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The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

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UCs reassign science courses; Environmental Science, Geology under fire

Two of Paly’s science courses will count as electives and not "lab science" courses beginning this month, according to new rules set by the University of California.

The policy change will affect three courses at Paly–Environmental Science, Geology, and Kinesiology–however the latter has not been officially submitted for accreditation yet and thus remains in category limbo, according to Kathy Lawrence, instructional supervisor for Paly’s science department.

Paly plans to petition the change in order to retain the classes in the "lab science" category, Lawrence said.

"The UCs are concerned about the [science] courses at other schools," Lawrence said. "Integrated science is vastly different from school to school…the state wanted to have matching course frameworks and rigor."

This comes as a result of the UC system’s attempt to standardize the difficulty and depth of curricula in the science department, Lawrence said.

Neither Lawrence nor assistant principal Katya Villalobos are overly concerned with this setback. "I think our Environmental Science [course] has the rigor required by the state," Lawrence said.

Villalobos added, "I am confident that they will be approved."

In addition, the science department will write to have Kinesiology considered for lab science credit, Lawrence said.

The original intent behind providing courses like Environmental Science, Geology, and Kinesiology was to provide courses that appealed to students not planning to attend a four-year institution, according to Villalobos. "These courses gives students who want to explore options beyond biology, chemistry, and physics the ability to try new things," she said.

According to Lawrence, "It [the choice to offer these courses] lets them [students] look at sports medicine and lab science tech."

The student response to the changes has been largely negative. "I think it’s bad because it discourages students who are not as serious about science from taking a constructive and interesting course," junior Jun Yang said.

Sophomore Ben Richard said: "[The policy change] is not a good thing. I am disappointed that the UCs would do this. Obviously Geology and Environmental Science are sciences–after all, it’s called Environmental Science!"

As of now, these are the only courses that look to be affected at Paly by this specific policy change, but similar changes have been made by the UCs to some visual and performing arts courses, according to Villalobos. However, "no courses at Paly seem to be in that category," she said.

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