Social Studies News:
Students in the 9/11 and the War on Terror elective traveled to New York on Friday to visit the 9/11 Museum and Memorial. The class also hosted guest speakers to talk about their experiences on or after 9/11 and how their lives changed as a result. Mr. Chafe spoke to the class about his service in the military as trauma nurse and Fred Romani spoke about his experiences as an air traffic controller who was in the Boston command center on 9/11.
Students in Honors Psychology complete A Day in the Life of the Brain project, explaining how each structure of the brain is involved in their daily life.
Students in United States History II became teachers for a day by creating lessons and teaching each other about World War II.
Students in AP U.S. Government and Politics have begun an Opinion Polling Project to gauge the opinion of the student body on topics relevant to their lives. The project requires students to practice the techniques of polling, analyzing the resulting data, and make recommendations to the appropriate governing agency.
Students in Media Literacy and Civic Action Project are concluding their study of media literacy by practicing lateral reading and click restraint. At the beginning of quarter 2, the classes will be starting their Civic Action Projects.
Both Mock Trial Club and Model UN Club have gotten off the ground and begun their meetings.
The science team competed in their first competition at Lynn English and came in fourth place overall .
They have also been busy doing science experiments such as designing rockets out of 2-liter bottles and doing density experiments. We are currently preparing for our next meet November 14th at Hamilton Wenham.
Advanced Placement Biology is currently working on a case study to understand how mutations in the DNA disrupt protein structure and can lead to Cystic Fibrosis.
The Biotech class is currently doing a "Plasmid & Restriction Enzyme Challenge". They have three plasmids that are improperly labeled and 5 restriction enzymes that have not been labeled correctly and they must perform digests and examine gels to properly identify each DNA and each enzyme.
Robotics
We start the year in robotics learning about the sensors (touch, distance, color, rotations) and how to code them to control the robot.
At the end of the sensor unit, we do a multi-day challenge to design, build, and code a robot to run the maze and hit the target at the end. The maze has walls, colored tape, and measurable distances that students can use to get to the target.
World Language News:
In the World Languages Department, the Spanish II Honors classes watched the short film titled, “Día de los Muertos,” which won a Student Academy Award in 2013. Students watched the video, reviewed the traditions surrounding the celebration of the Day of the Dead, and were able to draw comparisons between the Mexican holiday and the celebration of Halloween in the United States. In the AP Spanish Language and Culture class, students watched the movie “La Misma Luna” and discussed complex family relationships and values while also gaining some understanding of the difficult topic of immigration in the United States.
Spanish V Honors/CP students are researching endangered species native to Spanish-speaking countries. They are learning about the animals, investigating why they are endangered and examining how the world is responding to save them from extinction. They will be presenting their findings to the class and creating a campaign to raise awareness.
Debate Team:
This previous weekend the Debate Team traveled to Thayer Academy to compete in the annual MSDL Novice Tournament. Three teams made up of new debaters competed for the first time against teams from other schools in the region. They debated the resolution: The United States should institute term limits on its Supreme Court justices. This topic requires extensive knowledge surrounding the past and present rulings of the Supreme Court and government functions. Teams made up of Isabelle Donnellan Valade/Sabine Cooper, Logan Rushing/Bianca Torri, and Jules D’Andrea/Maya Frangioso did an amazing job! They all received fantastic speaker points on a difficult first topic. As a growing debate team, we're still working on increasing our numbers, but the season is looking bright for our new debaters, and with the guidance of our captains we hope to have a fantastic year for debate.
GSA News:
This year we've been discussing LGBTQIA+ current events, such as the new state policy in California mandating gender and sexuality-related cultural competency training for staff in public schools. We've also been listening to music by queer artists, such as Brandi Carlile, girl in red, and Hope Tala. We're planning on dropping more pride merchandise later in the year, and putting on a scavenger hunt with opportunities to win free buttons, stickers, socks, and hats!
