NEST

How does a space meet the needs of those who nest within it?

This essential question was the uniting thread throughout all of our enquiries and projects. We began by researching Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and discussed the levels of human needs. We applied our knowledge of human needs to create an imaginary human 'nest' which fulfilled the needs of those who inhabit it. Some of us created self-sustaining communities on Mars; others created a little cabin in the woods; and some created fantasy lands.

We transitioned from discussing how humans needs are met through the spaces in which they live, to discussing how animal needs are met through the nests in which they live. We began a practice of scientific sketching with leaves, nests and hives through a few iterations. Our final scientific sketch at Stow Lake captured the animals and habitats, and we were lucky enough to spot the beautiful heron’s nests as well!

The Jade Band officially launched their Nest Arc project with the help of Lila from Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue (YUWR). Lila works to rescue injured animals in the Bay Area, with a particular focus on squirrels, and the Jade band teamed up with her to build squirrel nest boxes that play a critical role in the release of rehabilitated squirrels. She brought a variety of nests into our space as well as two adorable squirrels she has been working with, Jade and Crimson. We are so lucky to have developed this relationship with Lila and YUWR as it provided us this authentic chance to provide nests for others and to contribute to a community that is bigger than ourselves.

We began our initial research and sketches in our project groups, imagining all the ways we could create a nest to meet the needs of the squirrels. We finalised our idea sketches according to the research we completed about the needs of squirrels and then jumped into the Art Studio to create our cardboard prototype. We learned about what makes a good nest box and came up with some criteria that we used to monitor our progress. The main elements on which we focused were safety, physical needs, comfort and community. We read an article, Scientists Say Child's Play Help Builds a Better Brain, and determined that we were missing a key element - play! With this in mind, we designed the interior and exterior of our prototypes to meet these criteria.

We ventured out to YUWR in Potrero Hill to meet with Lila and Devlin where they introduced us to their incredible community of animals. We provided one another feedback on our prototype boxes and then were able to test our designs with two of YUWR's resident squirrels, Crimson and Jade. Jade, who was named after our band, is only very young and tested out how cozy our space was. Crimson, who is older and much more active, tested out our structural design. The following day, we reviewed our video footage of the squirrels in our boxes and laid out our next steps and goals to improve our design.

Before we began building, we met up with Evan in the shop to build a bridge using only wood and clamps. The goal was to work in teams stationed at two benches to build out with wood and clamps, meet in the middle and create a bridge sturdy enough for Evan to cross - we were successful (and were the first group to use every clamp in the shop!) and used it as an opportunity to reflect on our teamwork and project work expectations.

With a hiccup in our special order wood delivery, we pressed pause on our building plans but used the time wisely, refining our plans, acting on our feedback, and reflecting on the process. We crafted a multi-faceted blog post to inform the Brightworks community about our work and the work of YUWR. Our four pieces included:

Jade, The Squirrel, a biography of our namesake squirrel

Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue Center, an information text about Lila and YUWR

Squirrel Needs, an information text summarizing our research into squirrel needs

How to Make a Squirrel Nest Box, a procedural text explaining how to make a nest box

By the time our wood arrived, we were ready to get straight to work. After only two full days of diligent work in the shop, the Jade band pulled off quite the building feat. Evan worked alongside us, providing expert, real-time feedback on our designs. Chop saws, drills, jig-saws, angle-grinders, and clamps all made appearances in our shop time as we crafted our nest boxes to include safety hoods over entry/exit holes, false floors to provide an additional layer of protection from predators, ledges and play structures to allow for stimulation of the brain and natural and non-toxic, man-made cozy layers. Our problem solving skills were put to the test as we encountered unexpected challenges: adding hinges in a place that didn’t comprise the security of the box, cutting false floors to fit snugly inside, finding accurate cut angles, finding screw tips that poked through wood pieces creating safety hazards, and plenty of team-work stressors as well. We definitely didn’t get these right the first time (and usually not the second or third time either), but the Jade band persisted through frustrations, set-backs and learning curves to produce safe, cozy homes for our squirrel friends at YUWR.

We wrapped up our design process, diving into a reflection of our processes and our products. We distilled the effective elements of a design process and reflected on the elements that could be improved in our next design process. We also reflected on the quality of our nest boxes according to the criteria we determined with the help of our expert, Lila. We are so lucky in that our relationship with YUWR does not have to come to an end. Although we will be donating our nest boxes, Lila has invited us to join her in the squirrel releases that will be happening in the Golden Gate Park using the nest boxes we have built. We will soon have nest neighbors that we can visit, just down the road!

SONG

TABLE

We moved from nesting in our new space to gathering around the table - our Maker Marketplace Table, the Periodic Table, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, data tables and kitchen tables full of cookies. The Nest arc wrapped up as we officially handed off our nest boxes to Lila from Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue and joined her in Golden Gate Park to help mount two of our four boxes in a tree there. Four squirrels had been housed in the boxes to be released after rehabilitation. It was a beautiful thing seeing Jade band’s thoughtful work having such a real impact.

Having six weeks of norm setting and relationship growth in the Nest Arc, we were primed to really challenge ourselves in the Table Arc. We elevated our ability to define criteria, refined our feedback processes, improved our analysis of feedback data, and were able to make informed decisions for future iterations. Watching us transition into Expression phase projects, it is so evident how comfortable this process has become.

Academic growth cannot be achieved if not accompanied by social-emotional growth. We introduced an interpretation of Augusto Boal’s ‘Theater of the Oppressed’. We collected a series of scenarios that we have encountered within our band community that led to a conflict. Volunteers acted out the conflict first, and then additional volunteers rewrote the script when they tapped out the original actors. The rewritten script avoided or resolved the conflict from both perspectives, providing actionable solutions to many small conflicts. We also introduced longer, guided meditations and body scans to begin our mornings once a week. We continued our morning ritual of our ‘Good Mornings’, sharing answers to silly questions, our gratitude shares, recaps of our weekends, and building up our repertoire of brain energizing games. Making time to slow down allows us to stop and celebrate each other.

In an effort to find broader community engagement opportunities, Amethyst, Indigo and Jade bands united in their ‘Quiet Time’ to offer an academic choice time. This block is designed to offer the Middle School a chance to explore a field in which they have an interest, but that may not fit into the school day. We’ve had explorations in foreign language with Duolingo, writing and reading novels, practice in the art of origami, sketching and drawing lessons between bands, typing practice, and more. One of the loveliest outcomes of this time is the friendships that have blossomed between the Jade, Indigo, and Amethyst bands. We will continue to build our engagement with the broader Brightworks community every chance we get!

Essential Questions

How can we bake the perfect cookie?

We embarked on our Pursuit of the Perfect Cookie with an experiment that tested our prior knowledge of baking. Provided with a list of measurements and a list of ingredients, not at all lined up, each group attempted to design their recipe. We ate some delicious cookies (and perhaps scones!); no two recipes were quite the same. We discussed our taste test results and identified how the ingredients/amounts we used created the tastes and textures we experienced.

Our next step was to clarify our understanding of controlled experiments. We researched the science of cookies and what exactly made them delicious. From this knowledge, we crafted a two phase baking experiment. In the first round, each group changed the amount of an ingredient. In the second round, each group changed a step in the process.

For our first experiment, we split into five groups, changing one variable and measuring the taste and texture in our taste test feedback forms. Group 1 doubled the amount of chocolate chips. Group 2 doubled the amount of egg. Group 3 used only brown sugar, cutting out white sugar. Group 4 halved the amount of chocolate chips. Group 5 cut down the amount of flour. Using a scaled feedback system of 1-5 for elements of taste and texture, we compared our results to the results of the control recipe. We reflected on our data and drew conclusions together about which changes improved the cookie. In the end we made a few changes to our recipe: cutting down the amount of chocolate chips and using only brown sugar. Both of these changes scored well above the control, bringing our cookie recipe a few steps closer towards perfection.

In our final controlled experiment of our Pursuit of the Perfect Cookie, each group changed a step in the process. Group 1 chilled the dough. Group 2 melted the chocolate chips. Group 3 used a combination of dark, milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Group 4 baked their dough in a muffin tin. Group 5 added 2 tablespoons of evaporated milk. The results were delicious and beautiful. We did another round of scaled feedback and reflected on our own scores as compared to the control recipe. We made two changes to the recipe: chill the dough and use a variety of chocolate chip flavors. Of course then, we made a batch of our 'Perfect Cookie', taste tested, and scored them again. The results spoke for themselves: 4.5/5 for taste; 4.72/5 Appearance; and 4.72/5 Texture!

How can we make a profit on the perfect cookie?

Our next step was to begin building our businesses to sell our delicious cookies. The band was split up into three groups and each group pitched a cookie business plan for our Maker Marketplace stand. The group's business plan who was most well thought out and was voted highest according to our criteria was the plan that we adopted as a whole band to move forward with. The criteria to be addressed were: product, people, process, finances and marketing. Each member of the three person group was either a Chief Financial Officer, a Chief Marketing Officer or a Chief Product Officer. We teased apart the goals we needed to achieve, created to-do lists and then created a schedule of tasks.

We ventured to the Mission, were welcomed into the amazing working spaces of Jasmine Rae Cakes and were inspired by her incredible pieces. She shared a little bit about her business and how she got started and then she shared chocolate chip cookies with us too.

We presented our business plans - Feather Cookies, Emerald Bites, Unicorn Cookies - and provided feedback to one another according to the criteria we determined as a band. We assessed each other's consideration of Product, People, Marketing, Finances and Logistics. Ultimately, the Unicorn Cookies business met most of the criteria and so we proceeded to develop this business across the band. We all pitched in to bring the business to life - printing stickers, making recipe cards, building our signage, developing the final menu, finding the right packaging - essentially combining the most effective elements from each business into the Unicorn Cookies business model. We also made a huge amount of cookie dough and baked just over half of it - coming up with a plan to sell the remaining cookie dough. We celebrated our hugely successful Unicorn Cookie debut at Maker Marketplace. We made $250 on the day, which we will use towards an excursion of the band's choice. The cookies certainly were a hit - we sold out of baked cookies and received endless compliments!

Table Literature

National Novel Writing Month: Planning

The timing of this arc aligned with the planning, writing and editing that comes with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). We launched NaNoWriMo with the help of two in-house experts, Justine, who has written many novels herself, and Evan, who has written micro-fiction atop the peaks of mountains. Filled with inspiration, we began brainstorming ideas and getting our creative juices flowing. We narrowed down our ideas to a few of our favorite and then went on speed dates with our novel ideas, writing as much as we could in just a few minutes before we moved on to the next idea. We could really sense which ideas would give us the most to work with and so we settled on the ‘idea date’ that we most enjoyed. We imagined our inner editors, illustrated them and then got rid of them! We then began creating our new friends - the characters who brought life to our pages. Plot, setting, conflict and dialogue all came into consideration with so much thought and creativity put into each element of planning.

National Novel Writing Month: Writing

November came and with it came our official writing start, bringing our ideas to life on the page. We chatted about how to capture a reader's attention with a bold beginning and how to set up your conflict with an inciting incident. We revisited different elements of plot structure as reminders throughout to refresh our perspectives in the thick of writing. Time was our biggest gift in November. Any spare moment we had, we cracked open our laptops and kept working away.

National Novel Writing Month: Editing

December came and we began to approach NaNoWriMo from an editor's perspective, polishing up our favorite excerpts and determining what our criteria for well-written pieces in the Jade Band look like. We determined that Chapter Structure, Paragraph Structure, Sentence Structure, Clear Ideas, Punctuation, Grammar, Concise Language, Variety of Juicy Words and Spelling are our keys to success. We broke each of these elements down to see what they look like in novel writing and then used those ideas to make changes to our own novels.

King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table

With Table as the theme, it seemed only right that we at least ventured for a bit with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Our shared reading was a favorite pastime. We transformed the legends of King Arthur into modern day, with some hilarious interpretations.

Newsela

We're also practicing our research skills, using Newsela articles as resources, identifying main ideas, evidence, key words and surprising facts, as well as asking clarifying questions. We've begun to put these skills to use in our research for our Table Expression project.

Mindful Math

Mindset Math: Area and Volume

We continued our work with the Jo Boaler resource, Mindset Mathematics, focusing on finding areas of complex polygons by breaking them into smaller, measurable pieces. We built on our area study, adding a 3rd dimension and trying to find the volume of complex prisms involving parts of a whole. We built skyscrapers with blocks and then distilled strategies for finding volume from there.

Mindset Math: Nets and Volume of Polygons and Prisms

With a continued focus on volume and area, we began to visualize, fold and construct three dimensional shapes. We began looking at nets of 3D cubes that were missing the top piece, folding them in our minds and then predicting which side would end up on the bottom. We had great conversations and inadvertently learned so much math vocabulary. Our investigation with nets of 3D shapes continued, this time with a multitude of shapes. Before we cut the nets out, we envisioned what shapes they would make in our minds, attempted to name them, draw them and reason why the net did or didn't work. We started with names like 'mountain' and 'trying too hard to be a cube' and learned how to identify and name all sorts of prisms and pyramids based on their bases and the number of sides. We finally cut the nets out to form the 3D shapes and prove our predictions. We wrapped up our volume and area study with an investigation into the question, What is the largest volume box that can be made from 15x15 cm paper? We were able to design and test out different nets in order to explore the relationship between the design of nets and the volume that results from their different designs. With seven possibilities, we eventually agreed on an answer and then a few of us were able to graph our findings.

Mindset Math: Number Line

Our next big idea seemed quite straightforward - the number line. Introducing negative numbers carefully and slowly, we were able to better comprehend the symmetry of the number line. Using our number lines, we played a game that introduces us to addition and subtraction with positive and negative numbers. We had a great time and in the meantime came up with some solid strategies, using zero as a mental marker, to make these operations move from manipulative to mental.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy continues to prove to be another great resource, allowing each of us to work at our own pace. Engaging with Khan Academy requires persistence and motivation, learning to use the resources and solve problems for ourselves. While this is still a work in progress, we have greatly improved our willingness and practice of working problems out step by step. Our table tops have proven to be excellent whiteboards and so our Khan Academy time has us spread out with colorful markers in hand, ready to break these problems down step by step.

Jamethyst Math Choice Time

In an effort to better meet students’ specific needs, we joined with Amethyst for a joint math time. Sam, Mackenzie and I offered different exercises stemming from a similar theme. We began with fractions and the students were able to choose the challenge that was a best fit for them. The offerings included multiplication of fractions, adding and subtracting unlike fractions, and finding fractions of a whole. Our next round of math choice time was focused on the Maker Marketplace with options focused on income, wages and customer interactions. We practiced making change at pretend shops. We investigated the Fight for 15 and the implications that raising the minimum wage might have. We also made comparisons between costs of living and wages from the most expensive city in the US, to the least expensive city in the US. This joint math time is a work in progress, as we trial new systems that will better serve the students and collaborators.

The Science of Table

Periodic Table

This arc allowed for a perfect opportunity to dive into the Periodic Table. We began our study of the Periodic Table with the help of Periodic People - characters that represent elements. Their characteristics had to be analysed and ordered, then broken into rows, revealing their periodicity. Using the periodicity and the patterns it creates, the missing character was sketched with their specific features. It was a fun activity to introduce Mendeleev and his work with the Periodic Table, specifically the fact that he could guess the characteristics of the elements that had not even been discovered yet because of the periodic nature of the elements! We'll continue diving deeper into the Periodic Table through the Expression phase.

Fermentation

Rich also led us through an investigation into the science of fermentation. We did a quick study of which foods involved the process of fermentation and what positive impacts many of those foods have on our digestive system. We then took to the science lab to start our own fermentation project - making pickles. We developed a controlled experiment, each of us using different amounts of water, vinegar and salt. Our first iteration had to be tossed, as the salt we used was not pickling salt and therefore would not provide us pickles within the safe pH range. Round 2 of pickles, with the correct pickling salt, resulted in super successful, delicious and crunchy results.

Declarations

What began with brainstorming, eventuated into project ideas that are defining our Expression phase. Each project before being approved must be declared. The elements of a declaration include: Guiding Questions, Mission Statement, Arc Connection, Inspiration, Research, Goals, Budget, Experts and Calendar. It was a huge undertaking but set each of us up to begin the project phase with a clear vision.