summer science

While we look forward to summer for so many reasons - ice cream and flip flops, swimming and sleeping late, hiking and camping - science teachers at NCCS love the summer because it means more time for science!  Whether it's redesigning the Early Childhood classroom and getting the chicken coop ready for the fall, teaching Summer Fun camp, planting the native garden and stocking up on bird food,  combing the beach on Cape Cod for interesting creatures, taking graduate classes or exploring geology and wildlife in the mountains of Montana, Country School science teachers are busy doing what they love best: science!  We hope you are having a great summer and we'll see you in September....

Springtime!

Henrietta Lacks Museum

This winter, 9^th grade Honors Biology students studied the story of Henrietta Lacks, a woman who unknowingly donated the first human cells that were able to grow in cell culture in the 1950’s. Students read excerpts from Rebecca Skloot’s best-selling book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and viewed the 1998 BBC documentary, The Way of All Flesh, to learn about Henrietta Lacks and her impact on the scientific and medical communities in the twentieth century. The students participated in debates surrounding the bioethical issues related to the preservation of Henrietta’s story and did their own research to learn about her family, her impact, and her legacy. To conclude this unit, students worked as a class to create a museum to teach the Upper School community about Henrietta’s story and share all that they had learned.

Weather Balloon Launch

NCCS students looked into the sky as their weather balloon floated up and away 20 miles into the stratosphere. On Feb. 22, second-graders launched the giant white balloon with the help of a scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The launch was part of their science unit on the properties of air and weather. “The students got to see the job of a scientist and how it’s applicable to real life,” said Hannah James, Lower School Science Assistant, who organized the demonstration. James invited Lance Roth, a meteorologist and science technician for NOAA who has worked in Greenland, the South Pole and American Samoa, to her classroom to teach the children about how thousands of weather balloons are regularly launched around the world to track temperature, air pressure, humidity and wind. Although the radiosonde attached to the school’s weather balloon did not transmit information back to the school, it did have a note attached asking for its finder to contact the students upon its descent. They’re hoping the parachute doesn’t land in the ocean and they’ll get a call soon. “We believe in offering students opportunities to apply the concepts that they are learning in the classroom to the real world, so they can see and experience the concepts in action. The lessons are much more powerful that way,” said Head of Lower School Kathleen Holz. - by Brooke Springer

Animal Embassy in Kindergarten Science

Chris Evers from Animal Embassy brought some wild friends when he visited kindergarten classes!

play with a purpose

Eighth graders created a curious substance in the laboratory called Oobleck. Then they had some time to explore its very peculiar properties....

 

Into the Woods 

 Welcome back to school! Get excited, science students!! We are so lucky to have such an incredible campus, with acres and acres of places to explore. This photograph of NCCS alumns on the nature trail was taken some years ago, but imagine yourself in this picture. Keep your walking shoes handy - from Beginners to ninth graders, we'll be going outside and having adventures of our own.