School News
- Jun 29
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 1
Colonial History, Set to Punk Rock
What do you get when you mix Lower School history with punk rock? A Grade 4 project that took colonial history out of the books and onto the stage.
In Dot’s classroom, this culminating project grew out of students’ study of the Colonial era and the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. Students explored daily life in the colonies, the taxes and events that led to a war for independence, and the ideas that shaped a new nation. They watched parody music videos and Schoolhouse Rock songs that helped inspire their collective creative piece.
In their integrated Language Arts work, each student independently researched a related topic of their choice. They turned that research into expository writing and created newspaper front pages that showed what they had learned about nonfiction text features, including captions, headings, subtitles, visuals, timelines, and charts.
The unit ended with a parody song and music video created in cooperative quartets. Writing to the tune of one of Green Day’s greatest hits, students worked together on original verses about colonial life, the Revolution, founding documents, leaders, and the beginnings of American government. With collage, drawings, and piano accompaniment from music teacher Jonathan Weisbrot, the final project became a creative multidisciplinary project students built together.
Grade 8 Scientists Take DNA Learning Further
On March 19, eighth graders visited the DNA Learning Labs at City Tech in Brooklyn. This trip marked the second year the full grade visited the center and connected directly to their unit on DNA, giving students the chance to deepen their understanding through hands-on science in a university-grade lab setting.
The DNA Learning Center prepares students and families to thrive in the gene age. As the largest provider of biotechnology instruction at the precollege level in the United States, the DNALC operates 15 teaching labs throughout New York and New Jersey. Its work is centered on making complex topics in genetics accessible, engaging, and relevant to today’s learners.
Throughout the unit, students explored the structure and function of DNA, how it replicates, and how cells use it to make proteins. In class, they took part in a range of inquiry-based lab activities, including DNA extraction from plant cells, modeling DNA replication, and modeling protein synthesis.
At the DNA Learning Labs, students built on that classroom learning through advanced lab experiments, including forensic DNA analysis and crime-solving investigations. These activities reinforced their understanding of DNA while introducing them to scientific tools such as micropipettes and techniques used in professional lab environments. Plus students especially enjoyed the crime solving aspect of the day.
This immersive experience not only extended their comprehension of key biological concepts but also strengthened their skills in experimental design, execution, and scientific thinking. As such, the trip was a required part of the eighth grade science curriculum and a valuable opportunity for students to engage in real-world applications of their learning.
Learning Across Morocco
Over spring break, Friends’ Global Education program took Upper School students to Morocco for a deeply engaging educational experience grounded in cultural study, reflection, and exchange. Traveling with Kara Kutner, Joseph Sills, and Mouna Fdilat, students moved from Casablanca to Rabat to Marrakech, encountering sites that opened up conversations about history, religion, architecture, and daily life. From the Hassan II Mosque to the blue-and-white streets of Rabat, from Ben Youssef Madrasa and the Marrakech souk to the villages and landscapes of the Atlas Mountains, the trip invited students to learn through direct experience.
Upper Schoolers reflected on the relationship between Islamic and Quaker spaces for worship, learned about Amazigh history and ways of life in the mountains, and visited Dar Taliba, where they met girls from rural communities whose access to education is made possible through residential support. Across the trip, students engaged Morocco as a place of layered histories and artistic traditions.
There was also plenty of joy woven through the trip: train rides filled with card games and karaoke, camel rides just outside the city, calligraphy lessons, shared meals, henna, and music. By the end of the week, students had not only experienced Morocco’s history, artistry, and hospitality, but had also built a stronger community with one another. As one student put it, “My cheeks hurt from smiling so much.”
Hip Hop As History
The History Department is known for building courses around the questions and subjects that matter to students. That is clear in electives like History of Capital Punishment and Power, Politics & Citizenship—and in the fact that 80 percent of seniors choose to take history beyond the three years required.
Case Study in Social History: Hip-Hop asks students to look at hip-hop not only as music, but as history: a social and creative force shaped by its time and by its powerful influence on today’s society. Recently, that excitement filled a packed lunchtime event led by history teacher Stephon Richardson, who expanded his own DJ practice through a Strategic Innovation Curriculum Grant. Sharing both music and context, he introduced students to the history of hip-hop and the cultural forces that shape it.
Students turned the Upper School Commons into an early 1980s hip-hop party for the second year in a row. Taking on the roles of DJs, MCs, choreographers, and promoters, they worked within the realities of the period and explored how the culture was built. Upper School students interested in hip-hop and beat-making also explored the basics of sampling and music production, gaining practical tools alongside historical understanding.