Westbrook High School - Blue and White Yearbook (Westbrook, ME)

Page 33 text:

The Qommeireiiall Department The year's work in the various classes of the Commercial Department has heen unusually good. The typewriting classes were faced with a rather ditiicult situation in the junior division. The twenty-nine typcwriters and ninety odd juniors had to he skillfully manoeuvred to till the requirements. llespite this inconvenience, the classes did very well under the guidance of Bliss Davis and Bliss Groves. Thirty- tive students have received the Gregg typing awards hy which typing progress is noted. The seniors, likewise, have done well. Many of them have received their certificates for forty and fifty words a minute. The following received pins for tifty: lidna lieruhe, .Xlice Keating. Ura tlallant. .Xrline Nelson and Charles lloulanger. The stenographic girls have done very well this year, working for the awards for the sixty and eighty words a tninute transcriptions. The whole class passed the sixty words a minute transcription test and Shirley Conant received a pin for the paper with the fewest errors. lfor the eighty words a minute transcription test the following girls received the awards: lfdna lieruhe, Gloria lioissonneau, lfleanor lieuteau, Shirley Conant, Patricia Gallant, Ura Gallant, Teresa Kfckloney, .Xrline Nelson. Lorraine Randall. Ruth lfenderson and Kluriel Bfarsters. lidna lierulme received a pin for the hest test. The department. this year as always. has endeavored to secure for its pupils the hest in equipment and methods. .Xt least three interesting devices have heen used to aid the pupils' understanding of the worlt. The following are notahle: the department recently joined the Teachers' Kids lfxcltange of California, which pro- vides information ahout recent trends in education: three moving picture shorts presented information ahout husiness machines. tlregg shorthand, and typewritingi a magazine called The Clinic, puhlished hy the lixchange contains tests on Gregg dictation, transcriptions, office practice. and lmusiness letters. and also provides speed tests in typing. The vear's record has been satisfactory in many ways and even unusually good in certain classes. .Xlthough sotne of the classes were rather large. the efficiency of the courses and the teachers seemed little hampered.

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sciiimicn ln addition to the prescribed courses, the science classes have lately undertaken extra activities which are allied to the required courses, and which are designed to widen the knowledge and the experience of the pupils. Some of these activities are projects covering and putting into practice what the student has learned, and excur- sions providing him with a broader view of his subject. In pursuance of this idea the senior, junior, and the sophomore girls, who have been taking astronomical geography, visited the Portland Weather Bureau. There they were shown how different instruments are read: and the fundamentals of their classroom studies were put into practice. They were privileged to see weather records dating back to I876 and the records to I938. This is especially interesting because it concerns reports and facts about weather affecting us. Indeed, what is more interesting and important to us than the weather? The senior physics class, on their annual Boston trip, visited, first of all, the Ford Plant. The boys were all interested in seeing how scientific appliances were used on the assembly line, where every part was fitted to one ten-thousandth of an inch. A Ford is literally slapped together in forty-seven minutes. lt might be interesting to note that the entire plant, covering an acre, is run by electricity generated in the Ford Power Plant. The intense heat in the blast furnace is kept at five thousand degrees, just enough heat to fry your breakfast egg. Next they visited the Harvard and Peabody Museums, where such relics as mum- mies, petrified and mounted animals were seen. They also saw glass flowers and replicas of many different kinds of vegetation and fossils in glass. Not only outside activities are planned, for twice a week the physics and chemistry classes spend their entire class period in their respective laboratories. In the physics laboratory they actually work with gravity and its causes. They learn to read many instruments such as the barometer and the vernier and micrometer calipers. The chem- istry laboratory classes work mostly with chemicals. They also do some distilling of alcohol and other compounds. As extra work, they have been studying photography, and each pupil has a chance to develop and print films and pictures. One can safely say that science is not only the nucleus of learning, but a study of everyday problems and a chance for practical, as well as enjoyable excursions and activities.

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Industrial Visitors make many gratifying comments on the machines made in our shop under the supervision ot our instructor, Mr. Boyce. Each boy has a certain job to do and can feel proud when someone admires that machine. The present industrial division takes much pleasure in the tact that it has been partly responsible tor a great improvement in the machine shop, that is, in the lighting ot the shop, which betore was rather inadequate. We now have general overhead lighting and interchangeable lights on each machine. This makes our work less tiresome on very dark days. In the pattern shop, under the supervision ot Mr. Alden, some ot the boys have made patterns: while others have made articles ot turniture, such as desks, bookcases, and cedar chests. A few ot the boys have made skiis and toboggans. The sheet metal course, which is comparatively new to us, has been very progressive this year. A large ventilator, which was placed in the Rocky Hill School, was built in this shop. The work attorded the boys an opportunity to see how sheet metal construction on a large scale is done, The general work in this shop consists ot drawing sheet metal problems and construction. Articles, such as pails, tunnels, pipe elbows, and waste baskets, have been made. Mr. Burnham is our sheet metal instructor. Comments like the following can be appreciated by every pupil ot Westbrook High School. One employer writes: Our relations with the Westbrook High School are excellent. The character, scholastic rating, and mechanical ability ot these graduates trorn our apprentice courses is lOO'ff,,.