S'mores and Stroop Test

Dear Lab School Families

Yesterday was the annual Black Alliance assembly. It was a beautiful show with signing, dancing tributes and social action. The Black Alliance is a student group that is open to all Lab Middle School students. One of the things that the club has been active in this year is a social action project involving getting rid of the n-word in popular culture. Earlier this year the group had a speaker come in to explain the origins of the n-word and its long term impact on race in society. The group did a teach-in yesterday around their learning and then passed around a petition for students to sign asking rap stars and singers to take it out of their lyrics. This petition is an example of authentic action related to student learning and student passion. I am so proud of my Black Alliance student leaders. Thank you to Ms. McCormick and Ms. Marilyn - the faculty advisors to the club.

In 7th grade science students are studying body systems. Ms. Bhatt's classes have just started the nervous system. When I was in class on Tuesday we all took the Stroop test. It is a cognitive test to test color and word recognition. I have included a link from NOVA so you all can try it as well http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/exposure/stroopintro.html. It is not as easy as you think - I promise :) This activity helped students start exploring and asking questions about how their brain works. It was a wonderful introduction to the unit.

Earlier this week I found myself surrounded by 200 6th graders and about 400 cupcakes in the cafeteria. Monday was the culminating event in the Cupcake Wars mathematical cooking challenge. The student have been working on a math project for the past two weeks. Over the weekend groups were each asked to bake cupcakes - the final product of the project. During math class students presented their projects and children sampled cupcakes to pick a class winner. The top cupcake in each homeroom was then tasted by me and the other judges. Now I love cupcakes but after the second one I was on a sugar high...and after the fourth one I was starting to feel a little sick. By the sixth one we were all only able to take a little nibble. In the end 606's cupcake - the S'mores cupcake won. The remaining few hundred cupcakes were eaten by our hungry sixth graders and hungry faculty. Thank you for all the families who lent their kitchens for this math project.

Spring is almost here. Remember that it is daylight savings time this weekend and we spring forward on Sunday. Set your clocks accordingly so we all get to school on time Monday morning.

Warmly,
Meg