Erwin High School’s Academic Honor Society wrapped up the school year with a special celebration. Board of Education representative Kim Plemmons joined the group to present seniors with graduation cords in recognition of their efforts.
“The Academic Honor Society was created at Erwin to reward and recognize academic excellence,” said teacher Brian Gonzales. “Students who choose to opt into the program take a course load of at least 50% higher-weighted courses, then achieve A/B Honor Roll, and have no more than seven absences in any one class.”
This semester, Honor Society students focused on the “Memory Palace” technique, used to remember large amounts of data points in a short period of time. It came to prominence from a Ted Talk, but is actually an ancient memory technique started by the Greeks. Erwin High math teacher Zach Wooten helped the students learn the method to recall a set of any 25 items.
“Topics students chose ranged a great deal, including elements of the Periodic Table, the American Sign Language alphabet, and the past 25 NBA champions,” Mr. Gonzales explained. “Allowing students to choose their topic was a fun way for them to practice creating Memory Palaces, and now they can apply this to a whole host of applications in their future.”
Students meet monthly through the school year to study techniques that will contribute to continued success in the classroom and beyond.
