Even with a 46-year long career in education, West Orange – Stark High School Biology Teacher Delmar Basinger was surprised.
“Patricia LaFleur, Mengting Teng, Brianna Schwartz, and Manahil Fatima came to me on their own merit. They requested to translate 120 Scientific Minds Powerpoints and a 15 page End of Course Study Guide into two other languages. Their decision was based on observing some students struggle to make these translations on their own,” Basinger said.
Patricia, Mengting, Brianna, and Manahil are freshmen. Three are in their third year of Spanish while the other is in Spanish I.
Manahil said, “We started translating our packets for our friend; but, then we realized that this could help other people too and we told our teacher about it.”
The group then decided to expand the translation.
“Since we were translating the packets into Spanish, I also started to translate the packets into Chinese. Chinese was my first language so I was able to translate the packets to also help some future foreign exchange students,” Mengting said.
The project took over three weeks to complete. The girls worked on the project whenever they had extra time in class or out of class.
“I hope the work I did will make learning and studying easier for those who don't speak the English language,” Brianna said.
The students said the project ultimately had several different results. It strengthened their knowledge of the Biology content, built their second language skills, strengthened new friendships, and more.
“The reason I started translating the biology packets was because it was the right thing to do,” Patricia said.
Coach Basinger said he is very proud of this unselfish action.
He said, “We have so many great students doing so many outstanding things it brings tears to an old man’s eyes. It's because of students like these that I am proud to be a Mustang.”