Meet Lisa Barker, Food and Farm Coordinator. Lisa is responsible for all growing spaces on campus: the Baron Greenhouse in the Commons, the high tunnel, and the Harley Micro-Farm. You will learn more about her Food and Farm 101 course in a separate blog post.

Meet Kima Enerson, our new Maker Educator in the Commons. Kima is in charge of the workshop space in the basement of the Commons, but serves as a collaborator with many faculty to expand their teaching to include more hands-on and design thinking principles for their students. You will learn more about her work with the Middle School students in a separate blog post.

Kevin Boyd and Jocie Kopfman are returning teachers in the Commons, but this year they are teaching a new course together: Sustainable Community Engagement. This course offers students the opportunity to design an educational partnership with a locally based community non-profit organization. This hands-on engagement is coupled with an in-class introduction to basic elements of sociological research methods, with specific attention to power and access through the lenses of race, gender, and socio-economic factors. The pedagogical aim is to empower students with the tools to create mutual, enduring, and transformative social partnerships.

Our fearless Commons Director, Seth O’Bryan, helps oversee all of the courses in the Commons while teaching a few of his own specific to the sustainable energy and systems in the building.

TRIMESTER I COMMONS COURSES and CLUBS:

Design and Innovation Lab — Upper School elective

Design and Innovation Lab is an entry-level engineering and innovation class that exposes students to the basic elements of the design process (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test) and then supports them through a series of increasingly difficult design challenges. Through this hands-on, shop-based class, students work with core engineering and design concepts and collaborate to solve various problems. Material and the related tools the students will utilize include cardboard, wood, metal, electronics, digital logic and programming, biology and plants, and more. Additionally, students learn the basic knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to operate a baseline set of tools in the shop safely and effectively.

Design and Innovation Flex Time – Middle School flex time option

Middle School students learn the basics of design in the Workshop, while developing familiarity and skills with hand tools.

Food and Farm 101 – Upper School elective

This course provides students with experiential hands-on learning through working as the management and labor force behind the Harley Micro-Farm and greenhouse. This fall, students have been harvesting produce and experimenting with unique recipes, as well as planning and planting crops for fall/winter green production in the high tunnel. They also have the opportunity to explore design concepts related to small-scale food production and education, as well as to examine the framework of community food systems, beginning to think conceptually and practically about real-world food issues, discrepancies, and solutions.

Food and Farm Flex Time– Middle School flex time option

Middle School students can spend time working with Lisa in the Micro-Farm and getting their hands dirty!

Garden Club – Upper School weekly club

The Garden Club has been working on identifying projects around the Micro-Farm and are starting with supporting the compost program.

Hospice – Upper School year-long elective

Students learn both the medical and emotional side of providing end-of-life care, which includes assigned shifts at local hospice houses and reflection on what they are learning and feeling as they care for others.

Independent Studies – Upper School electives

Students are offered opportunities to pursue a particular subject in-depth or develop an understanding of a topic not offered in the current curriculum.

Intro to Mindfulness – Upper School elective

A trimester course designed to introduce students to elements of mindful practice, the research behind it, and exercises/meditation to increase their awareness of their thoughts and ability to be fully present in the moment.

Living Building – Upper School elective

Students work together to investigate topics and address problems related to the Commons building and sustainability. This trimester, the students are building a gate for the Micro-Farm, studying coding to gather data from the solar chimneys, and designing and interactive lobby space for the ground floor of the Commons.

Maker Mornings — Sixth Grade homeroom activities

The sixth grade homerooms attend Maker Mornings once a week each to build their sense of community, learn to work collaboratively, and to tackle quick engineering challenges in the Project Space.

Rights & Responsibilities – Ninth Grade mandatory trimester rotation

R & R is a trimester-long freshman seminar that engages students in discussions and activities that explore our individual and collective rights and responsibilities within the various communities to which we belong. Students use issues facing the Harley community, the Rochester community, and the broader national and global communities as discussion points and examples. They explore their thoughts and opinions about these issues in terms of individual and collective success, and social and environmental justice. Students learn basic qualitative research skills in order to explore a social issue that interests them so that they can effectively advocate and work toward solutions they could implement to effect positive social change.

Robotics– Upper School year-long elective

Students are introduced to the basics of coding in this course. They learn how to design and build a robot to complete specific tasks as assigned by the competitive league guidelines. Using design thinking, collaborative problem solving, and creativity, the “team” learns how to maximize their strengths to leverage the best outcome as they program their robot and prepare for competition.

Sustainable Community Engagement – Upper School year-long elective

This course offers students the opportunity to design an educational partnership with a locally based community non-profit organization. This hands-on engagement is coupled with an in-class introduction to basic elements of sociological research methods, with specific attention to power and access through the lenses of race, gender, and socio-economic factors. The pedagogical aim is to empower students with the tools to create mutual, enduring, and transformative social partnerships.

Dr. Pasternack is a Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He works as attending physician in the emergency department at Strong Memorial Hospital and at Golisano Children’s Hospital. His education includes Sc.B. from Brown University, M.D. in Mathematical Physics and Ph.D. in Mathematics from Princeton University, M.D. from the University of Rochester. More than that, however, he is a savvy consumer of his world and a relentless mathematician who seeks to understand all aspects of a choice before making a decision. His experience shopping for a new car (hybrid? fully electric? gas-powered?) led him to dig deeply into the cost per unit for each kind of energy (electricity from various sources, gas, etc.) and what the threshold would be in order to make his choice of electric car cost-reducing and efficient. He described how much power can be gained from one cup of gasoline, as opposed to the equivalent battery power.

The evening discussion was lively and fast-paced, with an informed and intelligent audience peppering Dr. Pasternack with different scenarios, which he ably addressed and used to then drive deeper discussions. The energy systems of the Commons building were also examined for their effectiveness and purpose (working towards the greater environmental good is not necessarily the least expensive option yet…). Those who attended certainly left strongly motivated to examine their utility bills and armed with meaningful information.

Derrick will be helping with the Robotics and Sustainable Systems classes, and is now offering a Beginning Coding workshop for Upper School students. He and Kyle have already been maximizing their time together by working on the machines of the Commons basement spaces, as well as collaborating and planning with faculty on possible projects. They are quickly becoming the Penn and Teller of the ground floor, as they are frequently seen together, evidenced by the photos below…

Chris Becker is teaching 7th and 8th Grade Science as Carli Rivers’ long-term sub while she is out on maternity leave. Chris not only teaches all 7th and 8th Grade Science courses, but has accompanied the 8th Grade on their outdoor education trip to the Adirondacks. Welcome, Chris!

Kevin Boyd is our new Hospice instructor. In addition to teaching three sections of Hospice, Kevin is also teaching an Introduction to Mindfulness elective for the Upper School and a mindfulness rotation for the fifth graders.  We look forward to Kevin continuing to make strong community connections for our Hospice students!

Lars Kuelling was hired to fill the newly-established position of Academic Dean. In addition to his administrative work with curriculum, schedule, and teacher development, Lars co-teaches the 9th Grade Rights & Responsibilities class with Jocie Kopfman. Their approach aims to have 9th graders engage in healthy discussion and dialogue on a variety of socially-relevant topics, encouraging them to invest in advocating for a cause and justifying their efforts. We welcome Lars and his family to Harley!

“What does sustainability mean?  Can it be used as a framework to gain a more meaningful understanding of our lives and the world we live in? Can a class study sustainability and also engage in action projects?  This year, Harley is offering a course called Sustainable Systems Thinking, which is co-taught by Chris Hartman and Seth O’Bryan.  The co-teachers are hoping to combine an academic approach to studying sustainability and concurrently engage in work that directly impacts the topics we are learning about.  We started the course by exploring definitions of sustainability and ultimately critically examining a definition the Commons teachers and students have been working on.  The first unit culminated with creating a proposed display about sustainability for Flag Hall.  

Our working definition is:  Sustainability is a system that focuses on an interdependence among the environment, community, and economy.  Sustainability builds on the past while being attentive to the present, and aims for a positive, lasting impact on future generations.

More importantly, what’s on the horizon?  Soon, we will be studying food and sustainable systems, and the unit will culminate with an action project that aims to have tangible outcomes that affect our community.  Also, we hope to get community feedback on the sustainability definition in order to promote common language and understanding among community members.  If you have questions or an interest in collaborating with our class feel free to contact us.”

The current fruits of their continued efforts:

The evening was moderated by Seth O’Bryan, Commons Co-Director and Living Building teacher. After an opening slideshow and introductory video (Slideshow: https://youtu.be/E91IAAKs0Lk; Intro Video: https://youtu.be/DJiU8M-GMg8) Seth had the five students introduce themselves and share a bit of their own background and interest in the Commons, and then describe their current pursuits. Seeley Taylor (’16) described the investment she has had in the Commons since the very beginning. She has worked to spearhead the Commons Student Council, has participated in Living Building classes, and has forged new paths for student management and responsibility for the building and the programs within. Thomas Neumaier (’19) spent some time explaining how his introduction to the Commons came through his work in 7th and 8th Grade science and the hands-on projects he engaged with as part of the regular curriculum. He then shared his current work with the Rochester Youth Climate Leader as a member of the steering committee and designer of the organization’s website. Kit Taylor (’18) described her work this year in creating a Feminist Club in the Upper School, with the help and support of Commons Educator, Jocie Kopfman. She has taken her advocacy into the Middle School where she leads a diversity action group during their Flex Time. Maelys Lossa (’16) has been an eager student of the systems and data of the Commons. Numerous hours have been spent examining data from energy reports, tracking down circuit use, exploring the solar chimney, and working towards managing the building to Net Zero. She has also worked to help establish a working institutional definition for sustainability and has been a key voice in advancing the work of the Commons with the administration. Jacob LaDue (’19) is an active student of design and creation who spends a majority of his day in the workshop either as part of his Design and Innovation class or during his free time. Of his own initiative, Jacob has worked to master the design of tops which he creates on the lathe and other tools. He expresses a sincere appreciation for having had to work through the design process in his science classes in Middle School, and now under the guidance of Chris Hartman (Commons Co-Director) and Ja’Daiza Johnson (Commons Educator).

A recurring theme from the evening was how much the work and passions of these five students overlapped, much like the intentional integration of the themes in the Commons. They were humble in how they shared about their pursuits, credited their teachers where appropriate, and answered questions about “what next?” It was a fantastic evening for all of us to appreciate the level of investment these students have made, not only in the working of the Commons, but also as role models for the next generation of students who will be afforded the same opportunities these five eagerly seized.

Dr. Susan Spencer of ROCSPOT made a return trip to Harley in April to work with the Living Building class.  She worked with the students to study the solar chimneys in the greenhouse and also give feedback on the mini-solar heaters they are constructing in order to better understand the scientific principles at work.  The solar chimneys utilize radiation from the sun to heating and cooling the spaces in the Commons without using any electricity other than to open and close vents.  If they are used effectively, we would rely less on the traditional heating and cooling system in the building, and thus, use less electricity.   At this time, we do not have much data on how much heat is generated in the chimneys and how much air flow is happening from the chimney into the classrooms. Dr. Spencer gave the students advice on how to construct a scientific experience to investigate and measure the impact the chimneys have on the classrooms.

“Time is money,” is a popular adage I often hear.  If you have walked through the main Gallery recently, then you might have noticed the new water fountain.  It contains a motion sensor water bottle filler and digital display that communicates how many equivalent plastic water bottles have been filled since its first use.  The new water fountain takes about ⅓ the amount of time to fill a water bottle as the old one.  We hope that given the speed with which the machine fills water bottles, people will be more prone to bring a reusable water bottle to school and avoid buying plastic water bottles.  There are a tremendous amount of plastic water bottles that are purchased in a year, and most go to waste.  Also, the construction of one plastic water bottle at a factory takes at least twice the amount of water as is in the water bottle.  

It often takes a team to lead effective change.  The vision for purchasing a new machine was student inspired.  Many universities and grade schools already have motion-sensor drinking fountains, and a few Living Building (upper school elective) students believed Harley should follow their lead.   The students put together a proposal for purchasing one, and the proposal included environmental and community benefits.  Then, they met with administrators to discuss the value of a new water fountain and the financial resources for the investment.  Included in that group was the facilities director who was the key person for ensuring that the proposal fit with the mission of the school and was a reasonable request.  The facilities team did a remarkable job with the installation, as it appears as though the drinking fountain has always been a part of the wall.  The Living Building students have more ideas for designing a Harley water bottle that would be part of a fundraiser and also to work with the administration to cut back on using plastic water bottles at events (something we have significantly curbed in recent years).  In the meantime, bring your reusable water bottle to school!

Dr. Spencer started the day meeting with Commons Co-Director, Seth O’Bryan, to brainstorm possible professional development and community-engagement activities for Harley, as well as for the broader circle of Rochester educators. It is interesting to note that a recent research study published in Science showed that schools are not doing a good job of educating students on climate change and are often sending mixed messages about it. The study was not designed to single out public school teachers, but rather to demonstrate how much professional development and teacher support are still needed. The Commons and the work our faculty and students pursue in this area can be valuable resources for teachers in the Rochester area and beyond.

As this is a new trimester from when Dr. Spencer visited before, she met with the new Living Building class, explained her thesis and research on solar panels and materials, then explored possible empirical studies the students could undertake related to the solar chimneys. From there, she met with the Third Grade for the first time and learned about their solar off-the-grid project. Her work with ROCSPOT also incorporates the idea of creating micro-grids of sustainable energy to eliminate community reliance on fossil-fuel powered energy grids. She toured the Centrum with the solar-powered chandeliers and was both impressed and excited about the work our third graders are undertaking.

Finally, Dr. Spencer grabbed a few moments with Middle School science teachers, Anneke Nordmark and Carli Rivers, to brainstorm possible collaborative projects for the future. All in all, the three short hours Dr. Spencer spent on campus yielded much momentum and validation for our ongoing science and sustainability projects. We look forward to having her back again during 3rd trimester.