GUILDERLAND — The passion of high school students here describing their tech-savvy creative projects to the school board Tuesday night unfolded into the measured words of school leaders mapping a future for the school that would lead to more college credits.

Bernard Bott, who described himself as “mentor, life coach, and librarian,” leads a group of diverse students in creating in-depth projects of their choosing.

“I’m a researcher by trade,” said Bott. “I saw a lot of boxed stuff happening…Everyone has something they’re passionate about. I wanted to bring that out.”

Jo Petitti, for example, is teaching a machine to predict the weather. He described his project as “pretty low budget” and said, “That’s the point…It can be used on a small scale to teach students about technology used everywhere.”

Alex Beams is writing a piano sonata using a computer. Using a program called Sibelius, he has written a page and a half so far.

“Mozart thought of a whole entire piece before writing it down, which I think is really cool,” Beams said.

His goal is to “show how accessible music is to the public.”

Priyan Patthirana is working with Amelia Dunn to compare the benefits of cross-training, incorporating different activities for different muscle groups, with streamlined training.

They were surprised to learn, Patthirana said, when they surveyed Guilderland High School students that 42 percent play more than one sport and 41 percent train throughout the year.

The pair will track athletes, giving them both physical and mental exams, to “figure out which athletes are healthier and happier,” he said.

Ishmam Yousuf is considering “alternate realities,” looking at parallel universes, and special relativity.

“It was proved by Einstein,” he said of special relativity, giving the example of twins born at nearly the same time. If the lazy twin is sitting and the other twin is running, the running twin is “bending space and time and is actually younger,” said Yousuf.

He also described String Theory this way: “Everything in the universe is made of tiny strings that vibrate at different rates.”

As part of his project, Yousuf is building a Newtonian telescope with five feet of tubing that uses mirrors to bend light.

“I have to put all the pieces together,” he said.

Describing his passion for physics, he said he wants to convince people that “physics is a lot more than just equations.”

Matthew Creighton is doing an energy audit of the high school to see if solar, wind, or geothermal sources could be used.

Like everyone else pursing projects, Creighton said, he is maintaining a website, reading scholarly works, and collecting data. He has monitored the energy used by various computers at the school and has gathered information from other school districts. He plans to determine if certain products make a difference in power usage and to educate others.

He noted that the solar panels in place at the high school have saved 139 tons of carbon emissions.

Lucas Lainghas created a studio at the high school for recording both music and the spoken word. He hopes to create a distribution hub “to show student creations to the world.”

Other students are researching the effects of more sleep for high school students, and developing a bus tracking system that would allow students to know exactly when their school bus was arriving on any given day.

Still others are comparing different kinds of computers used at different schools so schools can learn from the successes and failures of other districts, and considering the use of Linus computer hardware, which is open-sourced and is free, instead of Windows, which Guilderland currently uses, that would give students more freedom.

Another student is examining pronation by analyzing deviations in the feet of people running and seeing if orthopedic support makes a difference.

“It’s important if it’s important to you,” Bott told the student who wanted to study pronation.

Plans for GHS

For the past two years, 94 and 95 percent of Guilderland students have graduated, according to high school Principal Thomas Lutsic, and 92 percent of them have gone on to college.

Currently, the school offers 31 classes from six institutions that award college credit in high school.

School leaders plan to create a STEAM Academy, starting next year, according to Michael Piscitelli, the supervisor for science, math, and technology. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

“We’re taking baby steps,” he said.

The academy does not involve a new building or even a separate space at the school. Rather, there will be new courses and sequences offered with college-credit opportunities as well as opportunities for career experiences, he said, “so students can gain experiences before making career choices.”

The initial two areas of study will be computer science and medical science.

Alex Finsel, the supervisor for English and social studies, said those departments are inventorying classes to see what aligns with local colleges to offer college credit for all students, not just advanced students.

He cited a goal named by a comrade of having Guilderland students able to begin college with enough credits from high school to be halfway through their freshman year.

Mehgan Rivers, special education administrator, spoke of expanding offerings in Career and Technical Education, known as CTE, and expanding work-based learning for Guilderland students.

Rather than contracting through an outside agency, she said, the expansion will be in-house, partnering with the business department and offering work-based learning experiences at the high school itself.

Lori Hershenhart, who heads the business department, said that 16 courses are offered now for college cedit.

She also said a program exists for students to have internships to learn about careers they might want to pursue while also earning academic credit. She said that 70 percent of college students change their major, and that high school career experiences might better direct students.

Thirty-two Guilderland students are currently using the program compared to 150 students at nearby high schools in similar programs, Hershenhart said, describing the Guilderland students in the internship program as “very highly motivated.”

Hershenhart, who also chairs the music department, pointed out the national recognition Guilderland’s music program has received and went over some changes she’d like to see, including credit for ensembles that now meet as clubs and teaching musicians how to promote themselves.

“Musicians nowadays produce music in ways different than a few years go,” she said.

Sheila Elario, who chairs the art department, said Guilderland offers 20 classes — in fine arts, electronic arts, and three-dimensional arts. Courses focus on real-world experiences. “We’re inclusive of everyone,” Lario said. “We feel really good about that.”

In the future, she said, the department would like to align courses with Sage and with Hudson Valley Community College as well as aligning with the STEAM Academy for college credit. The department will continue its student-community partnerships and will increase internships in such fields as design and advertising, she said.

Board member Barbara Fraterrigo said she was “appalled” that only 29 seniors carried a full load of classes at the high school, wasting taxpayer money.

Lutsic responded that, for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, seven classes is considered a full load. There are eight periods in a school day.

“Seniors have to take five…That is their full load,” he said.

Fraterrigo suggested requiring at least six classes for seniors. “To waste that valuable educational time to me is sacrilege,” she said.

“There are certainly financial implications,” said Superintendent Marie Wiles of requiring seniors to take more courses.

She said the number 29 came to light because of a request that athletes not have to take gym classes in order to earn required physical education credits.

“I was just amazed their parents were letting them do this,” said Fraterrigo of seniors taking only five classes, “considering the taxes they are paying for this great education.”