The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

Wellesley camps & programs 2020 — find a great summer experience

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iCode of WellesleyThe Swellesley Report’s Summer Camps & Programs page lists over 75 camps and programs in Wellesley and beyond. It’s time to sign your child up for a great summer experience. Whether they’re into coding, arts and crafts, sports, drama, or nature, the perfect camp is out there for them.

Swellesley’s Summer Camps & Programs page is sponsored by iCode of Wellesley. iCode’s interactive programs for kids ages 6 – 18 are going on now. On-site and online programs available.

Please be aware that of the camps and programs listed, some are going forward, some have substantially re-worked their offerings, while others have canceled for 2020.

Contact Deborah to update your summer listing, or for advertising on Swellesley. Camp parents and guardians: Please let camps know that you found them here, if you did…thanks.

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From egg drops to Scratch: Kickstarting STEM love among kids

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The Wellesley High School students who offer classes to elementary school students through Kickstart STEM are a techie lot well equipped to teach remotely, as they’ve done for free during the school shutdown forced by COVID-19. But they’d much rather be teaching in person.
Gael Hyppolite, who started the program in Spring of 2018 with classmates Andrew Dunbar and Tristan Martello, loves having kids compete with each other to engage with science technology engineering & math (STEM). He describes the scramble instigated among kids during the last day of a 2019 summer workshop in which they were tasked with building the best possible parachute for an egg using recycled materials.
“We had all our materials placed in two large boxes at the front of the room, but instead of distributing them amongst the groups we told each kid to remain seated until we began the timer,” he says. “Of course, it was chaos the moment we started the timer, with all the kids fighting like animals to get their hands on the materials they needed.”
kickstart
Kickstart STEM in action

 

Hyppolite and his crew (also including Aditya Acharya) converted Kickstart STEM into a business last November and offer classes in general STEM as well as programming languages Scratch and Python via Wellesley Rec for $50 per 6-week program. They and other students have been teaching about 60 kids per season. Scratch, because of its simplicity, has been most popular as a programming introduction.

“We wanted to share our love for STEM and provide kids with our own perspectives on why these fields are so great,” Hyppolite says of Kickstart STEM’s origins.

New online courses are now being offered via Wellesley Rec for small groups to ensure interactivity. When registering, note activity #s: STEM is 322997, Scratch is 322999, and Python is 322998.

More:  Wellesley School Committee presents update on Remote Learning 2.0

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Wellesley schools news: School Committee agenda; jazz band gold; youth service award deadline; coronavirus (COVID-19) resources

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Our regular round-up of the latest Wellesley, Mass., school news.

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POSTPONED: Wellesley Creates coding event

This year’s Wellesley Creates event (formally known as the CreateAthon) will be held on March 28 from 9:30 am to 4 pm at Wellesley High School. This is a coding event for middle and high school students living or going to school in Wellesley, though no programming experience is required to participate.

The event, which is free,  is held with support from the Wellesley Education Foundation (WEF).

In the morning, participants will watch short videos in which members of the Wellesley community (such as local business owners) describe problems which an app could solve. Next, participants will attend four different workshops taught by professionals from Quickbase, a Cambridge-based coding platform, along with Wellesley High School students. These hands-on workshops introduce participants to essential concepts behind programming, such as ideation and coding through the use of MIT App Inventor.

After lunch, students will break into pre-set teams of four and work with a mentor to code their app and create a poster that outlines the app. Teams will then present their ideas to judges and compete for prizes. Last year some of the apps created were a door security app for WMS and a stress-free alternative to PowerSchool.

018 creatathon
The 2018 event

(Information provided by Sarah Tong and Christina Wu, marketing chairs)

Last School Committee meeting before Town Election: March 10

School Committee Meeting

Tuesday, March 10, 6:30pm, JulianiRoom, TownHall, 525WashingtonStreet

6:30 PM – ​Call to Order

6:31 PM – ​Public Comment

6:35 PM – ​Recognitions

6:40 PM – ​Reports

●School Committee

●Superintendent

●Student Advisory

7:00 PM – ​Consent Agenda

● Approval of Minutes: 2/6 and 2/11 Open Sessions, 2/25 Open & Executive Sessions

● Gifts Acceptance

7:05 PM – ​Action/Discussion Items​ 7:05 pm Kiwanis Gift

7:10 pm 2018-19 Nursing Activities Report

7:30 pm SWAC Update

7:50 pm Mid-Year Goals Reports

●District

●Superintendent

8:05 pm Sustainable Building Guidelines

8:20 pm Update on Student Opportunity Act Planning

8:40 pm ES Minutes: Review for Release

8:45 pm HHU Discussion

9:15 PM – ​Public Comment

9:20 PM – ​Adjourn

Gold medal for Wellesley High 2:00 Jazz Band

From WHS Band Director Steve Scott:

I’m thrilled to announce that the WHS 2:00 Jazz Band earned a Gold Medal at Tuesday’s Massachusetts Association for Jazz Educators (MAJE) Festival at Reading Memorial High School. Russell Hornung (trumpet), Alex Feinberg (drums) and Connor McDonald (trombone) were chosen by our judges for Outstanding Musicianship Awards. They performed selections by Miles Davis, Benny Carter and Cole Porter. At the festival, the band got a fantastic clinic with Nathan Jorgensen, jazz and saxophone professor at UNH. The 2:00 Jazz Band will once again advance to the MAJE State Finals at Oliver Ames HS in Easton on March 21. I could not be more proud of these outstanding students.

WHS 2:00 Jazz Band
WHS 2:00 Jazz Band

 

Centennial Youth Service Award application deadline is March 31

The Wellesley Service League’s annual Centennial Youth Service Award application deadline is March 31st. An eligible applicant should be a Wellesley resident or a student at Wellesley High School, completing their senior year in high school, who has demonstrated unusual dedication and selflessness in a volunteer capacity. How to apply for the Wellesley Centennial Youth Service Award.

Wellesley coronavirus (COVID-19) central

coronavirus imageLinks to official Town of Wellesley coronavirus resources, plus Massachusetts Department of Public Health, CDC, Babson, Wellesley College, plus our past related posts. Wellesley coronavirus (COVID-19) updates.

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Summer Camp Spotlight: Edge on Science at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts

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SPONSORED POST: Calling all budding scientists and engineers!  Edge on Science is bringing summer STEM fun to Regis College, in Weston, Massachusetts. They believe in a project-based approach to applied science and engineering, one that taps into your child’s intrinsic curiosity. Lead instructors are engineers, scientists or scholars, and their aim is to encourage and challenge. With a child-to-instructor and assistant ratio of 7:1 or less, kids get plenty of support, as they work in teams to build individual and group projects.

Edge on Science
Catapult Engineering, Edge on Science

“My greater education was from summer enrichment,

because it took me to another level.”
— Connell Cloyd, M.Ed.

Summer programs like this allow your child to further explore a particular interest, or to try something new, all while having fun! They learn how to use tools, drawings, computer applications, and scientific instruments to make their projects come to life. Here are a few of the ways kids can create, test, and discover, with Edge on Science:

Bridge Building: In the classroom, kids design, build, and load test a take-home, model truss bridge. Outside, they team-build four different bridges, including a suspension type.

Catapult Engineering: We think this parent explanation sums it up best: “Catapult Engineering is non-stop, hands-on physics fun with a medieval flair.” Outside, teams build two trebuchets!

Drone and Code: Learn how to code instructions for a drone. Deal with basic laws of motion. Let STEM take flight!

Super Science Sampler: Kids get to explore many branches of applied science and engineering through fun experimentation, demonstrations, games and challenges.

STEM Program: Edge on Science
LOCATION: Regis College campus, Weston, Massachusetts & other locations in Newton, Beverly and Manchester
PHONE: (315) 773-5673
EMAIL HERE

 

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Overcoming inertia to attend Wellesley’s Isaac Newton exhibit

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Temps reached into the 80s Saturday, making for a beautiful day. Mrs. Swellesley was off hiking in western Mass with friends. I was laying low, resting my legs in advance of a sure-to-grueling 5K road race.

OK, I guess I’ll actually pop over to the Babson College pop-up exhibit of Sir Isaac Newton artifacts that I signed up for back in July. How boring can it be?

As it turns out, not boring at all.

Sure, as I assembled in the lobby of the Sorenson Center I realized my worst fears. Asked by a visiting curator from the Huntington Library in California what drew us to this exhibit, the majority of the group responded that they were engineering grads from Olin College. A Wellesley College instructor also was in the mix. Then there was me, a lowly wordsmith looking for a touch of enlightenment.

While I know my basic Newtonian facts, such as the Big 3 laws and that he didn’t discover gravity by getting bonked on the head by an apple, I didn’t quite appreciate the extent to which he was one of those Ben Franklin types who was the best at seemingly everything he did. That he was doing STEM before there was STEM.

Not only was this down-to-earth 17th- and 18th-century figure a great mathematician and scientist, but the Master of the Mint, an alchemy enthusiast, and “the most learned religious scholar of his time,” according to Huntington’s Joel Klein, an alchemy expert himself. Newton’s religious research, including his own blasphemous beliefs, mainly came to light after his death, when collectors like Babson acquired his works at auction.

“No problem was too big for Newton,” Klein asserted.

Babson Newton exhibit

Because this exhibit was so small, featuring about a dozen items enclosed in 4 cases borrowed from Harvard, attendees were  forced to zero in on what was before them. It reminded me of The Raconteurs show I’d just attended at the House of Blues, where attendees were required to lock their phones in pouches to compel them to stare at Jack White and his band mates for 90 minutes instead of holding up and checking their phones during the show.

On display at Babson from Sept. 20-22 was just a sampling of the massive Newton collection assembled by Grace Babson, first wife of college founder Roger Babson. Roger Babson was known to have a fascination with Newton’s laws, applying them to business, as well as with the concept of anti-gravity.

Babson Newton exhibit
Huntington Library curator Joel Klein, talking alchemy

 

The Newton exhibit, set in a black box theatre, included an original edition of Principia, THE math book, with Newton’s hand-scrawled notes in the margins. Also on display were very old coins, at least one of which was clipped, or cut off around the edges. Schemers did this to sell off the silver and still use the coin for its own value. Though they did so at the risk of being burned, hung or drawn and quartered. Such ploys were high crimes at the time, Klein said.

A cryptic Newton sketch related to his efforts to discover the philosopher’s stone, which in theory could turn base metals into silver or gold, also made for interesting viewing. Especially after Klein noted Newton’s focus on the substance antimony, and something about the “menstrual blood of a sordid whore.”

I didn’t see that coming.

Nor did I foresee myself reserving a book called Newton and the Counterfeiter from the library after my visit. But I did.

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Wellesley Cultural Council seeks grant applications

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The Wellesley Cultural Council will be accepting applications beginning Sept. 1 from artists, educators, performers and organizations for community-oriented programs that will enrich the cultural life of the residents of Wellesley. Applicants may request funding for programs in the arts, humanities, and sciences, including (but not limited to) performances, lectures, workshops, exhibits, and festivals to be presented in 2020,. All applicants must have a confirmed venue for their project for their application to be considered. Applications must be completed online and must be submitted by October 15, 2019.

To apply for a grant, applicants should go to www.mass-culture.org, click on “Applicants,”  and type “Wellesley” into the left side bar.  All the information and online forms required can be found there.  Before filling out the application, applicants are strongly urged to read what is written under the “Council Priorities” tab in order to ensure that your application will comply with the Wellesley Cultural Council programs guidelines.

The Wellesley Cultural Council is part of a network of 329 local cultural councils which provide cultural programming to all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Funding for these local cultural councils comes from an annual appropriation from the state legislature to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which then distributes those funds to its local cultural councils.

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Wellesley Digital Bridges offering computer programming courses

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From John Breedis:

Wellesley Digital Bridges is a group of students with the goal of both teaching kids basic programming and raising money to purchase Chromebooks and other supplies for schools in the Boston area that need help with computer purchases.

Over the years, Wellesley Digital Bridges has raised over $3,000 and donated every cent to purchasing Chromebooks, headphones and other equipment to schools in the Boston area.

This summer and fall, we at Wellesley Digital Bridges will provide programming courses in Java and Python for middle and high school students. Each course will be structured to teach basic programming. No previous experience is required.

Each course session provides six hours of class time over four days. Sessions are limited in size so that we can help each student learn at their own pace. We ask that students who participate make a donation of $50 for each four day session.

We at Wellesley Digital Bridges believe that technology has made a big difference in our lives. It keeps us better connected with one another and entertains us to no end. It is also a powerful tool in the field of education. Whether it be Khan Academy, online classes, or educational videos, access to technology can be a big help to students. This is the reason why we plan to continue our mission at Wellesley Digital Bridges.

If you have a student who wants to begin their journey on learning programming, request a spot in class by emailing Wellesley Digital Bridges at [email protected]. Some of the upcoming sessions are as follows: August 26-29 (4:00 to 5:30PM), or Fridays, September 6, 13, 20, 27 (5:00 to 6:30PM).

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