will essentially have two half-day experiences per day over the course of the two weeks,” Buller said. “They are in one particular class for the morning, and then one particular class for the afternoon. So instead of being in a full eight hour experience, they break up the day a little bit, and that will continue for the duration of J-term.”
Not to be left out, seniors at Bethany Christian also have their own special experience connected with the new J-term.
“In their first week, the seniors are doing job shadowing to gain insight into various career interests,” Buller said. “Then the second week for seniors is reserved for the senior class trip. This year the kids will be heading to Nashville, so they’ll definitely be stepping out of the Goshen experience for that one.”
With the program’s first week only just concluded, Buller noted that initial feedback regarding J-term already appears to be heavily positive both for the teachers as well as the students.
“I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from my students because we’re able to do so much more in a day with our chosen topic,” said Jennifer Lucas-Germeyan, teacher of the J-term course Exploring Human Behavior. “With J-term, we don’t have the time constraints to worry about that we normally would during the normal semester. It really allows the students to become engaged, and they’re enjoying it.”
Swartzendruber also sees the J-term as a definite asset.
“It’s really a unique learning opportunity. There are so many chances that you have to get outside of the classroom and really do things in a concentrated setting that you wouldn’t necessarily have otherwise,” Swartzendruber said. “With J-term we have extended blocks of time where we can do these in-depth investigations and really hit it pretty hard. It’s almost like we’ve got even more time, because we’re not always shifting from one subject to another like you would during a normal school day.”
Student likes it
Even Bethany junior David Nussbaum appears to have jumped solidly onto the J-term bandwagon.
“I like J-term a lot better than Interterm. It’s a lot more interesting,” said Nussbaum, who chose Forensic Science as his J-term focus. “It’s working quite well. In fact, if I could change anything I might make it maybe more than two weeks long, so we have more time to go into detail with our topics.
“Like with fingerprint analysis, people take years and years to understand this, and I’m doing it in a day. So if we could have maybe three weeks, I think it would be even better.”
Local News
Bethany students get quick look at new subjects
- Local News
-
-
UPDATE: Goshen's Barrett Younghans recovering from heart transplant surgery
It was two days before Valentine’s Day when a Goshen teen-ager received a gift of a much-needed human heart.
-
Northridge students headed to state Science Olympiad contest
Heading to state? These students have it down to a science.
-
Amish-owned food markets seeing growth
Martin Schmucker is sitting on a brown plaid sofa at the front of his store, occasionally stroking his long, gray beard as he tells a story about a supplier from out of state.
-
IU Goshen Health names new CEO
Randy Christophel has been appointed the new chief executive officer for Indiana University Health Goshen.
-
Love still alive 50 years later
Even after 50 years of marriage, Goshen’s Ronald Nelson knows how to surprise his wife.
-
Church members building homes in Haiti
It’s been more than two years since a massive earthquake rocked the small island nation of Haiti. Recovery is far from complete, but with the help of a church in Waterford, it is getting closer.
-
After two-year wait, Goshen teen receives heart transplant
A phone call around 5:15 a.m. Sunday morning ended a two-year wait for a new heart for Goshen’s Barrett Younghans, 19.
-
Coat for a coat: Company gives back
Fifty Goshen girls have new coats today thanks to a new business.
-
Snyders enjoy a lifetime together
Shirley and Terry Snyder both grew up in Goshen and attended Goshen High School at the same time. Shirley, whose maiden name was Snook, said she was assigned a seat between Terry and his twin brother, Jerry, for all four years in the assembly class.
-
Young scientists compete in Olympic-style event at Goshen College Saturday
Science took center stage in Goshen Saturday morning as 13 area Science Olympiad teams converged on a snow-dusted Goshen College campus to participate in the 2012 Science Olympiad Regional Tournament.
- More Local News Headlines
-







