BrewsterConnections(PDF) - Brewster Academy

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Projects Shaping Senior Year By Marcia Eldredge Three years ago, when members of the Class of 2012 were sophomores, Brewster began incorporating project-based learning (PBL) into its curriculum. Always keenly aware of its responsibilities to prepare students for college and beyond, Brewster’s PBL curriculum provides a learning process for students to develop the academic, thinking, problem-solving, technology, and interpersonal skills that reflect what employers are calling for in their 21 st century employees. Since that time, the PBL initiative has been incrementally initiated so that for the 2011-2012 school year all freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will be involved in PBL work. Seniors will have a unique project experience. “Seniors work on their project throughout the year, which gives them a chance to cover the topic of their choice in more depth than underclassmen and really create a capstone product for their final year at Brewster,” explained Dean of Studies Peter Hess. “It also gives them the chance, depending on the nature of their project, to do research that gets tracked over a period of time. We have greater expectations for what seniors will produce.” Underclassmen projects are completed within a two-week period at the end of the year, a time once reserved for exams. “We have envisioned a continuum from freshman to senior year that moves students from conducting research and sharing information to actually developing creative solutions that address a problem or issue. We want projects to empower students to be resourceful and innovative,” Hess said. Currently, senior projects are required to fulfill one of the following criteria: • Solve a real-world problem. • Seek to answer a question. • Create an original piece of thought or expression. • Create something original that is useful or meaningful to someone else. • Undertake an apprenticeship or internship. “We are trying to move students in the direction of doing something that benefits others. While that isn’t a requirement this year, we hope to move in this direction of students finding creative, imaginative ideas that can hopefully make a difference for others,” Hess said. Here we present five senior projects: two projects that, if successful, will help make a difference in the lives of others; two projects that will educate others; and one internship. Amy Misera’s First Homes Foundation If Amy Misera’s (Cockeysville, Maryland) senior project goes as planned, it could make a difference in the lives of Russia’s youngest citizens. Adopted from a Russian orphanage at age 1, Amy wanted to do something unique, to give back. “I have been given so much, including the chance to come to Brewster. I’ve been lucky. Coming from where I did, I was given a second chance and thought I should do something with it.” raising money, making connections, and that “everything works better when you have people who believe in the cause and are there for you.” Her goal is simple: to raise money to buy materials and supplies, like blankets and medicines – basic things that are not necessarily affordable to the orphanage but will make Samara 2 a more comfortable place to live for the babies and children while they await adoption – and deliver them herself. The First Homes Foundation is her vision. Her senior project could just make it a reality. The summer before her senior year, Amy spent time interning at the non-profit organization Children Across Borders. Here she learned about At the beginning of senior year, seniors are required to write and then present a project proposal to the senior team faculty. The proposal had to show that her project fit into one of five categories. After her Amy Misera proposal was accepted, she was then required to create an action plan that would show the project had reasonable expectations for a successful completion. 6 BrewsterConnections – Spring 2012
Project-Based Learning Evolves Once her action plan was accepted, Amy was ready to take the first step toward creating her foundation, including writing a mission statement, creating a team, finding financial backers, and getting accredited, which she can do now that she is 18. After writing to the orphanage and receiving no response, Amy began a different approach. “I have branched out and am using outside resources of people and organizations that might have connections back to the orphanage.” English class is the one course that has helped her the most with skills most applicable to her project, she says. “English has helped with writing flow and using proper English because my mission statement and other writing have to be official, professional.” “This is really different than anything I’ve ever done before or anything in the classroom. Creating foundations isn’t something I’ve learned in school; I’m kind of going in blind. I don’t know what to expect because I’ve never done it before. It’s not research. It’s doing. It’s action. I know there is a chance of failure but there is chance of success.” At the time of this interview, Amy was drafting and editing her mission statement, but at the conclusion of her Brewster senior project, she says “I will have a foundation I’ve created and go into life helping other kids; I’m taking steps to help kids who are like me.” Seeking Alternative Energy An attempt to build and demonstrate a simple way to generate energy It was a physics class that sparked a senior project topic for Adam Kolb (New Durham, New Hampshire) and Brady Palmer (Wolfeboro). “In physics class we were making an energy efficient home for a third world country and one of the things that we thought of in the project was a methane toilet,” explained Adam, referring to the gas that could be collected for use as fuel. “Then we cleaned it up a little and thought we would do organic material.” “Our goal is to create a biomasss generator that we can use here at the school, not just to leave behind at the school, but so other students can pick up and evolve it,” he added. Just how easy is it? Physics has played a huge part as far as understanding energy efficiency yet we want to make something that someone doesn’t need a background in science to build, Adam said. We want to keep it simple so that our prototype could be used by a developing country, Brady added. “We found that over eight-weeks at 80 degrees F the biomass compost would create enough methane gas that’s flammable. Aside from cooking you could use it for heating and lighting,” Adam explained. Although we could harvest the compost right on campus from dining hall waste, according to Mr. Gorrill pig manure is the most potent for creating methane and that is available from local farmers, explained Brady, adding that they were still working out the logistics of transporting this organic matter back to campus. Once the machine is closed off and the mass is locked in and burns, it should not give off an odor, Adam was quick add. Classroom Impact Both boys attributed time spent working in STAD groups (student team achievement divisions) to their ability to understand what it takes to work within a group, including not splitting up work but learning how to function effectively as a team. “When you are working in a STAD, you know how to split up the work. When you work with a group you learn you need to split up the work for the good of the group to get things done,” Brady explained. “When we have two ideas about the same thing, we Adam Kolb Brady Palmer www.brewsteracademy.org 7
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