Lack of interest prohibits diversity of science clubs

Brianna Carmack, Print Editor-and-Chief

With the current situation that everyone is facing, students and teachers are finding it hard to focus on clubs at Manhattan High. More specifically, conflict has surfaced around the lack of time and interest for science clubs in the past few months. 

“Earth club was disbanded a couple years ago and became part of the Environmental Science Club, which wound up getting disbanded because of a lack of interest,” science teacher Clancey Livingston said. “Science Olympiad is still around and Medical Explorers is still around.”

Because many of the more environmental-focused clubs are disbanded, specific responsibilities are now being placed on either other clubs or teachers.

The school’s recycling is usually paid by the Manhattan Environmental Club. However, if the club is nonexistent, that responsibility is placed on someone else. Livingston has reached out to other clubs to help and fund for recycling so that our school still has that option. 

Students are also facing the issue of not participating in science-based extracurriculars that they’re interested in. 

“My biggest concern is of the science clubs that I know of, most of them are medically focused, which means that students who have an interest in the sciences, but not medicine, don’t have any outside avenue,” Livingston said. “There’s nothing extracurricular for them.”

The science department is working on ways to advertise the science clubs to more students.

However, with how precious time is, finding students and even sponsors is difficult. As of right now, Livingston predicts that the science clubs won’t be functioning as well as they have in the past.

“As much as I would like to see a higher diversity of clubs, any club has to have a sponsor and this year, all of the teachers’ times are at a premium,” Livingston said. “I’m not blaming the teachers for that. I mean, it’s just the situation that we’re in. I don’t know, I just don’t see us adding a lot this year for what that’s worth.”