Durham High School - Messenger Yearbook (Durham, NC)

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NATURAL SCIENCE Others take the course because it is just fun to learn how the telephone, the automobile, the electric light, the furnace, and various everyday things Work. Splendid motion picture equipment is an out- standing asset to the department. Imagine free movies for the students in the Natural Science Department! Of course the movies shown do not feature Carole Lombard or Robert Taylor. but they are iust about as interesting as some shown at the down-town theaters. Truth is stranger than Fiction is trulv verified in some of the Natural Science movies. Culminating the year's work, the department held a science exposition, open to the general public, on the afternoon and evening of April .zo. Demonstrations in visual aid equipment, lead tetraethyl vs. regular gasoline, chemical magic, water purification, etching glass, tesla- coil, short wave radio, magnetic induction, and optical illusions, mechanics of solids, liquids, gases, phenomena of lights, sounds, and color were given. A large collection of North Caro- lina wild plants, and also a display of animals were interesting features of the exposition. Back of the excellent laboratory equipment and the interested, wide- awake students at work are the teachers whose thorough training and whole-hearted enthusiasm in all things scientific have made courses in Nat- ural Science popular electives. Mr. B. G. Stewart, A.B. and Ed.M., Duke University, is head of the depart- ment. Assisting him are Mrs. E. S. Swindell, A.B. Duke University and Duke Summer School, Miss Dorothy Wilson, A.B. Duke University, with graduate work, Mr. I. E. Wadsworth, ,qw Swindell Wadsworth Hester A.B. University of North Carolina, Mr. E. C. Hester, A.l3. and M.A. Duke University, and Mr. D. Shields, AB. University of North Carolina. PAGE 29

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Wilson Stuart Shields EVERY s1'UnEN'r in Durham High is required to take at least one of the courses offered in Natural Science: Biology, Chemistry, or Physics. Most of those taking biology are Sophomores. They spend many hours looking through micro- DEPARTMENT OF scopes and dissecting all sorts of things from flowers to frogs-learning all about plant and animal life. But not all of the time is spent in the laboratory, for a lot of interesting field trips are a part of the course. On these field trips ferns, mosses, flowers, and leaves, also in- sects and animals are found and studied. Upon being asked their reasons for taking this course, students will make such answers as these: 'Tm going in training to be a nurse when I finish high school, and I'm sure it will help me to know something about biologyf' I have to take Biology, for I hope to be a research scientist some day. HI don't know what I am going to do, but this course is so interesting and teaches me so many everyday things. I'm glad I took it. Next to the biology laboratory is the depart- ment of chemistry and physics. What an odor! Why on earth does anyone take a course that requires him to put up with such as that? Again a prompt answer comes in these words: 'KIt's so fascinating we don't even notice the odors. Besides it isn't often we have to be bothered with this perfume. Don't you know that Chemistry is respon- sible for many things we enjoy today? It's going to produce lots more things in the future, and that is why I'm planning to be a chemical engineer. So, no wonder so many Durham High juniors and seniors elect Chem- istry! In the physics laboratory there are always more boys than girls. That must be because physics appeals es- pecially to mechanically-minded folk. Many of the boys taking this course hope some day to enter the Held of radio or perhaps to be future Edisons. more 28

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Baucom Michael Phillips Porta, portae, portae, portam, porta, porta, portarum, portis-. Pleasant memories are connected with those declensions we learned in our first year Latin: Miss Arrowood's patience and encouragement, the notebooks we made, the shields and Roman relics in the back of the room, our pride when we could actually DEPARTMENT OF translate! It was a happy year, and when the time came for us to enter Senior High, we looked forward to the second year, and an op- portunity to learn more about this language which, strangely enough, did not seem dead at all. The first semester of the second year was devoted to a study of Roman mythology-Baucis and Philemon, Fantalus, Midas, and innumer- able others. And when at last we began Caesar,s Gallic Wars, we found them as ex- citing as our own modern military campaigns. Some of the students made a frieze of the Helvetian march, while others built model Roman houses and dressed miniature viros et feminas to live in them. During the third year of this Latina, we discovered that Cicero's works were more than formal orations. They gave us an insight into Roman government, and made us realize the loyal support which each true citizen owes his state. The fourth year was best of all, however. Since Latin teachers no longer teach Virgil's Aeneid as just another means for learning the language, but as a great piece of literature, we learned to appreciate the beautiful descrip- tions and comparisons for which Virgil is famous, along with the story itself. To offer variety, we had contests in the manner of the little-red-schoolhouse spelling- bee, and even the losers enjoyed the ice cream and cake they had to give the winners! The teachers of the department are: Miss Susie G. Michaels, head of the department QA.B. Duke University, A.M. Columbia University, and grad- uate work Universities of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Duke., Miss Brown Phillips QA.B. Salem, A.M. University of North Carolinaj, Miss Virginia Hobgood CAB. Duke Uni- versityjg Miss Iva Shockley, who also PAGE 30