A Visit from Jeanette Markham

Captivating Historical Haunts

Beverly Malone, Director of Teacher Training Institute

Beginner teachers Dana Bentley and Betty Chan and intern Ashley Woodbury invited Bev Malone and Rebecca Upham to "share" a small portion of BB&N's history. So, on December 5th, Bev Malone dressed as Jeanette Markham, founder of the Buckingham School. She first showed the children artifacts and pictures about the school and then traveled to 46 Belmont Street to view the BB&N timeline.

Please visit this BB&N article to learn more:  

http://www.bbns.org/news-events/news-details/~post/beginners-north-explore-bbn-history-with-the-sharing-project-20161214

Art for Social Change Moves into Cambridge

BB&N MS Guerrilla Artists Meet Public Art in Cambridge
Sasha Bergmann, Middle School Art Teacher

Urban Connections Grant

Fall 2016

Save the Turtles

We hope our sculpture brings awareness to our unconscious overuse of plastic and how it harms the sea animals… and humans.

Artists: Ellie Berman, Tali Beckhardt, Zoe Berman,

Naomi Wang, Claire Sun Woo Chu, Emma Worthington

(Facilitator: Ms. Bergmann)

Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales, and other marine mammals, and more than 1 million seabirds die each year from ocean pollution and ingestion or entanglement in marine debris. Marine debris is manmade waste that is directly or indirectly disposed of in oceans, rivers, and other waterways. http://www.seeturtles.org/ocean-plastic/

Additionally,  ... plastics take thousands of years to decay. As a result, fish and wildlife are becoming intoxicated. Consequently the toxins from the plastics have entered the food chain, threatening human health.

   

Beginning with Ideas:

We collected Plastic

from our Middle School Community:

Building the Sea Turtle together:

Juxtapose Life & Death by

Planting Seeds on Top of the Turtle:

Installation of the Project:

The Turtle is Installed under the Deck of the Arts Building at BB&N Middle School.

Our Final Project:

Report on Global Ecology program visit to the Arnold Arboretum

Global Ecology Education: Creating a Path to Sustainability & Leadership
Karina Baum, Director of Global Education and US Science Teacher

Global Ecology Education Initiative, Boston University
Buckingham Browne & Nichols

In our continuing Global Ecology journey, students from my Advanced Biology classes met Dr. Zook at the world-renowned Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain for  a three hour field trip experience.

 

Given that our emerging program theme centers around the importance of key ecosystems such as forests to the current and future health of the biosphere, this experience was designed to familiarize and personalized students with trees and their relevance to the biosphere.

In an introductory walk, we pointed out key features of certain trees and highlighted global ecological concepts such as succession, biodiversity, albedo, adaptive characteristics, and evolutionary history. We engaged students through series of questions, to which they contributed their ideas and thoughts. Indeed, many questions we posed meant to foster thinking and making connections, rather than simply looking for a single word, statement, or fact.

With some tools - hand magnifying lenses, microviewers and some other resources - the students broke into smaller groups. Each team received a series of challenge questions to work on and discuss at different selected trees.  Indeed, the student groups had to locate their respective tree by using photo cards depicting different parts of the tree. This fostered immediate physical engagement, curiosity, and student collaboration. Dr. Zook and I then went around to visit the different groups, periodically posing a question or idea and helping to keep everyone focused, albeit always in a non-stressful, experiential learning mode.

         

Students later gave brief presentations of their tree discoveries based on the challenge questions. This was followed by a full group picnic on the grass near the magnolia trees prior to departure. Initial observations lead us to conclude that learning is greatly enhanced in instances such as this one, where students leave the classroom to directly interact with the studied theme. This seems especially true when concerning a different life form that deserves our respect, fosters ecological kinship, and demonstrates real application to our lives as humans.

  

Urban Connections Grant Program, 2016-2017

"At BB&N, we embrace Cambridge and Boston as vital parts of our extended 'classroom.'"

Welcome to the Urban Connections Grant Blog! These connections were established during summer 2016 and will be implemented over the next one to three years. Each grant will connect BB&N students to an important establishment in Cambridge, Boston or the Greater Boston Area:

Cambridge Arts Council, Public Art

National Register of Historical Places, Cambridge

The Arnold Arboretum

Boston University

Museum of Science, Boston

Al-Noor Academy

1. BB&N MS Guerrilla Artists Meet Public Art in Cambridge

Sasha Bergmann, MS 3D Art Teacher

This program provides BB&N Middle School students with a connection to public art located throughout Cambridge. The goal of this grant is to further establish the Middle School group entitled The Guerrilla Artists, focused on learning about and creating artwork for social change. This program will expose Middle School students to local activism through art and expand the audience whom the Guerrilla Artists reach with their artwork and message. Cambridge has a history of activism and public artworks, which the Guerrilla Artists aim to honor and celebrate. Through this grant, our Middle School students will communicate important messages through art and continue this Cambridge tradition.

https://www.cambridgema.gov/arts/publicart

http://www.cambridgema.gov/arts/publicart/percentforart/publicarttour

2. Captivating Historical Haunts

Beverly Malone, Director of Teacher Training Institute

This program will connect our Lower School students to the rich history located right here in Cambridge. This new club will educate our Lower School students about the significance of the homes and the people who lived in them in the Buckingham Street area of Cambridge. Grade 5 and 6 students will engage in learning about five local resources that surround the school, all on the National Register of Historic Places. Students will identify five historical figures who lived in the Buckingham Street area, create a diary of the five historical places they visit, and share their findings with peers. The goal of this program is to provide context, meaning and connection for our students to BB&N’s unique Cambridge location.

www.nps.gov/long

www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1946/bridgman-bio.html

www.cambridgehistory.org/HLN/intro

www.cambridgeusa.org/listing/emery-t.-morris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wentworth_Higginson

3. Global Ecology Education: Creating a Path to Sustainability & Leadership

Karina Baum, US Science Teacher

This program will establish a BB&N partnership with the Global Ecology Education Initiative (GEEI) at Boston University. The GEEI is led by highly-regarded biologist and science education professor Dr. Douglas Zook. GEEI also partners with the Arnold Arboretum of Jamaica Plain, which is operated by Harvard University. Upper School students will have fieldwork experiences at the Arboretum led by Dr. Zook. They will engage in directed-learning activities, allowing them to cultivate relationships with and knowledge about natural habitats, as well as a first-hand understanding of the importance of preserving biodiversity. In addition, Dr. Zook will work with the students at BB&N to support and follow up on their fieldwork experiences. As a result of this program, BB&N students will develop global leadership skills in ecological sustainability.

http://dpzook.wix.com/geei

http://www.bu.edu/sed/about-us/faculty/profiles/douglas-zook/

http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/academics/education/global-ecology-education-certificate-program/

http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/

4. Museum of Science, Boston

Kelley Schultheis, MS Science Teacher

Gus Means, MS Math Teacher

This program will utilize the amazing resources at the Museum of Science. The goal of this grant is to develop science understanding while also building community, both within the Middle School and between the three campuses. Field trips to the museum will allow students to work with their homerooms and develop problem-solving and collaborative skills. Through the Museum of Science traveling program, museum educators will bring the exciting science to our Middle School campus. In addition, a family night at the Museum of Science will be a unique opportunity for the BB&N community to come together as a whole. Ideally, this cross-campus community science experience will become a BB&N tradition.

http://www.mos.org/

http://www.mos.org/traveling-programs

5. Sixth Grade Pen Pal and Mural Project

Leila Huff, Grade 6 Homeroom and Language Arts Teacher

Stevie Olson, Grade 6 Homeroom and Social Studies Teacher

Berhane Zerom, Grade 6 Homeroom and Math Teacher

This program will connect the BB&N sixth grade students with sixth grade students at Al-Noor Academy (ANA,) an Islamic middle and high school. Students from both schools will work together to create a mural expressing the theme, “What Makes a Healthy Community.” They will begin to develop this new relationship as pen pals.  They will write back and forth to introduce themselves and learn about each other’s interests, values, and communities. Working together, they will explore the “Healthy Community” theme and design the mural. This grant will include interdisciplinary learning and opportunities for the communities to gather and foster mutual respect, while creating a lasting mural to represent their connection and collaboration.

http://www.al-nooracademy.org/