Newsletter // October 2021

In Elementary, the first Unit of Inquiry ended on Thursday, October 21. Throughout the unit, students inquired into cultures: what they are, the beliefs and values present in different cultures, and how they can be shared. They shared their learning with our community during two culminating events, the Festa Major and the Fall Festival, which were very exciting and fun.

At  the Festa  Major, we  celebrated  the local culture. Lower Elementary students helped write a story about the Gegant (giant)         

del Pi. "The giant is the most important character in the Festa Major and represents Barcelona culture," explained 5th grader Aitana, "But the devils are important too."

Upper Elementary students read this story and accompanied it with a song on the flute for our audience before leading the parade of giants, dressed in their own giant creations. "My favorite part of the Festa Major was that we all danced together, and that we got to represent my culture and what traditions we do," recalled Aitana.

Lower and Upper Elementary students also designed stations for the Fall Festival. Each station included different aspects of cultures they chose to research and share. For example, they included food, clothing, traditional crafts, music, and sports. "We all did projects and typed on the computer for our opinion writing," described 2nd grader Sana. "We all did our projects about a different country like America, Russia and

Kazakhstan." PYP parents, the Leadership Team, and middle school students and teachers joined us in celebrating our learning. They all enjoyed delicious snacks and exciting games to play. "My favorite part of the Fall Festival was sharing my poster with everyone," concluded Sana.

Next, the Elementary students are looking forward to starting their second Unit of Inquiry – How We Express Ourselves!

For today's students, science and technology are an integral part of their studies. Starting in Elementary School where the basic understanding of physical science is developed, up through Middle and High School, students use hands-on experiences to deepen their ideas about what science is. Veteran science teacher Dr. Boerkamps describes, "Science is the study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world around us." She adds, "It ranges from your own body to the environment we live in." It is such a broad concept and takes a skilled instructor to help guide students to learn to their fullest potential.

During Dr. Boerkamps' studies in Chemistry and Environmental Science, she became interested in the problems that can occur when we contaminate the world around us. At the time she did her PhD, there was a lot of pollution. 

"I decided to focus on cleaning the mess up instead of working on products which would contribute to more pollution," she recalled. 

Dr. Boerkamps strives to provide her students with a variety of activities during which students work together and no student will be left behind. This year she plans to include Interactive and hands-on labs, critical reading activities, working with and designing models and using math to explain flow charts, graphs and tables. "I am committed to guide my students to be the best scientist they can be," she said.

Today we find ourselves in a world with a lot of environmental challenges. Dr. Boerkamps feels the urgency to raise awareness that every individual has the task to contribute their share to try and make the world a cleaner place so that future generations can also enjoy it. She plans to do that, one experiement at a time.

Chemistry Honors teacher Mr. Rios is a trained Chemical Engineer. He knows the importance of truly understanding the material which is a higher level of learning that just having knowledge. "I prefer students to understand what is behind a chemical process, rather than memorizing the applications of it," he explained. This year in his

classes, he plans to maximize problem solving by using real-world examples that will bring Chemistry to life for his students. In addition, he hopes to take his class on more excursions to several science exhibitions in CosmoCaixa. "Science is one of the most important subjects in school, because everything in your daily life can be explained through science," he concluded. 

I feel honored to be the president of ESAS, as I will try to do anything but the impossible to achieve our common goals and ideas. The events that I am planning for this year as a president are that each class will plant a certain amount of trees, honoring Earth Day by turning all the lights off for an hour, hosting a collection and donation of clothes and rackets to the community before Christmas, and many more that will come later in the year.

The Student Council members are very ambitious, and our advisors Mr. Rios and Ms. Morrison are thrilled to see what big ideas we can come up with. They will support my goal to plant more trees around campus and promote activities for environmental awareness. Up next on our agenda is the school-wide Thanksgiving feast. Time to get to work! The big day is only a few weeks away!