On-Campus Lab Requirements

Labs, which are held on Saturdays, are an essential part of the GSSM Accelerate program.

Labs Vary by Grade Level

Over the course of their three years in the Accelerate program, students participate in a variety of labs on GSSM’s Hartsville campus.  These labs are considered part of the students’ Accelerate curriculum and are therefore required. All lab dates are given to parents and students at the beginning of the academic year so that appropriate plans can be made.

Labs are always held on Saturdays and usually last from 10:00am to 4:00pm.  For each of the labs, students are required to submit written lab reports. Accelerate instructors provide guidelines about the content and format of the reports and set due dates independently.

Student adjusts components of a robot.

Academic Programs

Tenth-Graders (Pre-Engineering)

10th-graders have one Saturday lab during the fall semester and two during the spring semester. The labs offer them the opportunity to put into practice the skills and knowledge they have developed during their pre-engineering course. Typically, students complete their lab work in groups of three or four.

On any given lab day, they may have between four and six separate labs to complete and thus rotate between lab spaces at appointed times. For successful completion of subsequent lab reports, it is imperative that all students take thorough notes and, when desirable, pictures of their work as it progresses.

Eleventh-Graders (Chemistry)

11th-graders have two Saturday labs during the fall semester and another two during the spring semester. The labs offer them the opportunity to put into practice the skills and knowledge they have developed during their chemistry course. Typically, students complete their lab work in groups of three or four. 

On any given lab day, they have roughly six separate labs to complete and thus rotate between lab spaces at appointed times. For successful completion of subsequent lab reports, it is imperative that all students take thorough notes and, when desirable, pictures of their work as it progresses.

Twelfth-Graders (Physics)

12th-graders have two Saturday labs during the fall semester and another two during the spring semester. Additional lab exercises are provided by online Labster simulations and computational analyses of physics systems using Matlab or Excel. All labs offer students the opportunity to put into practice the skills and knowledge they have developed during their physics course. 

Typically, students complete their lab work in groups of three or four. When on the GSSM campus, they have between four labs to complete in a single day and thus rotate between lab spaces at appointed times. For successful completion of subsequent lab reports, it is imperative that all students take thorough notes and, when desirable, pictures of their work as it progresses.