Updated Class Descriptions, February-May 2023

Let's Build a World: After spending all year on our shared fantasy setting, we ended up with 17 pages of notes, a 16-page organized world bible, and a 2634 × 1538 map of our setting. Our final product incorporates ideas and feedback from nearly 20 different teens! Everyone who participated over the course of the year has received a link to a Google Drive folder containing everything we worked on. Several teens are already writing or planning to write stories in our world, which we have named Merth.

The Marvel Age of Pop Culture: We've battled against technical difficulties and continued on our journey through the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Over the past several months, we've watched and discussed Iron Man and the military-entertainment complex, Iron Man 2 and the risks of franchise filmmaking, The Avengers and spectacle in blockbuster films, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and policing, Captain America: Civil War and narrative interconnectivity, and wrapped things up with Black Panther and a discussion on the politics of imperialism.

Garden Club: We pruned, repotted, fertilized and culled the indoor plants in the North Star building. We also rooted cuttings of spider plant and pothos to replace some of the diseased plants we had to discard. When the weather turned warm, we went outside to weed the garden bed, remove invasive vines, prune overgrown limbs, and dig up some of the pollinator plants that didn’t make it through the winter. We ended the year by visiting the garden center next door and choosing some new plants to replace the ones we removed.

Science: Matter & Motion: In the last part of the year, we turned our attention to larger molecules and their properties. We started with oils and soaps and how they interact in water. Next, we looked at the behaviors of non-Newtonian fluids, such as oobleck, and polymers. We made slime, comparing different recipes to understand how the substances bond to each other. We denatured the proteins in egg whites with alcohol and looked at the different kinds of proteins in the human body. We extracted DNA from strawberries and learned about base-pairs and the role of RNA. And, we extracted chlorophyll from leaves and grass and used citric acid and copper sulfate to turn it into a different molecule.

Self-Directed Math: Members of this class worked on their own math curricula, either textbooks or online programs, including free resources such as MathisFun.com, Kuta free worksheets, Saddleback Community College math classes, Desmos.com, and Solve.me puzzles.

Hands-on Math: Experimenting with paper airplanes led us to origami and making 3D paper models of polyhedra including the platonic solids. We spent some time analyzing polygons after that and used the area formula for a triangle to derive a way to find the area of any polygon. This led to a discussion of the golden rectangle so we generated a Fibonacci series to approximate a golden rectangle and use it to create a golden spiral. We also learned to make a golden rectangle precisely using a compass and straight edge. We also looked at the ways the Fibonacci series shows up in nature such as counting the spirals on a sunflower seed head and observing how the golden ratio determines the most efficient way for the seeds to fill in.

Open Maker Room: This class is an opportunity for members to use all the resources in the maker room for their own projects and enjoyment. Some of the things teens have done include: hand and machine sewing, painting and drawing, crocheting, felting, using the telescope and microscope, building models, and woodworking. In addition, we had three workshops this spring: candle-making, book-making, and terrarium building.

Coffee Class: This semester we have explored the world of coffee in so many ways! Thanks to Melanie we have had access to an espresso machine and several milk frothers. And in times of technical difficulties, we went back to old school pour overs. A valuable technique! We’ve also explored many dark and medium roasts as a part of a world coffee tour: Costa Rica, El Salvador,  Columbia from Atlas Coffee, and the unbeatable beans from Barrington Coffee Roasters. Brewing methods: cold brew, pour over, and espresso!

Band: Band has been full of a lot of musical discovery through free jamming and learning songs for Lethal Ethel. It has been a joy to watch people find out what makes “their sound” increasingly in small bits every time we meet. 

Social lssues:  This spring we looked for the silver lining among some depressing topics:  the solidarity in supporting LGBTQ rights, maintaining access to abortion and health care, responding to gun violence, and considering the implications of the national debt ceiling.  Along the way were many light-hearted stories about good people doing good things!  

Liberated Learners:  We explored some of the leading ted talks in alternative education, including some entertaining ones by Lenore Skenazy (America’s Worst Mother - promoter of Free Range Children.)  We also learned about Education Savings Accounts, and followed along with some of Ken’s research and writing on the topic.  We also discussed some of the general concerns in the field of education reform, including the decreasing number of students enrolled in conventional public schools.  More to follow!

Homebrewery: For the last part of this class, the teens and I have decided to play Dungeons & Dragons together as a way of playtesting all the pieces that we made. They battled the Spirit Reaper, and I am proud to say how quickly they defeated the monster they made! It has been so much fun watching each of them delight in being characters, going around a fantasy world, and being so creative. I appreciate when each of the teens is so understanding of my boundaries as a Dungeon Master when it comes to player versus player, too much chaos and destruction in their play as characters, or even when I ask for each of their patience in the promise that I will get to everyone one by one in the best way I am able. I hope they continue to use the monsters, classes, and weapons we have made together as a class.

ASL Study Group: The class and I were able to raise enough money together and hired Brittainy Simpson from Willie Ross School for the Deaf. Through many months of reaching out to the community, the collaboration we succeeded in was splitting the cost of the ASL classes taught by Brittainy with the Sunderland Public Library. Brittainy has taught the class and me the alphabet, numbers, how to introduce ourselves, colors, locations, activities, vocabulary, and more! In off weeks the teens and I have been using Brittainy’s handouts and homework assigned to us to continue our practice as a group. We also watched the film CODA. I just want to say again how proud I am of this group and their hard work, dedication, and patience throughout this year to find the right instructor for this class.

Banned Queer Book Club: The books the class has read this year: Cinderella is Dead, Pet, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Cemetery Boys, No Filter and Other Lies, Hurricane Child, Dreadnought, The Lotterys Plus One, and Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor. The dedicated teens of this class continue to share their opinions and explore deeper meanings they find within the text of the novels. They have had important discussions this year about how they’d like to organize next year's book club to ensure that everyone has access to the book and enough time to acquire the book in the best way for them. I appreciate their conversations about their needs, as well as spending lots of time discussing other favorite novels of ours, our favorite types of characters, and what we enjoy seeing in our fictional novels.

Music and Meaning: Music and Meaning is intended as a supportive and collaborative space to have open discussions about what your favorite songs and albums mean to you! Through looking at the instrumentation, production, lyrically content and genre, we can explore together the "deeper" meaning behind the music that matters to you. 

Advocacy for Neurodiverse/Neurodiverse Allied Individuals: Utilizing tools and approaches borrowed from Disability Justice, Medical vs Social models of looking at various neurotypes such as Autism, ADHD, OCD, etcetera, and our own lived experiences, we talk about the origins of neurodivergence as a term to describe a variety of unique experiences, and we learn and share ways to advocate and accommodate yourself and the neurodiverse individuals in your lives. 

Bread: We continued our journey through many different kinds of bread during this period. Alternating yeast and quick breads, we made Maple Milk Bread, Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bread, Soft and Fluffy One-Hour Dinner Rolls, Snickerdoodle Muffins, Soft Pretzels, Spicy Cheese Bread, Amish Cinnamon Bread, Donuts, Maple Scones, Strawberry Lemon Yogurt Bread, and Homemade Crackers.

Desserts/Sweets & Treats: Our dessert explorations during this period included Flourless Chocolate Cake, Valentines Sugar Cookies, Blueberry Hand Pies, Profiteroles, Nutella Panna Cotta, Butter Mochi with Passion Fruit Icing, Beignets, Strawberry Pavlova, Peanut-Date Chocolate Truffles, and Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting.

Service Trip to Washington, DC: We spent the final month and a half before our trip organizing logistics. Members of the group covered such tasks as organizing our meetings (logistics and content) with our Congressional representative and Senators, coordinating our volunteer shifts with the hosting organizations, figuring out our subway travel routes, and helping plan our leisure time activities. We had a fun and successful 7-day trip in March. Our activities included the Capitol Hill visits, volunteering for 4 mornings at 2 organizations (Food & Friends and Martha’s Table), and time at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture, the National Botanical Garden, and the National Zoo. We had an evening visit to some of the most famous monuments in DC, and we enjoyed a lot of relaxing downtime at our Air BnB.

Hiking Group: During the coldest months our group dwindled down to a few hardy souls, then we regained a few regulars when the weather got warmer. Our hikes during this period included: MacLeish Field Station, Poet’s Seat, UMass Hiking Trails, High Ledges, Sachem’s Head, Amethyst Brook, Ashley Reservoir, Bear Swamp, Sunderland Town Park, Greene Swamp, and Mt. Tom (followed by Mt. Tom’s ice cream!)

Volunteering at Amherst Survival Center: Our regular group of four volunteers kept going throughout this period, even during the winter months when we had to work outside, sometimes in very cold weather (we only moved inside for one day!) Our tasks included setting up the fresh food distribution area; unloading the donation delivery truck; sorting and organizing breads/desserts, fruits, vegetables and miscellaneous items for the pantry; bringing boxes to the back for recycling; and cleaning up afterwards.

DIY Philosophy: This spring we looked at stories from the bible (New and Old Testaments), Islam, some world views of the East and concluded with Peter Kingsley’s A Story Waiting to Pierce You. Mulla Nasrudin jokes were sprinkled liberally throughout!

The Scientific Revolution: This class concluded with science of the 20th and 21st century, specifically Einstein’s theories of relativity, quantum physics and finally chaos and complexity, the new scientific revolution which is not yet completed.