After completing the Living Environment science course, Francis Lewis students advance to take either Earth Science or Chemistry. All students enrolled in Chemistry are required to complete a bare minimum of twenty-seven labs in order to take the Chemistry Regents in June.
“We don’t do that many, we do way more and the reason why we do more is we obviously want to make sure we’re well above the requirement,” AP Science Ms. Jaipershad said. “If a kid missed a lab or was sick or whatever, they’ll never be in the situation that they don’t have enough.”
“But other than that lab is not just a requirement, it’s a part of the course and it helps students prepare for the regents and understand chemistry better. So it’s very, very important to do lab.”
Chemistry lab is offered Mondays through Fridays, periods four through eight. The majority of these lab periods coincide with lunch periods, as lunch is served periods three through eight each school day.
“Lab is once a week,” Ms. Jaipershad said. “Because it’s once a week and it’s outside of the class, meaning you have five days of chemistry class and then you have that one additional period of lab, it made sense to put it those periods so that for example, if some kids have gym, they have gym two times a week or they have gym three times a week, so it can fall in that period.”
“That’s really why it was originally scheduled to be those periods. The thing is though, because we’re so large of a school, it doesn’t work out perfectly and sometimes it ends up being an additional, like maybe out of their lunch period.”
Sophomore Avital Yagudayev is in one of those latter cases. She starts school period three, at 9:30 am and ends period ten, at 3:59 pm. Yagudayev’s only free period is her period 5 lunch period, which is replaced with chemistry lab each Monday.
“Lab is really stressful for me because it takes away my lunch period,” Yagudayev said. “Some Mondays I do not feel good at all. My head hurts every period and I get dehydrated because my body craves food. This is especially bad for me during my dance class because I need energy for that period especially and my energy impacts my dance grade.”
Lunch is a crucial meal for kids to meet their nutritional needs of fat-soluble vitamins and other minerals like calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. When a person doesn’t eat lunch, they miss out on these necessary nutrients.
“On top of that, I think having the lunch time is a very important emotional time of day,” health teacher Mr. Schildkraut said. “People need a break, they need to unwind, they need to see their friends or do whatever they can to socialize. You know, even as a teacher I don’t like to have straight periods through because I need that time for myself and to get a little stress relief.”
When one is hungry, they feel low energy and have a hard time doing physical activities. To save energy, the body’s metabolism and digestion rates slow down. This slower rate of metabolism can cause weight gain and make it harder to lose weight as well.
“Cognitively, well again, if you don’t have the energy and you don’t have the fuel for your body, you’re going to be very distracted,” Mr. Schildkraut said. “When you have a low blood sugar you can’t concentrate. Then if you eat a snack instead, especially if it’s a sugary snack, your sugar rate goes way up and then you’re more jumpy.”
Yagudayev said that she would prefer to have chemistry lab after lunch or second period, before the rest of her school day starts, because then she would still have a lunch period in her Monday schedule. However, this strategy would create a problem if the student missed lab on that day.
“If it was once a week and let’s say you were on a three to ten schedule, and let’s say I scheduled it once a week on period one, you now have to come early that one day and now that it’s once a week,” Ms. Jaipershad said. “If you miss it now there’s no opportunity for you to make it up.”
“It was causing a lot of problems in terms of meeting the lab requirement when it was too early for kids,” Ms. Jaipershad added. “After school a lot of our students work or they have younger siblings and they have to pick them up after school, so when we used to keep it after-school or later it was problematic for kids in that way too.”
Fortunately, Yagudayev has been eating bigger breakfasts and bringing two snacks each Monday to eat during class, which she says has helped her recently. Though snacking and larger breakfasts have been beneficial for Yagudayev, consuming only two meals is still considered insufficient to provide the necessary nutrients teens require.
“I do not think snacks could substitute for a meal, especially the snacks that most people have in this school,” Mr. Schildkraut said. “But again, it’s not taking the place of the time off that students really need. I know some people want to rush through their schedule and be in and out, but the truth is I think they’re going to do much better if they have that time off in the middle of the day.”
All students should have an opportunity to eat and no students should feel unable to access lunch because of lab, according Ms. Jaipershad.
“That being said, if you do know of issues like this you should encourage them to come see me because I will help them figure out a plan,” Ms. Jaipershad added. “Some kids, we have them maybe during another period go to the cafeteria. I write them passes or Dr. Marmor will write them a pass and they can go eat for fifteen minutes.”
Fortunately, some teachers allow their students to eat in class to make up for the lack of a lunch period during the day.
“I know in my health class, I would encourage students to eat in my class rather than not eat,” Mr. Schildkraut said. “I think it’s very important. They know that, you know, as long as if a student is keeping everything clean, not making a mess, I have no problem with them eating in my class. It’s better than nothing, and I think people should choose what they’re going to eat wisely.”
Mr. Schildkraut recommended that if one does choose to bring additional snacks they should be high in fiber. “Pretzels, hummus, peanut butter, cheese, something like that,” which can keep you at an even level throughout the day.
“No one should be suffering,” Ms. Jaipershad said. “If you are suffering please let me know, let Dr. Marmor know, let any AP know that there is a problem because we will find a solution. No kid should be going without food.”
