On February 21, Dorothy Nelson and Ye’Amlak Zegeye (Grade 11) spent their day at WMATA’s Greenbelt rail yard, taking part in a program designed to introduce young women to the field of engineering. Ben Titus ‘02, a mechanical engineer for LTK Engineering Services, helped to facilitate the program as part of National Engineers Week. Joining the WIS students were three girls from Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, MD.

Recently, Grade 1 French students had a chance to become “professional” bread bakers on their trip to Boulangerie Christophe in Georgetown! As part of the unit on cities, the students have focused on the central idea: “As urban populations grow, the services they provide must continue to meet citizen needs,” which falls under the transdisciplinary theme “How We Organize Ourselves.” This trip to the bakery gave them a real-life example of a business that meets citizens’ needs.

As part of their Humanities curriculum, Grade 7 students investigate the Middle Ages across different regions of the world. They begin the year studying the fall of the Roman Empire, move on to the Byzantine Empire, then continue through the rise of Islam and the Islamic Empire.

At the beginning of 2018, Middle and Upper School teachers were presented with an exciting professional development opportunity. WIS had recently been awarded a grant by the E. E. Ford Foundation to start a maker-centered learning project on the Tregaron campus. The group of teachers who chose to participate would work with Project Zero principal investigator Edward Clapp, as well as project coordinator Sarah Sheya, to infuse maker-centered approaches to teaching and learning across the curriculum.

How often have you ordered something online and wished that you could do more with the box it was shipped in, other than just recycle it? With the uptick of online shopping over the last decade, more and more cardboard is being used (and hopefully recycled) each year. But what if it could be repurposed?

Luckily, students in Grades 3-5 had the opportunity to do just that!