Blog

Creative Makerspace Art Session!

Express yourself and get creative! The students had an opportunity to do just that this Friday, with an hour-long freeform art session. The session was inspired by a news segment the students saw at the beginning of the week about a shared art makerspace. Today we closed the week out by creating our own art makerspace right here at TCS! Acrylic and tempera paint, glitter, glue, popsicle sticks, beads, wire, colored pencils, and markers were just some of the materials the students got to work with today. The goal of the freeform art session was for students to create a piece, or series of pieces, that they connect with or represents them in some way. 

After working on their creations, the students presented the pieces to the class. There were many different reactions to the activity. Some students found the process to be calming, and liked having a quiet time to focus. Other students felt stressed because they liked their idea, but didn’t feel that they had the time or skills to implement their ideas. At the end of the process, the students had many different types of creations to show. Some students made sculptural pieces, some made drawings and paintings, and some used a combination of mediums to incorporate 3D elements on a flat page. It was great to see how each individual expressed themselves in such different ways! View the gallery here to see each student’s project!

TCS Student News October 4th

This week’s news broadcast from The Community School was researched, written, produced and anchored by students Tyleiah Trusty and Keith Cooke.

Space Lab Returns for Second Year!

Blasting off to the moon! Space Lab is back for a second year of science and discovery here at TCS, and this time the theme is the Earth’s moon. This 10-week unit will meet every Thursday will be led by Elaine Lewis, a former NASA-Goddard educator. Ms. Elaine is returning for her second year as a TCS seminar teacher. This semester’s seminar is only for Juniors and Seniors, although we hope to arrange another unit in the spring for all students.

Kicking off the moon unit is the critically acclaimed movie First Man. The movie chronicles NASA’s early attempts to send men to the moon, culminating in the historic Apollo 11 flight. While showing the movie, periodically Ms. Elaine will pause to teach the students extra information and discuss. This section of the unit will last around 3-4 weeks. Thank you Ms. Elaine for returning for another semester!

Intro Bio Class Extracts DNA with CSI

The students took a first-hand look at the building blocks of life in today’s CSI lab for the Sophomore Intro Biology class. CSI, also known as the Community School Initiative, is a project led by Johns Hopkins University student volunteers courtesy of the JHU Center for Social Concern. The Intro Biology class has been learning about DNA, the material inside of our cells that determine how our body looks and functions. In this lab, CSI led the students in extracting DNA from strawberries and bananas, a surprisingly simple procedure. Using dish detergent to break up the fruits’ cell walls, they did an extraction with isopropyl alcohol. This allowed them to visualize the DNA. 

Ms. Rebecca said, “laboratory scientists do experiments like this every day (although usually with animal cells instead of fruit). Once they isolate the DNA, they can sequence it to study differences in the DNA of different people.” Studying differences in DNA allows scientists to find the changes in DNA that lead to diseases, and ways to fight these diseases. This was CSI’s first lab of the year with the Intro Biology students, and we look forward to more as the year goes on.