It’s always great hear from the people who get it! FHHS senior Max Haenel dropped the Schools Foundation a note the other day:
Dear Public Schools Foundation,
My name is Max Haenel and I am a student at Friday Harbor High School. I am writing to sincerely thank you for your generous donations to our school’s biology program. I am currently enrolled in Biology. I know first-hand that your donations were put to good use and that they are greatly appreciated. The new biology books are awesome!
Our biology books were fifteen years old, and that caused a lot of problems. They were worn to such an extent that their bindings and covers were torn and hardly staying together. The pages had tears and writing, but worst of all they contained outdated information. Science is an ever changing and “evolving” subject, Biology especially. For these reasons and more, we needed new books.
Our new books are fantastic. They are brand new and packed full of valuable information. The information itself is up to date with all the new studies in science, so what we read agrees with anything scientific we might hear in our day to day lives. Also the books are very visual and exciting. Text books can be hard for high school students to read. If you pack to much information into too small a space it can be very daunting to students. Our new books have tons of charts, pictures, and other visuals. For every page of reading there are multiple pictures to illustrate what you’ve read and this is VERY helpful. The books are broken down into 35 chapters and within each chapter, two to four sections. At the end of each section, there are a couple of review questions which help us make sure we understand what we’ve read. At the end of each chapter there is an even bigger review section that even includes a practice test. With the up to date information, visuals, and review sections our books are helping us go above and beyond in biology.
The new books also come with an online tool. On the online tool we can access the full textbook online so we don’t always have to carry it home. We can also see PowerPoint documents summarizing information from the textbook. Other cool features of the site include a dictionary, almanac, encyclopedia, and homework help. There is also an online assignments page where our teacher can assign homework. Since the assignments can be online it is easier for the teacher, we can save paper, and we can’t lose our work.
Students are really excited about the books. Talking to friends in biology lately they all mention how great our new books are and how much they appreciate them. Our biology teacher Mr. Visciglia told us the other day that the book even gives him a test generator which he really appreciates, among other things. My favorite part of the book is its chapter on genetics which is packed full of information that I find very interesting. Biology in my eyes is one of the most important subjects in high school because once you understand biology, you understand how life itself works and that has tons of implications. Thanks to your more than generous donations we will all be reaching new heights.
Thanks Again!
Max Haenel
Biology Student at Friday Harbor High School