The first Exploration Unit of the year began this week at the middle school. This first of three Explorations, which is taking place from December 9th through 19th, will see our entire middle school take a deep dive into the human brain. Over the course of the amazing two-week study developed by Rebecca DeCola, our Exploration Director, our community will engage in many diverse activities to help us answer the question: What kinds of minds does our community need?
Students will be exposed to some of the latest research in neuroscience and learning. They will participate in lessons providing in-depth explorations of how the human brain works, including neurodevelopment constructs such as attention, memory, language, and sequential and spatial order – which they will get to demonstrate in a Marble Olympics. On Tuesday a “brain team” from New York University brought real human brains to our “Brain Fair” for our students to study! Students will also visit museums in the area, participate in an animation workshop, and even get to demonstrate some of the social and physical functions of the brain in an ice skating outing together. To further help our students experience and reflect on the multitude of amazing functions performed by the brain some of our very own accomplished middle school talents will perform for our students next week.
During this unique program middle school classes are suspended while all middle school students and staff get to switch into Exploration mode. At the end of the Exploration Unit, the middle school will hold its first Exploration Exposition of the year where middle school families will get to participate in a student led “Mind Fair.” The Exhibition will also showcase many of the products of our students’ hard work during this exciting program, including written learning profiles, creative “mind stories,” and other written works. We hope all middle school families can make this exciting event!