Sophomore Nik Coble demonstrates how to use the digital display at WACO High School. Photos by Sam McIntosh.

For one week in January, WACO junior and senior high school students took a break from the normal curricula and worked on different hands-on activities.

Eleven J-Term groups held an open house at the high school Tuesday to share their work. Teacher Kate Lefeber describes how faculty facilitated, “Really, we set everything up and kind of explained everything and kind of explained our purpose for our overall project, but for the most part the kids went ahead and took it all on their own.”

Parents and students interacted with the digital display, which sophomore Nik Coble explains, “We got every WACO graduating class. We took pictures of either a yearbook or their senior composites. We got every record from all the varsity sports. We have pictures of current athletics, and groups, and clubs of school. And then we got some school history which includes our athletic hall of fame, our school wall of fame, and trophies.”

For the J-Term seniors had internships at places such as the ISU Research and Demonstration Farm in Crawfordsville and Henry County Public Health. Senior Samuel Wagler interned in Washington, D.C. for Senator Chuck Grassley (R) and he comments on the experience, “I like that it allowed us to explore kind of new options and further our own education outside of actual school.”

This was the first year for WACO’s J-Term, replacing the “plus one” Friday activities that were previously offered.


The Living on a Dime group built furniture out of wooden pallets during the J-Term.