Tuesday Lunch Class with Ellen

Before we had to end Lunch Class for the shut down, we were having a wondrously fun time in our weekly shared cooking and eating. Some of the delicious meals we made were: sweet potato, kale, and white bean soup with cheese quesadillas; bowtie pasta tossed with creamy garlic aioli and broccoli; arugula salad with caramelized pears and onions, goat cheese, walnuts, and a sweet spicy Asian-inspired dressing; and many more! The students were a great team - we worked hard together as we listened to music, chatted about life, the universe, and everything, and made darn good food. It was a privilege to lead this class, and I hope everyone is playing in their kitchens, finding yummy ways to nourish, with whatever resources are available!

How to Listen to Classical Music

In this period, we talked about the Age of Invention, Baroque Music, Bach and Handel. We delved into some more obscure topics, like Farinelli the Castrato and the servant status of composers. We looked at the innovations of Baroque Opera, including elaborate stage mechanics. After we moved the class online, we looked at the Classical Period and the Age of Enlightenment, with a focus on Mozart, the concept of music as entertainment (rather than a tribute to God, scientific experiment, or means of instruction) and the development of access to music by all through the public concert. We watched the movie Amadeus and listened to excerpts from several Mozart symphonies to learn about the Sonata form. In our last few weeks we talked about the Romantic Period and the individual artist; Beethoven as a transitional composer between the Classical and Romantic periods; Schubert and the pared-down lieder (song); the enormous, expressive, autobiographical Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz; and an example of Romantic Grand Opera in Bizet’s Carmen.

Bread

Early in this period, we baked Chocolate Ginger Scones, Honey Orange Bread, and Mardi Gras King Cake, with a genuine plastic baby inside! After we closed down in mid-March, we took a week or more of hiatus from bread-baking, then ran an experimental workshop where we made No-Knead Artisan Bread. It was a lot of fun and it worked well, so we reinstated the class. Since then, we’ve made Vanilla/Chocolate Marbled Quick Bread, Oatmeal Bread, Naan (Indian Flatbread), Challah, Monkey Bread, Bagels, and Cranberry-Chocolate Pull-Apart Bread. Everyone has done their own baking at home while connecting via Zoom. It has been amazingly successful!

Election 2020

We followed the end of the Democratic Primary, and have been considering the current campaigns and their responses to the pandemic. We have also investigated some of the important Senate races for the fall. Also, separate from the campaigns, just how might the election be conducted amid COVID-19? Mail-in voting? Extended early voting? We will pick up these questions in September.

Money

The pandemic has raised all sorts of economic questions: How are people surviving? What is the role of the government? What are the provisions of the major relief bills? Can the government invent money out of thin air? Separately, the class is offering me some feedback on various projects to improve the North Star building, and helping to set priorities.

Volunteering at Amherst Survival Center

In the early part of the period, our group continued our weekly volunteer work of sorting and stocking fresh food at the Survival Center. After our shutdown in March, we sadly were unable to return to our volunteering, though the Survival Center’s good work has continued and expanded to meet community need.

DC Service Trip

The Service Trip group met weekly until the date of departure (March 8). Before leaving, we refined our schedule, filling in volunteer opportunities and leisure time activities. When we left on the trip, everyone was talking about COVID-19, but it still did not seem like an important part of our reality. We were so fortunate with our timing! We had a fantastic time in DC, with successful lobbying visits to our Senators’ and Congressman’s offices, volunteer service at two hunger relief agencies, museum visits, a trip to the National Arboretum, a live concert, and visits to the monuments. Our fourth day of volunteer service was cancelled because of the pandemic, and at that moment we realized that we should cancel our last day of service and return to Massachusetts a day early. Despite this disappointment, it was a very successful trip, with a cohesive and enthusiastic group that worked hard and had lots of fun, representing North Star at our best!

Why We Do What We Do

During this period we explored the conditions and factors that influence helpful and harmful behavior; we looked at the Samaritan experiment (when do people stop to help someone in apparent distress) and the famous Stanford Prison Experiment and “obedience to authority” experiments of Stanley Milgram. We then explored how assumptions about language and communication styles affect people’s behavior (looking at some work of the  sociolinguist Deborah Tannen), and finally we looked at what helps people to delay gratification (the “marshmallow experiment”) and how the same psychology experiment can be interpreted in different ways. 

Band

For me, Band was one of the biggest losses of moving online. I really appreciated our group this year, and sorry we were not able to finish out the year with a final performance. I hope we can find some way to honor our work together this year.

Harmonize

We have been able to continue this class online. With a small group, I have been leading relaxing, contemplative sessions incorporating yoga, meditation, breathing practices, guided relaxation, and sound healing.

Great Matters

We have continued successfully online, having lively, engaged discussions of the big questions of life. Over the past week we have been using the ancient Chinese classic, the Tao Te Ching, as a springboard for our investigations. Thanks everyone! 

Big Ideas in Science

We continued performing different types of chemical reactions and used the periodic table and Lewis dot structures to model what was happening to the molecules as they split apart and reformed. We also practiced balancing chemical equations. We then turned to larger molecules such as proteins, fats/lipids, soaps, DNA and RNA. With the coronavirus pandemic looming, we looked at how alcohol-based hand sanitizers denature proteins in the virus and soap and water dissolve its protective lipid-layer. Once we transitioned to online classes, we looked deeper at the role of RNA in transcription and translation and further discussed what was known about the genome of the novel coronavirus. We then turned to the next big idea, Genetics and Evolution. We used online interactive programs to create phylogenetic trees, study the history of genetics, and trace Darwin’s discoveries during the voyage of the Beagle. We also looked at inheritance using Punnett squares and colorblindness, mutations, domestication experiments with foxes, cancer and Peto’s paradox, GMOs, and HeLa cells. We also looked at the diversity of life on our planet and how we are all connected through the DNA molecule. This led to our last big idea, Is There Intelligent Life in the Universe? We studied extremophiles and intelligence in non-mammals to imagine what other life forms might exist. We also looked at the vast time- and distance-scales involved in trying to conceptualize the size of the universe. We finished the year with a look at Drake’s equation, which tries to calculate the odds of there being other intelligent life, and the idea that we are all made of “star stuff.”

Math

We continued analyzing growth patterns by creating tables of values, plotting points on graphs, and translating verbal descriptions of the growth into algebraic equations. We used the slope-intercept form of linear equations to describe the growth and used tables and graphs to derive slope and y-intercepts. In early March, we used data on the coronavirus to model exponential growth (and compare it to linear growth) and tracked the spread for several weeks. We also calculated mortality rates and discussed confounding factors that can impact those rates. After we switched to online classes, students made their own Desmos accounts so they could work on activities at their own pace and receive written feedback from me within the program. We continued analyzing patterns and discussing functions. We looked at quadratics and parabolas as well as continuing to work on linear equations. We learned to restrict the domain of a function using a game called Marbleslides. We also graphed motion and created time and distance equations using Turtle Crossing and Turtle Time Trials. Some students also learned to solve systems of equations and factor quadratics. I strongly encourage students to continue using Desmos.com resources (including Teacher.Desmos.com and Learn.Desmos.com) to continue independent study over the summer if they wish. These resources are free, high-quality, and engaging.

History of Rock and Roll

We continued to look at the synthesizer in the 1970s and its use in disco by Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer. We also looked at the birth of disco within the context of NYC and the gay rights movement spawned by the Stonewall Riots. We saw how it came out of a NYC subculture as did punk and hip hop and how these three genres were melded in Blondie’s song “Rapture.” We examined the roots of hip hop in Jamaican Sound System and also looked at the influence of Reggae music on the UK punk scene. We traced the origins of punk in clubs like CBGBs and bands like the New York Dolls, Patti Smith, and the Ramones and ties to UK punk through Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols. We also looked at several other important bands and genres of the 1970s including Bruce Springsteen up through his influential East Berlin concert in the late 80s, Southern and Swamp Rock, Arena/Anthem Rock, and megastars Boston, Fleetwood Mac, and the Eagles. We also focused on women in rock in the 70s including Fanny, Joan Jett, and Heart. We then looked at the singer-songwriters of the 70s such as James Taylor and Carole King, and did a deep dive into the evolution of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” through its many covers. The 1980s brought the advent of MTV and we examined how it changed music to a more visual medium and ushered in a second British Invasion. We also looked at the issue of race and gender and saw how Michael Jackson broke the color-barrier with his videos “Billie Jean” and “Thriller”. We discussed censorship and the PMRC senate hearings regarding warning labels on albums. We looked at how College, Indie and Alt-rock and the rise of independent labels through the 1980s gave rise to Grunge and Pop Punk in the 1990s. We focused on the DIY ethic and political expression of punk bands in Washington DC and the connection with Riot Grrrl bands such as Bikini Kill. We watched clips from the Anita Hill testimony and made connections with current events and third wave feminism that inspired the Lilith Festival. We traced the rise of the internet, file sharing, MP3s, the loudness wars and digital compression, and streaming services over the past 25 years and how they changed music again. We ended the year by listening to a track from Beyoncé’s visual album “Lemonade” and discussed it in the context of social media and the legacy of racism in our country.