Students’ Bio Research is Published
Students Thea Chung ’21 and Oliver Weissleder ’21 recently became published scientists, as their research into how water acidity levels affect organisms’ feeding patterns was featured in the Journal of Emerging Investigators.
Chung and Weissleder completed an experiment as juniors in their Honors Biology class in which they observed the consumption of food by the single-celled protozoans Tetrahymena pyriformis under varied pH levels. The organisms, which live in ponds, lakes, and streams, exist at the bottom of the food chain.
“The results were really clear. We saw an interesting trend that revealed that the tetrahymena ate less and less as the acidity increased, which is valuable information because this small organism functions as a model in a lot of biological research,” Chung said. “Although it’s so simplistic, it can mimic the biological functions of other, larger organisms.”
Students Earn First Prize In RebootHacks
Over March break, two student teams participated in the annual RebootHacks competition run by Wayland High School in Massachusetts. The objective of the competition was to design software that aided students with remote learning. Blake Ankner ’23 and Andrew Rodriguez ’23 took home first prize out of more than100 participants. The program they wrote in the programming language Python is called “Summize,” which summarizes transcripts of Zoom meetings to assist students learning asynchronously.
“The prompt for the whole competition was something along the lines of how we can help with online learning,” says Rodriquez. “Blake and I thought of all the Milton students in different time zones and any students who have to watch long, recorded Zooms. So Summize does a few things. It summarizes the full Zoom class, pulls out key terms, and cuts video clips to match the terms. The teacher can then identify the kids who have to watch the Zoom and they receive an automated email with the summary, terms, and clips.”
Ryan Shue ’23, Sebastian Park ’21, and Aaron Lockhart ’21, made up the other Milton team and they created a web app with a companion Chrome extension called “Focutivity,” which encouraged users to plan out their evenings with daily schedules and kept them from distracting and unrelated websites during those specific time periods.
Faculty Forum Explores Big Ideas in Teaching
Milton faculty gather every year in a Faculty Forum, an opportunity to share ideas and methods with colleagues. This year’s forum, held virtually due to COVID-19, focused on culturally responsive teaching, designing anti-racist curriculum, student agency, flexibility, and equity.
The overall theme of this year’s forum was the range of teaching experiences during the 2020–2021 school year, said Indu Singh, the Upper School dean of teaching and learning.
“That could be anything from hybrid teaching to responding to the insurrection on January 6, to having conversations across difference, to technology,” Singh said. “There were a lot of options, and everything was related to what it’s like teaching in this academic year.”
Upper School Celebrates Community Day
Students gathered virtually on Wednesday for Community Day, during which they attended sessions focused on equity, justice, and anti-racism.
Coordinated by the student-led Self-Governing Association and the Office of Multiculturalism and Community Development, the day offered presentations and discussions on topics including race and politics, gender justice, artists of color, community engagement, environmental racism and justice, deaf culture, activism by athletes, and more. Sessions were led by students and faculty as well as alumni, including Jovonna Jones ’11.
A Chilly Challenge to Support Special Olympics
Students on the Community Engagement Board are urging members of the community to take a “polar plunge” in support of athletes with intellectual and physical disabilities between now and spring break, said Andrea Geyling-Moore, director of Community Engagement Programs and Partnerships (CEPP).
The Special Olympics Polar Plunge is an opportunity to raise money and awareness for the Special Olympics of Massachusetts by pledging to take a “plunge” if donors commit to giving. Milton’s plunge is open to interpretation, Geyling-Moore said: Between now and spring break, participants can jump into cold water, do an ice bucket-style challenge, or complete another icy stunt as a pledge for fundraising. To learn more, visit Milton Academy’s Polar Plunge fundraising page.
Milton Students Recognized for Excellence in Writing and Visual Art
Fifty-six Milton students received recognition in the 2021 Massachusetts Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The students earned 124 Gold Key, Silver Key, or Honorable Mention accolades in the competition. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards began in 1923 and are considered the most prestigious awards for teenagers in the country. Milton’s 31 Gold Key pieces are submitted to the national Scholastic competition, and results for the national contest will be announced in March.
Anne Kwok ‘21 earned six Gold Keys, one Silver Key, and two Honorable Mentions for her poetry. One of her poems that earned a Gold Key is entitled “After Warfare.”
It’s Dance Concert Season!
With themes of isolation and loss but also humor and celebration, this spring’s Dance Concert explores life’s extremes. Last spring, Dance Concert was the last major event on campus before Milton had to shut down due to the pandemic. This year, the event is fully virtual with more than 40 student dancers who will perform 15 dances choreographed by students.
“It’s a smaller show, but feels like a bigger undertaking because of the way we are producing it,” says Kelli Edwards, Performing Arts Department chair.
The performance showcases modern dance, ballet, Latin dance, and an Irish dance. All the dances are being filmed—some in person on the King Theatre stage, some in more of a dance film format, and others in a Zoom format with dancers individually in their spaces. Edwards says the student choreographers have “embraced the format and are utilizing all the ways they can film.”
Lauren Groff is a Bingham Visiting Writer
Writing fiction cannot replace activism, but it can shine a light on problems that demand action, author Lauren Groff told students Wednesday.
Paraphrasing the poet William Carlos Williams, Groff noted that although literature cannot save lives, it is still crucial to humanity: “Poetry has never saved a life, but men die every day for lack of it,” she said.
“I do believe that fiction can make one slowly turn one’s eyes to the things that matter,” Groff told students during a virtual reading and Q&A. “And it has, since the inception of fiction as an art form. There is a lot of social progress that has happened because fiction writers have written about what’s important.”
Winter Play, “She Kills Monsters,” is a Virtual Adventure
In this year’s winter play, She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms, sisters Agnes and Tilly couldn’t be more different. Agnes delights in fitting in and being an “average” high school girl, while Tilly, a Dungeons and Dragons aficionado with a wild imagination, can’t help but stand out.
When Tilly, played by Talia Sherman ’22, suddenly dies, Agnes, played by Lucy Hirschfeld ’21, finds herself on a quest through the D&D world, following a module Tilly created and hoping to connect with her sister. As Agnes meets her sister and a band of interesting adventurers in the fantasy world, a series of funny and dramatic events unfolds.
“I came into the show knowing very little about D&D, and throughout my time filming, I followed Agnes’ journey by gradually learning more about the game, and then becoming part of the D&D world,” Hirschfeld said. “Throughout the game, she finds herself and builds friendships she would never have expected.”
From Beatnik to YouTube, Student Singers Are A Hit
Three students casually singing together their freshman year have turned into an established trio with more than 43,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel. Henry Wilde ’21 and Conner Hartman ’21 became friends in freshman math class and they often discussed their common interest in music. Although Wilde and Hartman did not consider themselves singers, both knew Dash Evett ’21 was one, and the three decided to perform together at that spring’s Beatnik, an open mic event run by students.
At the beginning, they focused on singing covers. “After our first Beatnik, we basically would meet during all our free periods, singing in a room in Kellner,” said Wilde. “Over time, we developed a style. We would spend about two months arranging a song, improvising on it.”
When the pandemic forced everyone to quarantine in their homes, the trio decided to start a YouTube channel as a way for friends and family to hear their music. Hartman says when he loaded up the first video, a cover of “The Misty Mountains Cold” from The Hobbit movie, he typed in their group name as misty., all lowercase with a period at the end, and their official name was born. The video was recorded in a tunnel, which amplified their acoustic voices. Viewership took off after that.
