The Math Around Us  

Humans would understand very little about the world without the help of mathematics. It is an indispensable tool that allows us to make sense of all natural and unnatural phenomena. Mathematics send astronauts to the moon, build skyscrapers, reveal changing patterns in climate, and help us to classify organisms in nature. Through learning expeditions, students learn math not solely for its own sake, but in contexts where they can truly appreciate its potential to change the way we view our world.

• This week, K1 students explored the distinction between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors by using Venn diagrams to sort toys based on their color content. Students also polished their data collection skills by analyzing the number of times that a character in a story encounters various colors on his journey.

• The K2 class has been learning about the very important topic of nutrition. By administering juice taste tests, they have been measuring people's different taste preferences. They have also been classifying and exploring the physical differences of fruits, such as their number of seeds.

• Second graders' study of graphing will soon help them to better understand snakes. They will chart the differences between species of snakes by graphing their lengths. They will also create surveys to gauge people's individual thoughts and reactions to snakes.

• Fourth graders are applying their data analysis skills to complex real-life trends, such as immigration. They have been practicing interpreting graphs by working with data sets of the nationalities that make up the Boston immigrant population and the regions where they live.

• Fifth graders are learning about the geological concept of Albedo and its effect on global climate. They constructed experiments using lights and thermometers to observe how the varying reflective qualities (or albedo) of different colors of paper affects temperature. They then studied graphs that show how this phenomenon on a large scale can potentially affect world climate, such as the gradual melting of the polar ice caps.

Words Make Waves: 6th Graders write about social issues 

Students were proud to share their pieces. They read with conviction about a variety of challenging social emotional topics, such as bullying, coping with family hardship, and overcoming obstacles.  It was amazing to see the range of ideas that they were interested in teaching others about--they knew that the 4th graders would be their audience, so they were writing with a real sense of purpose.

Ms. Perkins called the assignment a complete success: "After working with personal narrative for the first couple of months of school, it was fun to do some fiction with them: they seemed to use stronger voices through fictitious characters, which often seemed even more personal than the personal narratives."

Students also gave each other thoughtful feedback on notecards which they enclosed in envelopes to keep and remember their time in this literary community.

Building New Music Ensembles 

Chamber music fills the air on Wednesday afternoons as five high school students show eight Dudamel Orchestra musicians the intricacies of working as a small ensemble.  These Arts Leaders are engaged in a year-long intensive arts leadership project organized by 

From The Top's Center for the Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL).  These experienced high school musicians have two goals: to impart the skills necessary to our students to create and sustain their own small chamber ensembles and to improve their own teaching skills. This is the second group of Dudamel musicians to spend their Wednesdays learning new repertoire and new ways of making music together.  Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons was the piece selected by the students. 

 

Cellists Andrew Laven, a senior at Wayland School and Ju Hyun Lee, a junior at BU Academy have been working with 4th grade double bassist Mark Anthony Cazir and 4th grade cellist Kayleen Guzman.  Violinist Greta Myatieva, a 10th grader from Arlington and Violist Chris Rogers-Beadle a 10th grader from Hingham are working primarily with violinists Joydanze Bobb-Semple (5th grade), Rayne Lipscomb (6^th grade), and violists Sam Muzac (4^th grade) and Chavez Singletary (6^th grade).  Flautist Juree Kim, a junior at the Walnut Hill School is sharing her expertise with 5^th graders Ben Lee (flute) and Sofya Gurel (clarinet). Sometimes they work with the high school musician who plays their instrument to work on technical concepts in the music.  Other times they mix up the groupings to work on different musical concepts.  At the end of every session, they come together to rehearse and discuss how they will play the piece.  

From The Top "celebrates the amazing performances and captivating stories of extraordinary young classical musicians" and is one of the most popular classical music programs on NPR radio. Each one hour episode presents performances along with interviews, sketches and games.  The program is hosted by acclaimed pianist Christopher O'Riley and is taped before live audiences in concert halls from Boston to Honolulu. 

From The Top is recording rehearsals, the performance and interviews with our student musicians for a segment of their upcoming radio program.  All of the student participants in this partnership have been invited to attend the Feb. 9^th taping of the program at Jordan Hall.