Tremont School Forum is a series of complimentary lectures and events that explore contemporary issues in the field of education.  The theme of this year's programming is, "Developing a Problem-Solving Mindset."  Our first lecture series, "Self Portrait: Supporting Positive Self-Imagery for Middle School Girls," brought us two outstanding discussions presented by Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair and Dr. Diana Paolitto.

Tremont School offers a truly connected learning experience where kids can learn the social, emotional, and academic skills they need to find their place in the world.  Enjoy Tremont School's video and learn more about the school and our project-based curriculum!

The school year culminated with an Independent Study unit, in which all students chose an individualized topic to pursue in depth.  The excitement was palpable as the students immersed themselves in their projects, and the students' passion for their topics shone through in the final products, which included research papers, videos, models, computer programs, and presentations during our end-of-unit celebration with families and community members.  Many students worked with subject-matter mentors, bringing another level of connection to their work.

One student reports on the experience: "We had a successful independent study, and our students did a variety of topics from biology, movie-making, cooking, weather, fashion and you name it. We took field trips and did interviews.  We also had beautiful cello playing from one of our students.  It was hit!  We had a celebration at the end of the year with our presentations.  We had cake and homemade candy offered by the two cooking projects.  We also saw a [movie] trailer and a fashion show, and took a trip to a farm!  We cannot wait to do it again." (Contributed by J.R.)

As part of our Visiting Scholar program, we were lucky to have an in-school visit from Keith Seitter, the Head of the American Meteorological Society.  One of our Tremont students had reached out to Mr. Seitter as part of an independent study on severe weather, and everyone found themselves entranced by the methods with which meteorologists determine and predict weather patterns.  During his visit, Mr. Seitter shared several stories about extreme weather in America and included pictures of the incredible impact of natural disasters such as floods and tornadoes. Students also learned about the terminology used to classify different types of natural events, and how to gauge the destruction inflicted by a given storm.  Before taking questions from the class, Mr. Seitter also took the time to explain the phenomenon of global warming and the anticipated effect it will have on humanity during our students' lifetime.  This was a very exciting visit as it not only provided a stellar interview for one student's independent study, but also helped raise awareness for our other students of the magnitude of natural forces.

During our last formal unit of the year, our middle school students had several opportunities to learn more not only about the American Revolution, but also about the rich history of the area where we live!  Since the beginning of the unit in April, we have taken advantage of the warm weather and our proximity to the historic sites throughout the greater Boston area.  In addition to visiting important Revolutionary War sites along the Boston Freedom Trail and in Lexington, we also spent time finding out what daily life may have been like for those living in the colonies during the 1700s.  A trip to the Art of the Americas wing at the Museum of Fine Arts gave us the chance to see early colonial arts and crafts up close, including Paul Revere's Sons of Liberty bowl.  We were also very excited to embark on our first-ever overnight field trip when we spent two days and one night at Plimoth Plantation!  After exploring the grounds, we had the chance to learn a few fun colonial-era games and to eat a meal made only with ingredients available in the 1600s.  We even got to take a candlelit tour of the Pilgrim village before turning in for the evening.  Before heading back to Weston, we stopped at the Mayflower II to get an even clearer picture of what the Pilgrims' voyage had been like.

Our work back at school found each student focusing their unit research on one of the original thirteen colonies.  They also each chose at least one additional Revolutionary battle or historical figure to learn more about, and shared their findings with group activities such as creating a "Colonial Twister" game and our second newspaper, The Beeswax News.  In Expressions, students spent time trying out mediums such as portraiture and encaustic painting, and learned a lot about the patience required to make art during the Revolutionary period!  Our unit ended on May 17th with our Revolution Celebration, where students displayed their hard work for family and friends.  Our afternoon also featured a series of presentations including a "Punch and Judy"-style puppet show and a "Colonial Jeopardy" game complete with audience participation.  The hands-on, project-based approach that we took to our study of the Revolution led many of our students to discover new hobbies and interesting facts about our regional and national history!

As part of our Visiting Scholar program, we had the pleasure of welcoming David Beebe, a web producer at a video game company, to our school.  David spoke about his work and what it takes to plan and organize a complex creative project - managing the process of developing a video game.  As you can imagine, students were enthralled!

Since the end of January, we have been busily working through our Living Curriculum unit focused on Energy.  In light of the rapidly growing need for alternative power sources, we gave our students the opportunity to learn more about the possibilities by giving each of them the assignment to study one type of energy in depth.  Individual research topics during this unit ranged from hydrogen fuel to nuclear fission to biomass, and allowed students to take ownership of their studies through hands-on experiments.  Students worked on several projects related to the study of gravity and momentum such as creating structures designed to withstand a "wrecking ball" and constructing cars built to run off of the spring-loaded energy of a rubber band.  We also integrated the theme of science into our core curriculum during this unit, including group projects such as working on kinetic sculptures during Expressions and learning about how our own bodies use and regulate energy during Community Skills.  A field trip to the Lowell Mills gave us the chance to learn about the development of water-powered electricity in a local and historic setting, and another day spent off-site at Boston's Museum of Science let us explore our research topics - and more!  Our unit culminated in our Energy Celebration on Thursday, March 22nd.  During our gathering, students advocated for their energy sources in debates presented live, and through videos created with computerized animation technology.  They also each shared the results of experiments conducted during the unit, either through videos of their live demonstrations or posters and models depicting the setup and process.  Overall, the Energy Unit gave our students a better sense of the changing status of power supply and the scientific developments underway to expand our options for the future.

Because of our location in the MetroWest area, we are lucky to have access to several wonderfully-preserved historic sites.  Particularly pertinent to our Energy Unit was a visit to the Tsongas Industrial History Center at the Lowell Mills on March 14th.  Known as the cradle of the industrial revolution in the United States, Lowell is famous for its massive textile mills, which were at their peak in the mid-19th century.  We visited Lowell to learn more about the gigantic water wheels used to generate power from the Merrimack River. In a specially designed interactive education center, students had the chance to experiment with models of different water wheels and to design water damming systems in order to use the natural resources of Lowell most efficiently.  We also checked out the giant water turbine underneath the Suffolk Mill and the "weave room" in the Boott Museum, which has maintained several rows of original looms and continues to run about a dozen of them on a daily basis in order to demonstrate the process used throughout Lowell during the peak of the Mills' productivity.  Visiting the Tsongas Center gave our students the opportunity to further understand the development and applicability of alternative energy sources and offered us a new perspective on hydropower.

On Friday, March 9th, we took a full-day field trip to the Boston Museum of Science.  Because of the diverse nature of our students' areas of specialty during the Energy Unit, we were excited to have the opportunity to check out displays about almost every one, from solar power to hydrogen fuel.  Students took part in interactive exhibits such as "Powering Boston", where they were asked to find the most efficient and eco-friendly combination of energy sources to supply electricity for all of Beantown.  In addition to catching the Dolphins IMAX movie in the Omni Theater, they also had several opportunities to break off into small groups of 2 or 3 with a chaperone and explore the museum without an agenda, acting as their own tour guides!

Despite a late-season snowfall, several community members trekked through the slush to attend our second annual Professional Reception, held on March 1st.  In attendance were area professionals involved in educational, medical, and therapeutic fields interested in finding out more about the Tremont School and our project-based curriculum.  The event also provided the opportunity for those gathered to share their insights on the Collaborative Learning Project method of integrating social, emotional, and academic education.  We were very happy with the turnout and are excited to continue expanding our community.

It was a well-timed and well-deserved day off on Friday, January 20th as we enjoyed our first "Fun Day"!  The day after the Middle Eastern Celebration coincided with the students' earning 200 points towards a day without academic work and an exciting field trip.  Points are amassed through a system developed in order to rank the day based on personal experience, productivity, and group collaboration and cooperation.  After receiving scores on a scale of 1-10 from each student at the end of the day Reflection period, points are averaged and the total is subtracted from a numeric goal.  For this Fun Day, students relaxed at school during a morning of unstructured time to work on individual nonacademic projects, to read, or play board games with each other.  After lunch, we headed to SkyZone, an indoor trampoline park located in the nearby Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston. Kids ran - or, rather, bounced! - around for an hour and a half on the wall-to-wall trampolines and played a game of dodgeball in a specially designed court with trampoline-covered sides!  It was a great day to celebrate both the end of the Middle East unit and the group acheivement of 200 points.