Students Create “Plastic Ocean,” An Art Installation with a Message

Seventh and eighth grade students in the fall arts elective, Public Art, worked together on Community Service Day to assemble their collaborative class sculpture and prepare it for installation in the Barn. When the class concluded at the end of October, the Barn was still under construction!

The Public Art class was designed and taught by a multi-disciplinary team of Anne Armstrong, art teacher; middle school science teacher Sandra Trentowsky; and a trio of researchers from Education Development Center (EDC), an organization focused on curriculum development and program design in Waltham. We were fortunate to also have Brianna Shaughnessey, a doctoral candidate in environmental biology at UMass-Boston, visit and share her research about the effects of plastics in oceans. The work of the class was focused on designing and creating a sculpture to be installed in the Barn. The design brief outlined the parameters of sculpture, including the theme (impact of plastic pollution in the oceans), overall structure (the piece must be made primarily from plastic, and must hang from the ceiling), and necessary elements (the piece must include an artists’ statement about the meaning and intended message of the piece).

Students worked in design teams to create three different proposals, and feedback from the jury committee (consisting of several adults in the BDS community and the EDC researchers) challenged the class to include elements from each design team’s proposal into the final sculpture. The class then revised their ideas to create a unified sculpture and divided into three build teams focusing on the different sculptural elements for the piece: jellyfish, birds, and a leatherback turtle. Their final sculpture has now been installed so make sure to stop by the Barn to check it out!

A big thank you to Bill Smith and the buildings and grounds crew for their help to install the piece.

Model UN Hosts Harvard Scholar

On May 16, the Model UN club hosted Josh Burek, who is on the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Burek spoke with the club about one dimension of the important work of the Kennedy School—its faculty helps inform and educate freshman lawmakers in Washington. It also hosts conferences for world leaders to discuss and learn from each other about many important issues, including climate change and disruptors to the United States and world economies. Mr. Burek led lively discussions around the issue of democracy versus control in China and the U.S. Further, the club discussed freedom versus control in the context of social media and had a lively conversation around the idea of the minimum and maximum wages. Mr. Burek emphasized the importance of asking many questions in order to fully understand the issues that grab our attention. The Model UN students were very engaged, asked excellent questions, and were eager to participate.

BDS Singers Perform in Boston

Recently, Belmont Day students were featured in the Boston Children’s Chorus (BCC) concert, Lift Every Voice: Her Song at the Wang Theatre. This concert was part of a collaboration and workshop, “Social Justice Conversations Through a Musical Lens,” led by Mr. Jason Holmes, one of the conductors from BCC. Students sang the protest songs, “Rise Up,” and “Nina Cried Power” joined by several hundred other singers from Boston Children’s Chorus, and participating workshop schools Winchester High School and Boston Arts Academy, for this powerful performance. Our students also had the privilege of listening to Ms. Melinda Doolittle, the American Idol finalist. We hope to continue this interdisciplinary collaboration with Boston Children’s Chorus in the future!