Skip to main content

Bees and Oysters

 

"The hive is like a body," the visiting beekeeper tells his rapt audience, holding up a honeycomb for all to see. "The queen is the heart." During sessions with our kindergartners and second graders, the beekeeper introduces the boys to the important roles that bees play as pollinators. 

The boys are surprised to learn that a bee sting can have medicinal properties. They then practice separating wax from the honey of the honeycomb, make candles with the beeswax, and taste the fresh honey.

Meanwhile, seventh graders are at the East 90th Street Pier Oyster Restoration site. Monitoring oyster cages can be messy work. Mud, water, and wind converge as the boys move the cages, mount and measure the oysters, survey biodiversity, and test the East River water from which the oysters are drawn. 

But the boys couldn't be more focused or engaged. They are at that exciting intersection of science learning, real life experience, and purpose. After working to restore endangered oyster reefs through the Billion Oyster Project, they continue their learning in science lab where they collaborate in teams to determine the best way to create a biological filter - using gravel, a bottle and an aerator - which will successfully act as an oyster habitat. 

There are multiple designs. Each small group creates a filter and presents their ideas. The boys vote on which tanks they think would work best. 


Two different designs win. Throughout the unit, the boys collect data with precision and conduct data analysis, which, in turn, provides insight on oyster growth, water quality, and trends over time beyond the reef sites.


Bees and Oysters. 

Both are invaluable to our ecosystem. Both provide our boys with opportunities to engage with and learn about the essential roles various species play in our environment. Kindergartners and second graders come to respect and appreciate the myriad contributions of the bee, its anatomy, behavior, beehives, and pollination. 

Through community science in the seventh-grade project, our boys are adding to the research that adds meaningful data and understanding about the oyster reefs in New York Harbor. They are doing good. Furthermore, we know that boys thrive in the learning environments these two experiences demonstrate: they are active and incorporate novelty; and, in the case of the oyster project, feature teamwork and competition.

 

 

 

 

Popular posts from this blog

"The Wisdom Within" - Building Student Motivation Through Choice

In the third entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative quarterly blog series, Master Teacher Jim Barbieri explores how providing boys with agency to choose builds motivation and enhances learning. BUILDING STUDENT MOTIVATION THROUGH CHOICE By the time I was eight years old, I had become completely absorbed in all things baseball. Living in New York was perfect for a baseball fan; although I was a Mets fan thanks to my idol, Tom Seaver, I was also interested in learning about all the amazing Yankees stars of yore. How could I call myself a baseball fan if I didn’t know the history and records of stars like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Yogi Berra? I loved collecting baseball cards and reading the career statistics of each player on the back. Looking through my collection one day, I discovered that I shared a birthday with the legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente. At eight years old, I was crushed to hear the news that he had died tragically in a plane crash while trying to ...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - The Superpower of Performance

In the following entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative blog series, Saint David's Director of Music and Master Teacher Jeffrey Moore explores how participating in performances and productions build transformative competencies, transmit values, and inspire boys to excel. Jose Antonio Abreu, one of the leading educators in classical music and the founder of El Sistema said this: “Music has to be recognized as an agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values  — solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it can unite an entire community and express sublime feelings.”¹ At Saint David’s School, performance begins in the very first years. Each class, from Pre-K through Eighth Grade, presents their work to an audience of peers and parents, whether it is a story, a skit, a play, a lecture, or a musical presentation. But the increasing complexity and demands on our boys to push themselves to another level is the key to their development and succes...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - Writing and Thinking

In our continuing efforts through the Teaching Boys Initiative at Saint David's School ™ , one of our visiting scholars, Dr. Ric Campbell, engages in ongoing reflective practice with our faculty. Below, Dr. Campbell shares an example of a freewriting initiative that was born from the collaboration between literature teacher Jamie MacNeille and history teacher Drew Burton, who sought to address forms of student engagement in their respective disciplines.  WRITING and THINKING:  A Learning Community Engaged in the Knowledge-Making Practices of the Disciplines “Whoa, this freewriting is really helpful !” The above quote by a sixth-grade literature student captures a revelatory moment; he has discovered the wealth of ideas at the end of his pen as he writes to describe what he is noticing in the novel the class is reading and discovers that what he notices leads to questions, and that those questions, in turn, lead to bigger ideas. “All there is to thinking is seeing something not...
Read more