In our IB Mathematics Interpretations and Applications class, students are not only learning new math concepts, but they are also using these concepts to make instruments and to solve problems they would not have been able to otherwise. The following is a project one of my students completed by constructing and using a clinometer to answer the given questions. A clinometer is an instrument for measuring angles above or below a horizontal line (angles of elevation or depression). A metal tube allows the user to sight the top (or the base) of an......
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This semester WA Prep was excited to add Digital Photography to the arts course offerings. After practicing their composition and shooting skills they transitioned into using digital editing with Photopea. In their second editing project students used their new skills to create parodies of real magazines with their own images and concepts. After carefully studying the typefaces and layouts students composed remarkably convincing magazine covers that were worthy of a doubletake. The best part of this project was how varied each result was, showcasing not only the student’s interests and aesthetics, but also their sense of humor. Some......
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Please take a moment to congratulate Sophie this week! Her artwork “Deep Breaths” has been awarded a Silver Key in the Scholastic Arts & Writing competition and will be included in an upcoming exhibition at the Schack Art Center in Everett. Nearly 340,000 works of art and writing were submitted this year, so this is a huge honor. Many notable, internationally known artists, designers and authors have been recognized by the Scholastic Arts & Writing competition since its inception. . In celebration of this year’s recipients, the public is invited to view the......
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Among the most rewarding moments as a teacher are those when students discover connections between their own learning and the world around them. This semester, Washington Prep’s 6th grade ELA class read the novel A Long Walk to Water, a fictionalized account of the real-life experiences of Salva Dut, a South Sudanese refugee. Salva became a Lost Boy of Sudan when he was separated from his family in Sudan’s Civil War in the 1980s. After spending a decade in refugee camps, Salva was relocated to the United States, where he developed the idea......
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Kara Walker, Exxodus of Confederates from Atlanta from Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) [set of 15 prints], 2005. Offset lithography and silkscreen. 39” x 53’. Edition of 35 Kehinde Wiley, Arms of Nicolaas Ruterius, Bishop of Arras, 2014, Stained Glass, 54” x 36” Two inspiration artists that have been part of our discussions in class are Kehinde Wiley and Kara Walker. These contemporary, internationally acclaimed African American artists use shape and pattern symbolically to address the history of racial injustice and representation in their work. In Walker’s work, silhouettes of......
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When I was a student, I dreamed that I could speak English fluently. Because I thought English could help me to open another door to the world. I worked very hard and learned tons of vocabulary and grammar rules. However, after almost 23 years of learning and having been through so many tests, I still felt horrible about my daily communications when I arrived in the United States. I realized that even though I worked so hard to learn English, I had never really used it. When I started to teach Mandarin, helping......
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by Eunice Bonaparte August is one of my favorite months. Personally, it a month filled with family celebrations, and the last of the fun summer rituals. Professionally, it is when I begin final preparations for the new school year. As long as I gather the books, find and watch the videos, download templates, create the documents and PowerPoints with clickable links to additional support – I’m done, right? Absolutely not. Not even close. Not even close to close. So much more is involved in preparing for the new school year. More than a......
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Over the course of my 20 years teaching mathematics, matrices have been in and out of the Algebra 2 and Pre-Calculus curriculum. I happen to love working with and teaching matrices, so I was happy to see them back in our Pre-Calculus/Pre-IB curriculum last year. After mastering the processes and problem solving uses of matrices, my students completed an encryption project using matrices. This project uses matrices and cryptography to code and decipher secret messages. See if you can unlock the code and decipher their secret message!...
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In biology there is a joke we pass around: the more complicated a system is, the more difficult it is to study. Biological systems are the most complicated systems humanity has yet observed, and thusly studying these systems is the most difficult science. This joke is especially fun around physicists and chemists. Yet there is truth in this joke. Biological systems are immensely complicated and they exist under an unfathomable scale, from subcellular structures to entire ecosystems. How then do we approach this science, and how do we teach it to the people......
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