The Discovering Cambridge Club

Captivating Historical Haunts

Beverly Malone, Director of Teacher Training Institute

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

The Discovering Cambridge Club went to two houses today.  The first was Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson House at 29 Buckingham Street. He started the “Miss Markham School” by hiring Jeanette Markham to tutor his daughter Margaret Higginson.  The school was later incorporated as The Buckingham School.  The Markham Building is still standing - on the first floor was the school and the second floor served as her home. Colonel Higginson was a dedicated abolitionist.  He risked his life to help Anthony Burns (a slave) escape from the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.  During the civil war, Higginson was a colonel to the first black regiment in South Carolina.  In later life he worked for women’s rights.

We then went to Emery T. Morris House at 30 Parker Street.  He worked with W.E.B. DuBois and Clement Morgan to start the Niagara Movement, which was an early civil rights organization.  He collected one of the largest antislavery libraries in New England.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

The Discovering Cambridge Club had a fun trip to the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House located at 159 Brattle Street.  The group was decked out in authentic 1775 cloaks hand sewn by Beverly Malone.

This house is the second oldest house in Cambridge and was originally built in 1685. 

The Cambridge Historical Society now has its headquarters there.  They were extremely hospitable – having a reenactor tell the story of several centuries through the use of our senses.  We were able to hear, smell, see, feel and even taste what it would be like in the 17^th, 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th centuries through this “witness” house.  Tasting molasses and gingersnaps, smelling rum and listening to quacking ducks during the early years were highlights.  Smelling old fireplaces, used tobacco or listening to noise from wagons were not as enjoyable.

                                      

We checked out the large baking oven in the fireplace, 

found out that Judge Joseph Lee was a Loyalist (Tory) during the American Revolution and fled from the house at the beginning.  Another man by the name of Cornelius Waldo made most of his money from the slave trade and from buying and selling rum.  

Representing the 19^th and 20^th centuries we were able to inspect fancy wallpaper and even see an original stamp tax.  We also found out that Cambridge has manufactured over 29 different candies – including Charleston Chew, Junior Mints, Sugar Daddies, Squirrel Brand Nuts, Fig Newtons, NECCO wafers and Tootsie Rolls. Who would have known that Cambridge was a leading “Candy Land.”?  We also found out that Cambridge is also known for its inventions including the Poloroid Land camera, sewing machines, Doppler Radar, first computer game, GPS, World Wide Web, stereo speakers and even the Zip Car.

 

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

The Discovering Cambridge Club began exploring the rich historical area around the Lower School.  This group of grade 5 and 6 students started their investigations by scrutinizing Dr. Percy W. Bridgman’s House located on the Lower School property at 10 Buckingham Place.  Dr. Bridgman was a Harvard professor and Noble Prize winner in Physics.  He was the fifth American to be honored with this award for doing research in high pressure physics.  The group of students examined every inch of the house.  The most intriguing area was the basement in which they discovered “horsehair” plaster  (known as Lath and Plaster) and a few eight legged creatures of the order Araneae.

The Bridgman House is now home to BB&N’s Communications office, School Counselor and Teacher Training Institute on the second floor, and the After School Program on the first floor. A few spiders are nestled in the basement.

     

Art for Social Change Field Trip

BB&N MS Guerrilla Artists Meet Public Art in Cambridge

Sasha Bergmann, MS 3D Art Teacher

Today we had a successful field trip today to Kendall Square, (Binney & 3rd to be more exact), and the Garment District with my Art for Social Change Elective.  We explored this outdoor space for our 'Cambridge' location for our current Empathy Shoe exhibit that is currently up at BB&N Middle School.  

We had a very productive conversation about how to present our idea in a non-ceiling site when our original idea was to do a chandelier of shoes, without losing integrity for our idea.  Our current plan is to make a large standing word out of shoes. We tried it out with our bodies, making the word ACCEPT.  We are curious about how to express empathy in this country's current political climate.  We have not settled on what word/s yet.  We have research to do for materials and costs and we also need to put together a proposal for the Cambridge Artist Council for this Kendall Square space which is a designate open space for Public Art.

    

After we finished in Kendall Square, we stopped off at the Garment District and purchased 25 pounds of shoes for our continued sculpture experience.  

It was a great time!!  If we would have had more time, I would have treated them to ice cream... next time!!

6th Grade Pen Pals, Al-Noor Academy and BB&N

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

As sixth grade students prepare to

begin their pen pal writing experience with Al-Noor Academy in Mansfield, MA, they decided to reach out a little earlier than usual this year after the presidential election. In Social Studies class, the students talked a lot about the negative rhetoric that drove the campaigns and they felt that it was important to reach out to their pen pals and build a connection sooner than years past in order to begin building relationships that would foster a healthy community.  Although returning students from Al-Noor Academy are familiar with the BB&N campus, our sixth graders are altogether new to this relationship and are excited to begin communicating even though our art collaboration doesn’t occur until the spring. Below is the letter sent to Al-Noor students and the pictures BB&N students saw from last year’s exchange. They are anxiously awaiting correspondence back!

Dear Al-Noor Academy Sixth Grade Students,

Greetings and salutations! We are the Buckingham Browne & Nichols 6th Grade students. There are 55 students in our grade, and we are split up into three different classes.

We are writing to you because we want to share parts of our community and learn about your community. As a grade, we are truly excited to learn about you and your school. Our Social Studies teacher Mr. Olson told us about last year’s pen pal and mural project, and we are looking forward to participating in a similar experience.

In our school, we have several subjects such as Social Studies, Language Arts, Math, Science, Arts, World Languages, Technology, and Study Hall. Sometimes during Study Hall our teachers will use the time for extra learning, such as social emotional skills and organizational strategies. We also have Community Time where we participate in assemblies or have Buddies and One World Club. Buddies is when we are paired up with younger students, and we do different projects with them. One World Club is our community service club for sixth graders. We were wondering what subjects you have at your school. Are your subjects different from ours?

A typical day at BB&N includes a lot of learning and many extracurricular activities. It is mandatory for everyone to pick a sport each season. We have three seasons of sports each year. The fall season had many sports such as soccer, field hockey, volleyball, cross country, football, and health and fitness. We are excited for the winter sports, which started yesterday. We haven't reached the spring yet--obviously--but we are super excited to. Our grade is wondering what extracurricular activities your school offers.

At BB&N we are currently learning about many interesting topics. In Social Studies, we are focusing on racial inequality relating to current events. In Language Arts, we have just finished active reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. In Math, our current unit has consisted of learning how to find the volume and surface area of a three dimensional figures. Also, in Science, we are wrapping up a unit on cell metabolism and how cells make proteins. What are some of the topics you are learning about in your different subjects?

All of the BB&N students are so excited to write letters and eventually meet you! We hope to see you soon! Write back when you can.

Sincerely,
The BB&N Sixth Graders

Museum of Science, Boston

Museum of Science, Boston

Kelley Schultheis, MS Science Teacher

Gus Means, MS Math Teacher

We’ve had a busy fall with our Museum of Science Urban Connections Grant. In October, the entire 7th grade went on an epic adventure to the Museum. The focus of the trip was teamwork and homeroom bonding. In addition, we learned a little science along the way. We started the day with a high-tech scavenger hunt across the museum using iPads and an app called Klikaklu.

After the scavenger hunt, students tried their hands at the Museum’s Design Challenge Station. The challenge of the day was to design and build a claw that could pick up the most toys. There was serious competition, particularly among the math and science teachers. We capped our adventure with a lightning show in the Theater of Electricity. During the finale, our very own, Mr. Means, put his own life on the line to test the laws of physics. He climbed into the cage with the presenter as it was struck by lightning! Luckily he lived to tell the tale.

In November, we expanded our Museum and BB&N connection by hosting our first ever school-wide Family Knight. We had about 80 BB&N families, including faculty and staff families, join us for an evening of fun and science. Please visit this BB&N article to learn more about the Family Knight:

http://www.bbns.org/news-events/news-details/~post/bbn-family-knight-proves-electric-at-the-museum-of-science-20161208

We are looking forward to our traveling program in February. The Museum will be bringing some extreme temperatures to the Big Room on 80 Sparks. Stay-tuned to hear about our next science adventure!