7th Grade Urban Planners!

Hello all!

My name is Shannon Connors and I am the Investigations teacher for the 7th grade at US Grant. This summer, I have been teaching a course called "Study of the City" in which we explore the mechanics of cities and work towards analyzing and designing solutions for common urban issues. The students have tackled diverse concepts during our week-long units including public transportation, public spaces, and the relationship between city demographics and city government. They have debated the value of openness vs. privacy in public spaces, interviewed New Haven residents on the Green, and held a mock city-council meeting to evaluate a public works project and the use of eminent domain. Throughout all of this, the students have been honing their analytic and graphing skills by applying their city planning knowledge to real statistics about New Haven.

First Period Class on The New Haven Green

Second Period Class on The New Haven Green

Last week the students were given a challenge; for their final projects, they have taken on the role of urban designers and are charged with the task of creating entirely new cities complete with streets, residential and commercial zones, public transportation systems, and public spaces. In addition, each student has selected two issues that we discussed in class (i.e. homelessness, public transportation, pollution) and must incorporate solutions to those problems into their city designs. The students have been hard at work, researching their urban problems and creating stunning, thoughtful maps of their cities. Though they have all been given the same general guidelines each student has taken the assignment in an entirely unique direction. The variety of designs is staggering and they all reflect the personalities of their creators. There are themed cities, cities with almost no cars, island cities, solar-powered cities, and cities that take our own New Haven as a model.

A 7th Grade student working on his city

Today, while working on their projects, the students really began to synthesize all of the aspects of the course. One student explained to me why she included one-way streets in her city (to prevent dangerous left turns) and showed a level of care and foresight that is present in each and every project. They have even helped each other identify how different buildings would be "zoned" and whether it would be better to have a library downtown or near schools. Though the projects are individually based, the team work that has been going on has been a joy to watch.

7th Graders hard at work on their maps

I could not be more excited to see the completed cities and it has been a singular pleasure to teach these students and see their ideas evolve. Their city exhibitions at Family Night next week will be an incredible sight!

Preview of 7th Grade city plans

Best,

Shannon Connors

Investigations Teacher, 7th Grade

Getting Down to Business

U.S. Grant eighth graders spent today hard at work (see photos and video) in one of Bass Library's high-tech, convenient, and generally cool (air-conditioned!) computer labs. Their mission: Complete a "financial plan" for their business plan final projects. An additional "research duel" challenge included identifying the IRS tax designation for a non-profit corporation (that's right - 501(c)3 - for any of you armchair entrepreneurs out there...).

Their work today was for my course on "Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Sustainability." This class examines a number of crucial questions related to contemporary business: What does it take to build a successful business? Why do some businesses succeed and others fail? What kind of skills do we need to be responsible to both our finances and our world?

During the first unit of the course, students gained exposure to the fundamentals of business and entrepreneurship. Then, students grappled with some of the sustainability and ethical issues associated with business. Eighth graders are currently in the midst of the final segment of the course: Creating a viable, compelling, and ethical business plan. Next Tuesday, August 4th, the students will complete their projects by pitching their business plans to a panel of adult entrepreneurs.

I like telling my students that their work in my class takes them through material that many adults walking around in suits and ties don't have a good grasp of: What goes into an income statement? What is the difference between operating costs and costs of goods sold? What the heck do terms like "hedonic treadmill" and "planned obsolescence" mean? Well...Go ask a U.S. Grant eighth grader!

Be in touch,

Eli Bildner

Teacher, Eighth Grade

Learning About the Baha'i Faith

My name is Katie Dryden. I am the sixth grade investigations teacher this summer, and I am also fortunate enough to be able to co-teach the world religions elective. This summer has been a very enlightening one for the lucky students in "Holy Cow! World Religions and New Haven." We started off the summer by learning about religious symbols and their origins. We made matzo pizzas and challah while learning about Judaism, while co-teacher Edie Joseph told us about the significance of these foods in the Jewish tradition. Then we learned about Christianity as the students participated in a treasure hunt all over Old Campus, piecing together a timeline of Christian history from the birth of Christ up until the present. The following week, the class was lucky enough to receive a visit from Omer Bajwa, the Muslim chaplain at Yale. Mr. Bajwa gave us an interesting and informative lecture about the tenets of the Muslim faith and led us in some Muslim daily prayers for students who wanted to participate. We also had a visit from the Yale University Chaplain, Sharon Kugler, who told us about what it was like to be religious at Yale and gave us delicious popsicles. The following week, we debated the role of religion and prayer in schools a class. We also had a day where we visited the library so that the students could do independent research about the religion of their choice, and then present what they had learned to the class. 

Today, however, we received a very special visit from a Yale student named Chelsea Allen who is one of five Baha'i undergraduates at Yale. She is very involved with her faith and she gave us an excellent introduction to the Baha'i faith, teachings, and history. To learn more about the Baha'i faith, you can visit the Baha'i official website at www.bahai.org. The students seemed to really respond to Chelsea, who taught them a song set to a Baha'i prayer. We recorded the students singing the song, but I am having some trouble loading it onto the blog. Once I figure that out, I will put it up here. So stay posted!

7th grades scramble for and colonization of Africa

Over the past week the 7th grade was been studying decolonization in its humanities class, International Conflict and Cooperation in the 20th century. While we studied the colonization on a global level, we focused primarily on Africa and our case study for decolonization was Algeria. Last week, we did an activity where I split the class into two parts, one side was to represent Africans and the other side Europeans. Both sides were given a map of Africa. The Africa team was required to come up with different kingdoms or empires to represent within Africa, to choose one enemy, and split up Africa making sure to not share a border with their enemy. The European team was to split of Africa as they pleased as well but in the name of their home countries. They each represented different countries that were actually a part of the colonial scramble for Africa: Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland. At first they split the continent into 6 equal pieces, and then were allowed to go to war (simulated by rock paper scissors shoot) with each other country once over half or less of each other's territory.

The African countries found it a little difficult at times to keep from having borders with their enemies but in the end, worked it out pretty nicely. The European groups often found themselves in a frenzy of war, and while both classes pointed out the inefficiency of the constant warfare, the Europe group second class actually moved to start making treaties and conferencing about what to trade which was great to see.

Here are the maps made by both classes

First class maps


second class maps


After both groups finishing making their maps, we discussed the differences between the African map and the European map and I told the African group that unfortunately their map was being destroyed in favor of the European group. The students in the africa group unanimously declared my actions unfair. As one student said "we worked so hard on our map too, why is theirs being kept?". They also were distressed that because of the scattered nature of the European empires, they were often now placed in the same empire and one of their enemy would they had sought to avoid. They saw that these new matches could potentially cause civil wars and other internal conflicts in the future, which is unfortunately what has actually happened in many countries in Africa at one point or another.

The European group talked about the chaos of war, and both classes said that they would have tried to organize a conference to make treaties instead of fighting all the time. They also noticed that they didn't talk to the Africa group at all during their activity, which they noted was particularly weird given the fact that they had split up their continent for themselves. I then explained to the students that their activity was essentially what occurred before the Berlin Conference of 1884; before the Conference African peoples and nations had their own map and then Europeans, on their own, without talking to Africans to figure out where the natural borders lay, made their own empires and country lines, creating 70% of the borders that now exist in Africa. The next day we covered The Berlin Conference in more depth and studied the colonial era and Africa and many students said the activity from the day before had helped them better understand the material from the following day.

Ms. Wantchekon
7th grade Humanities

Student Poetry

In the eighth grade humanities class, "The Power of Poetry," students have been hard at work dissecting poems and honing their own. Through a series of writing and revision workshops, students have reflected on stories from their lives -- from everyday conversations to pivotal events -- and helped each other capture the truth that those stories reveal. I've been so inspired by their compassion and insight. The process is a grueling one, but students have been exercising their precision muscle to produce amazing work. More and more, I'm hearing students exclaim to each other, "Yes! I know what you mean!"

I'm definitely exclaiming that, too.

Here is an excellent final draft of a student poem on family:

"Keys"
by Shannon Blemings


I ask my mother
how her day was

"Busy," she says,
"Very busy."

She sits at her desk,
legs crossed.

She has papers scattered
about the house.

Pens and markers
strewn around.

"I understand,"
I turn my head.

I hear her keyboard
clicking away.

Each word a little louder,
more persistent.

I start walking,
but pause at the doorway.

I sigh.
She taps her pen.

Only then do
I walk away.


To read more student work and poems we've dissected in class, visit http://thepoetrybox.tumblr.com


Take care,

Ms. Ho
8th Grade Humanities Teacher

Treasure Hunt

Hey all,

Today, we held a treasure hunt for the kids, which was a huge hit. In an attempt to find who was buried in the Grant's Tomb, they solved a series of 10 hard clues which led them to various places on Old Campus. Once they got to those places, they found their next set of clues - 4 map pieces, 5 tacks, and one piece of string. Using those materials, they found an "x" over a place on the map, and found their final clue, which led them to a book in the library with a key inside. The key let them into "Grant's Tomb" - the staff bathroom of Dwight Hall - where they found the treasure. The Green Team had two winning squads in the top 5, and the Red, Blue, and Yellow Teams all had one. Props to the 9th graders for leading their teams with poise and passion!

Following are some pictures of the event...

Yours,
Sam Bagg
Co-Director, Ulysses S. Grant Foundation

Thursday, July 16th: Monkeys and Magic

Professor Lauri Santos is one of the youngest tenured professors at Yale University. Grant was lucky to have her visit today. In this hot weather, we all appreciated the chance to leave Dwight Hall and visit the air-conditioned building next door.

Professor Santos performs research on primates related to humans. By studying how monkeys think, she hopes to understand how human brains and human thought evolved. But how do you study what monkeys think? Professor Santos has a way: Magic.

By performing short magic experiments in front of different types of primates and tracking where they stare, the Monkey Lab hopes to measure surprise. They hypothesize that if monkeys understand simple ideas like "1 + 1 = 2," then they will be "surprised" by a magic trick where one plus one does not equal two. They have observed that monkeys ARE surprised when one plus one equals one or three, and they conclude that monkeys can understand simple arithmetic!

Professor Santos reinforced the importance of the scientific method in her research. Hopefully, some students realized that the scientific method is more than something you just learn about in school, but is actually used by every good science lab.

Photos from Common Ground Field Trip!

Last Friday, US Grant took a field trip to Common Ground High School, where students learned about the environmental education opportunities. Students hiked to Wintergreen Brook, where they worked with their homeroom classes to clean up sections of the stream. Several items recovered include: a bike, leather bags, mattress sheets, a crowbar, a car bumper, and a TON of plastic! Thanks to the students, Wintergreen Brook is much cleaner -- but only for the time being. Joel, our guide for the day, encouraged all of us to spread awareness of the environmental problems we witnessed that day. Here are some photos from the cleanup and hike:

7th grade Fortunoff visit

Hey everyone! My name is Kristia Wantchekon and I am the Seventh Grade Humanities teacher at Grant this year. This summer, I'm teaching the kids about war and conflict during the 20th century, and naturally, in the last week we have found ourselves exploring World War II. Learning about the Holocaust in depth was something I found to be indispensible when planning my lessons for the summer, and this past Friday, the students and I were able to take advantage of the amazing Holocaust educational resource we have right here on campus, the Fortunoff archives. For those not familiar, the Fortunoff archives is a collection of some 4300 testimonials from various people whose lives were directly touched by the Holocaust and general the mass discrimination and subjugation of Jews that occurred during World War II (website: http://www.library.yale.edu/testimonies/).

On Friday, the entire 7th grade and I headed down to Bass Library for a two and half hour session with Joanne Rudof who works for the project, and we were all completely blown away. Mrs. Rudof collected for the kids a selection of testimonials that involved primarily people who were children during the time of World War I. The fact that these stories often involved children definitely resonated with the students; it was clear that many of them felt a personal connection to these stories because of the similarities in age to themselves. Although the session lasted for about two and half hours the students were riveted and actively asked many questions and yearned to know more, some even asking to return at a later date to watch the rest of the footage (although with the 10,000 hours of footage that the Fortunoff has, finishing it all this summer would be Herculean if not entirely impossible).

I had them all write a response to what they had watched over the night, and responses I got were all incredibly thoughtful and insightful. Many of the students vocalized their distress over the horrors they had learned of from these victims, and were in disbelief that something of the sort could even happen, that humanity could even go to such a dark place. They all noted that the testimonials taught them things they never learned in school, and helped them get them to deeply understand what had occurred in a way that textbook reading and lecture could not. It was interesting to read that some of the emotions described in the testimonials, for instance, unimaginable constant hunger, unmanageable depression, and the burning need and push to survive in the face of so much suffering really stayed with many of the students as they wrote their response and cited their wishes to never feel those feelings and better yet, let others feel those feelings. Many students wrote that they were committed to something of the sort never happening again, and it excited me to see that these stories really awakened a bit of budding activism in my 7th graders. My students insights this past Friday as well as throughout our lessons thus far have really awakened my own eyes to the simple truths I feel that I had begun to lose as my studies have taken me down more complicated, analytical paths on similar subjects. Taking a moment to remember something as simple as "no one should suffer like this again" really helps replace into perspective my own feelings on international human rights and more broadly, basic morality.

9th Grade Leadership

Hello to all. My name is A.T. McWilliams and I am a 6th grade humanities teacher at the U.S. Grant Foundation summer program. I cannot express how excited I am to contribute to “The Launchpad” for the first time today. The past couple of weeks have been fantastic, and I could spend innumerable hours recounting each unforgettable day I have spent teaching thus far. In particular, yesterday afternoon moved me in a much unexpected way. I had the great privilege to witness U.S. Grant’s rising 9th grades take a huge leadership role during our first team competition.

On Tuesday afternoon, Co-director Sam Bagg and I had the opportunity to host a leadership workshop for the 9th graders. Together, we tackled a few team building activities and subsequently reflected upon our leadership abilities as a group and as individuals. Basic ideas we covered included the differences between managing and leading, characteristics crucial to a successful team, and leading by example.

My overall goal in hosting this workshop was for the 9th graders to recognize their own importance and capabilities. Although I teach a historical and developmental leadership course to my 6th graders, I came into the workshop hoping to inspire acts of leadership rather than teach its fundamentals. I think that Sam and I did as much as we could to open the door for these 9th graders in presenting them with several basic ideas of leadership and management. Though I was worried to see how they would walk through this newly opened door, they did so spectacularly.

Words can barely express how well the 9th graders took to these leadership roles and stepped up to the plate for their teams. The competitions consisted of 4 large teams distinguished by different colors and names (Yellow Jackets, Green Giants, Blue Boom Pow, and Red Inferno) participating in several competitive events. It was remarkable to see how within the first 15 minutes of competition the 9th graders had already designated different roles for the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders while maintaining control of the team. The 9th graders managed well, gave honest efforts, and displayed excellent leadership skills before all of U.S. Grant.

To any 9th grade students reading this right now, I would like to thank you for helping lead one of the best days at Grant so far. Your efforts yesterday were admirable, and I am confident that you will all continue to be great leaders throughout the duration of this summer.

With thanks,
A.T. McWilliams

Big and Little Siblings Event!

Hello everyone! My name is Edie Joseph and I am one of the ninth grade teachers at Grant this summer.

Growing up, I was lucky enough to attend a wonderful summer camp in the Mountains of Pennsylvania. During my eight years as a camper, there was one event that influenced me more than any other, and truly helped me become the person that I am today. This event was a "Big and Little Siblings Week," where each of the oldest campers were matched up in a pair with the youngest campers, and the pairs spent an entire week doing bonding and leadership activities together. As an elementary schooler, there was no one I looked up to more than the super cool middle schooler who made me feel special and watched my back throughout the entire summer.

This vision of a community where everyone cares for each other and looks out for each other is one that we are working to create at Grant this summer. Using the same model, today was the official launch day for our "Big and Little Siblings" event. The teachers matched each entering 6th grader with an entering 9th grader, and had them get to know each other through silly questions like "If you were an ice cream, what flavor would you be and why?" and "If you had one superpower, what would it be?" The conversation turned to a more serious note when the pairs discussed their hopes and fears about entering middle school and entering high school, and it was amazing to watch the students open up to each other. 

Then we headed outside for the real fun of the day: the Coke and Pepsi game, relay races, wheelbarrow races, and all sorts of outdoor games. Without being prompted, the 9th graders displayed extraordinary leadership skills and helped their 6th grade siblings have a great time. All the teachers were inspired to see this kind of behavior, and through leadership events with the students in the works, we know that this exemplary behavior will only increase. We are excited to see the friendships that develop between the siblings as the summer goes on, and we  hope that the pairs will grow to be a support system for each other that lasts throughout the summer and beyond.

This is only one of many activities that we hope will build a strong and supportive community of life-long learners. Tune in for more updates as the summer goes on!

Best, 

Edie Joseph

9th Grade Humanities Teacher

Welcome to The Launchpad!

A pleasant Sunday evening and happy Fourth of July weekend to you folks out in cyberland! My name is Eli Bildner - I'm one of the two eighth grade teachers working at the program this summer - and I write to officially welcome you to the blog of the U.S. Grant Foundation summer program.

For the uninitiated, I might direct you to our website (www.yale.edu/usgrant) for a more thorough introduction to the program, but in short, the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation is an academic summer program for talented and motivated middle school students from New Haven. "An educational partnership between Yale and New Haven since 1953," the U.S. Grant program provides high-achieving youngsters with a top-notch enrichment program by drawing on the academic experience of Yale undergraduates, who design curricula and then present it to their students. The program is particulary unique in that it is a mixed-income program; U.S. Grant not only provides an affordable enrichment experience for low-income New Haven youth, but also welcomes students of all economic, ethnic, and geographical backgrounds.

The U.S. Grant program incorporates a diverse array of stakeholders. For our students, we hope to provide an inspiring productive learning experience, one that students may carry with them for the rest of their lives. For you parents, we hope to provide a safe and enriching complement to the education that your children receive at home and at school. For us teachers, this summer provides us with an opportunity to explore academic passions, engage with the community, and practice the craft of teaching. The entire program is possible only with the sustained commitment of the U.S. Grant Board of Directors and other funders.

Due to the constraints of time and geography, it isn't often that all these diverse stakeholders join together to reflect on the program, our joint creation. We hope to use this blog as a forum for doing just that. We teachers hope to share with all of you some specifics of what is going on inside our classrooms; we hope that you - the U.S. Grant community - will not only follow along with us, but also interact by posting comments.

It is our hope that this process of communal reflection and sharing may enrich the program, both this summer and in the future.

All my best,

Eli Bildner

Teacher, Eighth Grade