Violet: December Updates
STUDENT UPDATES:
In addition to our whole-group work on genetics, genetically-modified organisms, the social repercussions of science, and building and sharing independent websites (most are published! Ask your kids for their website links!), each individual band member is also working on...
Max: After building two computers in one week, Max and Jack are finally ready to digitally prototype the first designs for their Ultralight plane. Using a flight simulation program, they are able to build and create within the laws of physics, testing to see if models fly successfully before they even hit the shop! At this point in time, their shop work is reserved for welding the frame for Frankencart, iteration 2. Recently, Automatic offered to help sponsor Max and Jack's engineering projects - both giving them help and feedback and potentially featuring their work!
Grace: Grace finished her ROCK mosaic! If you haven't been into the school, stop by and see it. It is beautiful - framed and fitted and perfectly hanging outside the main office. And, while spending so much time in the art studio, she realized that we could better use the space. She's currently working on a design project to both organize and readjust the art studio, making it more accessible for the school and more efficient for the space. It's a collaborative project with all the staff and students that she is coordinating and organizing herself.
Jack: Jack and Max are deep underway in their Ultralight project. After redesigning the upstairs of the bandspace to be an electronics workshop / plane headquarters, he's been focused on a first iteration of "something that flies" in the design-and-flight simulation program, X-Plane. Similarly, he and Max are ready to tackle the first welding for their Frankencart, iteration 2. Jack is working with Max and Gever and I to coordinate the perfect flight program - both designing a plane, flying a plane, and the mathematics of flight in general, including looking for outside radio classes and flight groups to join.
Zada: Zada is currently leading group class - a physical education class focused on both flexibility and form. For Zada, the class will help her bandmates stretch, strengthen, and (hopefully) learn to enjoy engaging with various forms of exercise. Outside from group class, Zada is deeply engaged in her circus practice and jewelry-making. A new vegetarian, she recently started researching potential correlations between mental health and diet, with the hopes to write a paper on what she finds.
Harry: Harry recently completed multiple levels of his video game script - a huge first step in the marketing and design for his entire concept game. The script - surpassing thirty pages of dialogue and gameplay and content for maps and game development - summarizes the basis for his work Heroes of the Sky. He has also been volunteering weekly at Glide food kitchen with Josh, and he's taken on a design project for the Red Band - building a "seed"-shaped jungle gym.
Laurel: Laurel recently finished her writing portfolio, sharing multiple poems, essays, and stories with the band for feedbacks and edits. The stories are deep, powerful, beautiful. After a lot of reflection - both with her bandmates and on her own - she is ready to submit her portfolio to the outside world. Laurel also planned and executed the entire "Vegan Week" for the Violet band. And she was finally able to finish the 3D printed bulbasaur planter - a baby succulence is now growing from its back in the bandspace.
Cyrus: After spending hours monitoring and updating the code for some of his favorite online games, Cyrus decided to take the next step - learning various coding languages through the translation and adaption of these games, as well as embarking on a journey to create his own. He has practiced multiple levels and demos of intro C++ and C Sharp, and is currently working with both the program and with Gever to learn (and create) in Lua. He also just heard back from the SPCA on a potential apprenticeship program!
Cassandra: After our classroom conversations and readings on genetically modified organisms and the evolution of food systems, Cassandra really caught onto the history and practice of breeding and genetically engineering plants. She is currently researching and writing a paper on the spread of new foods - and better foods - through this science. Over break, she borrowed my copies of books from the band to continue her research.
Josh: Josh is now coordinating weekly volunteer sessions at Glide for multiple members of the band, and he has a recurring position at KitTea cafe. He is spending part of BWX time creating a cat-safe Jenga set for the organization - making prototypes of huge boxes out of things like cardboard and styrofoam so the visitors can play Jenga safely around the cats. Josh is also working with the red band to design a "seed" jungle-gym.
Sayuri: While we're only mid-way through seed arc at Brightworks, Sayuri is concurrently wrapping up her semester of college-level Japanese. She's balancing all of the arc work as well as college coursework and exams! She was finally able to add tomatoes to her tomato planter. Eventually, the recycled bucket planter will hang upside down with the tomatoes growing out, but - for now, until they sprout - they're cozy in the back of the band space.
Apollo: Apollo is enjoying his time in the group, though the cold weather is making him a bit grumpy. It is the most fashionable time of the year for him - lots of new sweaters, always.