‘What If We…’ Club is an innovative revolution led by Mr Cordes of Croydon High School. It deals in hypothetical and real situations, asking students to suggest alternative ways of preventing or carrying out scenarios, expanding on real life beyond the bounds of physics and finances. At times a humanitarian brainstorm, and at others a theoretical voyage for the sake of academia itself, the club is unique simply because it is unrestricted by the bounds of school subjects and, indeed, reality. Students are encouraged to challenge the laws of physics, bending them in the scenarios they speculate on and at the same time they discuss, with a level of maturity that Mr Cordes found ‘really exciting and refreshing’, matters of ecology and animal cruelty.
Ana in Year 10 recalls her most memorable experience, saying, “We spoke about a humpback whale in Australia recently getting stuck in a crocodile- infested river, and we each tried to come up with different- not necessarily physically viable- ways of making sure whales don’t wander into other potentially dangerous places.”
This idea encompasses the nature of the club; it combines a proclivity for imaginative solutions (some pupils suggested the idea of a giant repelling net), with serious matters dealing in extinction and harm to endangered animals.
There were many imaginative suggestions, but the winner of the club’s competition was Shenai in Year 10, who came up with the solution of having a boat or stationhouse produce sonar waves audible only to whales - it would have to be within the range of their hearing- that would drive away whales from areas that could be harmful to them. This idea could be extended to other species, and indeed is seemingly very possible, especially if the sonar were sent out from not boats, as first suggested, but towers or automated posts that constantly emit waves, and do not require human involvement, except perhaps a regular check- up.
The club regularly produces ideas of this calibre and is attracting more members every day- it should be given greater exposure to the public, who could indeed learn and benefit from the ideas produced by the stimulating environment provided by this close- knit club. The rapidly growing popularity of Mr Cordes’ group is a testament to the flourishing creative spirit at Croydon High School, and the students’ impressive appetite for tackling problems mingling the theoretical and, more pertinently, the pressingly real.
