Design Thinking Classes — Guest blog by Ja’Daiza Johnson, Commons Leader in Residence Design Thinking has been a great set of classes so far this year. The two Middle School Flex Time classes have been working on various projects to get the students familiar with the design process and to...
Seth O’Bryan, Commons Co-Coordinator and teacher of the Living Building class, is always asking questions. That’s what makes working with him such a delight. As we gradually learn more about what is possible with the systems of the Commons and how they interact, Seth is leading the charge to analyze...
Guest blog by Ja’Daiza Johnson, Commons Leader in Residence This year the Greenhouse appears much more tropical than usual. The 20 banana trees that now live on the Mezzanine balcony are the reason! The trees are all different shapes and sizes, ranging from babies just sprouting through the soil up...
Peter Hentschke’s Environmental Science class has begun growing algae. This algae not only will serve to sequester CO2, but it will eventually be used as a biofuel. The first step in this process is to determine the best factors for growing the largest quantity of algae. To determine this, the...
The new gaga court is complete, and the Middle School students love it! The flex time Design Thinking class spent a good part of the fall designing and building the new element of the Middle School playground. Once the dimensions were finalized, it was just a matter of cutting into...
There’s just something about fall and catapults…. Both 8th Grade and 4th Grade students built catapults (or less formal launchers) as part of their science classes. As punkin’ chunkin’ devices can be found at most farms this time of year, it was time for our students to try their engineering...
As part of their “Blank Tape” series of concerts, the Institute for Creative Music returned to the Briggs Center for Civic Engagement to share new pieces and community collaboration. The evening started off with the members of the IfCM “collective” performing pieces written by the members. The members of the...
Guest blog–by Seth O’Bryan In some ways, graphs are the literature of mathematics, or maybe the graphic novels of mathematics. Graphs tell a story, often quicker than numbers can. At a quick glance, you can begin to see patterns. These patterns prompt questions, and they also help the reader think...
This past Tuesday, we were honored to have Jack Baron, President and COO of Sweetwater Energy, present on our second Commons Speaker Series evening. The title of Jack’s presentation was “Sugar–the new oil”. Sweetwater Energy is engaged in taking waste forest and agricultural biomass and converting it into useable sugars...
Guest blog post–by Seth O’Bryan The net zero challenge is a major goal in the Commons. We hope to generate at least as much solar energy as electrical energy we use in the Commons. Ideally, we would have a surplus of energy that can be used to help offset energy...
