MWH Museum Exhibits

The Modern World History team wrapped up the year with a PBL unit focused around the question: How do individuals create and change culture, authority, or governance? Student teams were required to establish a clear connection between an individual and the resulting change by using historical evidence, logical reasoning and persuasion. On the last day of class, they presented their final product in a museum display and answered questions from their peers, as well as teachers and staff who visited. A variety of well-known historical figures were featured, including Che Guevara, Adam Smith, Fidel Castro. Malcolm X, Mao Zedong and Jesse Owens, to name a few.

The centerpiece of each display was the group's collaborative persuasive piece. These included "Crash Course" style videos, documentaries, comics, web sites, and even an issue of Time Magazine that featured economist Adam Smith. Each student also contributed their own individual persuasive piece to the display, such as a propaganda poster or video, letter to the editor,  or photo essay. The final component of the displays were multiple primary source documents and the students' accompanying analysis.

Students talked about the benefits and challenges of working collaboratively, with many groups mentioning negotiating and coming to consensus around their thesis as being one of the significant hurdles they had to overcome. The products were both informative and creative, and the students reported that they enjoyed the learning process, and ultimately came to a deeper understanding of how the individual they studied impacted the world they live in today.

World Language Projects

With the year coming to a close, many students are engaged in completing projects that highlight the knowledge and skills they have acquired. Here are a few projects that wrapped up recently in the World Languages department:

Spanish 4: Mr. Kelso

A student tries to convince his father to allow him to attend Julliard to
 study music. The father wants his son to go to Stanford or Harvard.

"The project of writing a play in Spanish (Proyecto obra de teatro) was actually a confluence of thoughts," says Ahmed Kelso. "At the beginning of the second semester I had the idea of talking to my students from Spanish 4 about writing a play but never mentioned it. When we returned from spring break, however, one of my students made the suggestion of creating a play. The project was born. Students began working on the play in early April and worked on it in stages. Except for some minimal editing that I provided after revisions, each stage was managed by the students."

The students performed their final "obritas" on Tuesday in the BBT to an audience that included their peers, parents and SAS staff. Students had memorized their lines and did a good job of thinking on their feet and ad-libbing when they didn't remember the exact line. Themes ranged from self-acceptance, to forbidden love, and even having the courage to follow your dreams. Audience members were provided with English translations of the scripts so non-Spanish speakers could follow along, and the students had fun showcasing their Spanish skills.

French 3: Ms. Fogiel

"In French 3, we learn through the PBL model, where students work on 4 projects per year," explains teacher Caroline Fogiel. "Individual topics are chosen by students within the broader areas of study that the class identified. I started off the year with a focus on History, because I wanted students to get significant practice with the past tense." Based on the interest of the students in the class, Sports, Music, Arts were then identified as the themes for the other three projects.  Presentations are roughly 3 minutes long, and students are required to use key vocabulary and relevant grammar. Another key component is to include a detailed description of a picture, as this is a skill students will need to master for the IB exam. 

In addition to having choice about their topic, students can also be creative with the format of their presentation. Each presentation is followed by questions, and then the listeners summarize the content to consolidate their learning and reinforce active listening skills. "The learning journey is for all of us in the classroom," says Caroline. "We all learn from one another. Throughout the year, we learned about Chinese music instruments, famous painters, famous music composers and above all, about people who meant something special to students." 

Sofie Fella created a video highlighting the Cles D'Une Passion exhibition
taking place in the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

Science Spotlight

Thanks to guest bloggers Chris Roules and Adam Fusco for sharing about some cool things going on in Science this week!

Capstone Project
by Chris Roules

All who have come to the LMC in recent weeks will have found it to be very different.   Since the science department moved out of its own space, the LMC has been the primary science lab for the grade 9 and 10 students.   During the month of April, the grade 9 students are using the LMC as they complete their “Capstone Project." 

Now in its fourth year, the Capstone Project is an individual culminating activity completed by every student in grade 9 and again in grade 10. Students design and conduct their own scientific research or engineering design cycle. Grade 9 student projects need to be linked to chemistry or physics.  If conducting scientific research, the student will clearly define the problem, establish the control variables, and do hands-on experiments of how the independent variable affects the dependent variable.  If doing an engineering cycle, the student will define a problem they wish to address, and then design a physical solution for that problem.  The prototype is made, then tested and evaluated through at least five iterations. The Capstone Project incorporates hands-on aspects, which must be done at school, a journal of the student's day-to-day progress, a final presentation to their peers, and a formal written report.  There is a wide variety of fascinating projects this year, and no two are identical. You are welcome to stop by the LMC now through Wednesday, April 27^th, and see the students in action during periods 1A, 3A, 1B and 2B.  

IB Group 4 Project 
by Adam Fusco
How can I make a rocket fly higher? What happens when I get sick? These are two of many questions the Grade 11 IB students had the grade 5 students try to answer through 5 - 15 minute interactive lessons. All year, students who are taking IB have to partake in a group 4 project. There are three aims of the project, which all basically boil down to being able to work together to complete a common goal. The goal for this year was to provide an interactive science fair where each of the grade 5 students were taught a concept in five science disciplines: biology, chemistry, computer science, sports science and physics.
The group 4 project lasts a total of 10 hours which includes planning, doing and reflecting. The planning phase was a week prior to the group 4 day in which students had to come up with and design a lesson in one of the pre-chosen science disciplines stated above. The active day was held in the high school gym for the entire school day on Tuesday where students had to set up their lesson and practice, practice and practice where other groups would critique and offer feedback for improvement. After lunch all the work and preparation was then put into practice as 121 fifth graders went through the 5 – 15 minute science lessons. The last aspect of group 4 is the reflection piece where each group will develop a TED ED lesson that they can send the fifth graders for review and extension. All in all, many lessons were learned in how to break down material for young students, how to work together, and definitely a humbling perspective of what it is like to be an SAS teacher.

Showcasing Student Work

As students are completing both long and short-term projects, the opportunity for them to present to audiences beyond just their own teacher and classmates is extremely valuable. This week, Jo Denley's IB Language and Literature students enjoyed hearing feedback from a variety of SAS staff members, and all month long, adult panelists will be on hand in Blake Brown's AP Capstone Research classes to hear student presentations and oral defenses.

IB Language and Literature

Jo's year 1 Lang & Lit classes have been working on a project attempting to answer the driving question: How does media influence audiences for the purpose of education, politics or ideology? They chose their own media category to focus on (e.g. political propaganda, condom ads, road safety directed at teens, how the Ebola virus was represented by the media, etc), developed a research question, and created some type of a product which demonstrates their understanding of how media influences for different purposes. Visitors participated in a gallery style presentation of the final products (websites, documentaries, infographics, etc) and had the opportunity to ask the students questions about the project and their learning. 

For those of you unable to attend in person, here are a few of the finished products:

Websites:

Transport for London: promoting safe driving and road safety

Seeds of Thought: an analysis of the impact of Disney animation 

Is There Anything Wrong with PETA? exploring PETA's use of media tactics

Infographics on Political Satire:

Statistics/Content

Political Satire & Humor

Bias in Language

AP Capstone Research

In Blake's course, students have worked all year on their Research project which culminated with a 20-page paper submitted right before Spring Break. The paper comprises 75% of the AP score, while the additional 25% is their score on their POD. Each presentation/oral defense is 20 minutes max., and only 2 students can present any given period. The presentation portion is the first 15 minutes, where the student presents their research before a panel of a minimum of three adults. The defense portion of the POD (5 min) begins immediately after the presentation, and is basically when each of the 3 adults asks the student one scripted question about their research. Additional follow-up questions can then be posed by the adult panelists or other students. Some of the topics that were presented this week include a Novel Intra-City Freight Transportation System, an analysis of the impact of attending a small Liberal Arts college vs. a Research University, and an examination of the growing entertainment phenomenon of eSports, or professional gaming. If you are interested in hearing students present their research, talk to Blake - additional audience members are always welcome and the presentations are certainly interesting!

Project Launches: Grade 9 English and Grade 10 Innovation

Two exciting projects were launched this week. Here is a quick overview:

Romeo and Juliet: From Page to Stage

Mrs. Alden's students receive their role assignments.

Our Grade 9 English teachers launched their final unit of the year by "setting the stage" for an in-depth study of Romeo and Juliet. This was, for most students, their first interaction with Shakespeare and Elizabethan English. The students spent the launch day in the PAC, and each class was assigned one of the five acts from the play. In the morning, parts were assigned and students read through their act, making decisions about movement, delivery and blocking. They had time to practice and decide on costumes and props, and then after lunch, a rough but entertaining first run-through of the play was performed. Now with this groundwork complete, students will be able to go deeper into how a production of the play would take shape moving from the page to the stage.

Jo Denley, who designed the project with Margaret Haske, explained that "the PBL spans over the whole 4th quarter and has students taking on various production roles (i.e. director, actor, public relations, props, costumes) and then envisioning different takes on R+J. In the past we have had Civil War era R+J, Puxi vs. Pudong R+J, Modern day R+J, and Undercover spies R+J. Essentially, students are encouraged to look at the play through a different lens without losing the thought and meaning behind Shakespeare's original text. Students study passages in depth, discuss, analyze and ultimately, they 'pitch' their final plan to our (the teachers') production company!"

Branch's students do an initial reading of their act.

Back to the Future: A Dockumentary

Contemplating what the future might hold.

The Year 2 Innovation Institute's final project of the year will engage students in answering the question: What is the story of the future? At the launch, students participated in paired and small group conversations in response to a series of prompts addressing a variety of factors (economic, environmental, technological, etc.) that have the potential to significantly impact what our world might look like in 50 years. For each question, several students shared out their predictions with the class, and then a film clip was shown that illustrated one possible interpretation of how the future might look. After engaging in research and developing their own guiding question, the students will create short documentary films that depict their group's data-driven prediction for the future. The 3-5 minute shorts will be screened at an evening Film Festival on Friday, June 3rd in the PAC. Mark your calendars - these films are sure to be ahead of their time!

We'd love to hear about other projects that are happening! Feel free to add yours in the comments, or let me know and I'd be happy to write it up.