Learning about the Library and Makers’ Space

One of the things that we’re pretty proud of at the middle school is that we use the resources in our community as supplements to our program. This not only allows our students to form a greater connection to their community (something that’s important for middle schoolers), but also broadens the resources that are available to them.

We use the Tacoma Public Library a lot throughout the year for research, students’ personal reading, and extension activities in Social Studies and Science. This week, we were lucky enough to get a tour of the library from the Teen Librarian at the Tacoma Public Library. Ms. Holloway showed the middle schoolers how to work the library’s catalog system and narrow their search to find what they need, went over the myriad of resources available online, and gave us a tour of the Northwest Room and some of the unique features of the library. For example, did you know that they have a time capsule of human hair that will (hopefully) be opened in the year 3000? That way, civilization in the year 3000 will have a genetic record of us.

This week, we were also able to go to the Lower School campus to use their newly created Makers’ Space! This is an area filled with odds and ends that students can tinker with and put together. Makers’ spaces encourage engineering, creativity, and spacial awareness. We had students create miniature zip-lines, futuristic looking vehicles, and some beautifully decorated flower pots. Middle schoolers are also allowed to use basic tools, and it turns out we have some stealth woodworkers in the group!

First Full Week and Some Exciting News

We’re incredibly lucky that Dr. Claire Todd, a glaciologist from the Geosciences department at PLU, has agreed to work with us over the course of this semester. We’ll be heading up to Mt. Rainier in a couple weeks to talk to her about glacier basics– how they form, how they move, etc. This will be the first in a series of talks with her about glaciers and how they’ve shaped the Washington landscape. Super excited about this. More info soon!

As a part of our PNW Earth Sciences unit this semester, we’ve also been tracking the world’s daily earthquakes over 4.7 and marking them on a map. We’re using this website: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ The hope is that after doing this for a month or so, we’ll be able to see the Ring of Fire and other major fault systems. On a normal day, there are usually around a dozen 4.7 or greater earthquakes to map. But because of the 8.3 earthquake in Chile and all its aftershocks, yesterday there were over 50 to map!

This was our first full week for the school year, and it was a busy one! We started Math groups. Mr. G is taking Algebra and Geometry students, and Caitlin is taking everyone else. Caitlin made a nifty comic book-style expectations sheet for Math this year:

Today was also the first lesson from Ms. Head, our new Art teacher. The subject was how photography changed Art and the world, and today’s lesson was on realist art before photography. Cool stuff!

Camp Colman 2015!

 

And we’re back from camp! What a trip! When we first arrived on Wednesday, students learned about all of the energy that goes into growing, producing, shipping, and cooking their food and why it’s important not to waste food. This continued throughout the trip, with students trying to get “zero ort (scraps of food)” at each meal. The middle schoolers met that challenge head on, and we had several cabins that had zero food waste during the week!

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One of the primary reasons we go to camp at the beginning of the school year is so we can build a healthy community between students and teachers, and so students can work on problem solving together. Because of this, we had students complete many team-building activities together, where they worked on communication, grit, and cooperation. It was so interesting seeing their different solutions to the challenges they were given!

Students also got to participate in traditional camp activities like archery, the ever popular Gaga Ball, boating, and arts and crafts. We also were able to go on a night walk with the Camp Colman counselors, where we learned about nocturnal night life, experienced echo-location, and watched a beautiful sunset over the Sound. We ended the week with a lesson on Pacific Northwest Geography, and a couple rounds of  “Jedi Tag”. It was a great week!

We were sharing photos throughout the week on Instagram, so be sure to check out @seaburyschool to see more photos!

Also, look for more photos on the blog this week! (Your blogger was having some technical difficulties at press time)

First Week!

It’s been a fantastic first week! We’ve been settling in to our temporary home at Urban Grace, while getting started with several Math activities and a couple engineering challenges. Students have had two PE and two French sessions as well.

The picture is of the engineering challenge we did the first day of school. Students were given 15 pieces of uncooked spaghetti, three large marshmallows and a length of string and asked to build the tallest structure they could. This got the students thinking creatively and also served as an ice breaker. There were several cool strategies, including building a kind of trestle using triangles like in the photo. Our winning height was 24.5″!

Next week we’ll be starting PE at the Y and Math groups before heading to Camp Colman for a few days for outdoor ed activities and high ropes courses!