InSpeyered
News from
The Speyer Legacy School
Spring 2014
The Play Within the Play
By Rod Alonzo, Faculty
Science IS
a Humanity
Kimberly Schwab,
Middle School Science Teacher
Nermeen Dashoush, Science Coordinator,
Lower School Science Teacher
A
Speyer scholars enjoying time on the school terrace.
W
hen I was a child growing up in
southwestern Michigan, I had
access to a sophisticated, state-ofthe-art playground, ensuring hours
of high-quality creativity and physical derring-do. This marvelous space,
brimming with multiple avenues
for exploration was, in fact, a large
mound of dirt dumped next to the
wood-framed house going up in the
lot across the street from our place.
My five-year-old self gazed, as if hypnotized, at that majestic pile, conjuring up castle walls, a lunar surface, the
deck of a battleship, and the summit
of Mount Kilimanjaro. That dumpy
lot was an unlimited canvas for my
imagination. I lost myself readily,
suspending disbelief, transforming
dreary surroundings into the richest
experience.
What happens to a child when he/she
plays? In an instant, an electrical re-
channeling occurs in the brain. Like
a cat mesmerized by a dangling trail
of yarn, both physical and chemical
changes unfold. During play, stimulation occurs in several parts of the
brain including the prefrontal cortex,
the inferior frontal gyrus, the temporal lobe, and the limbic system. From
our earliest moments as independent beings, these adaptable parts of
our brains thrive in conditions where
revelry, role-play, and puzzlement
abound. In fact, a bevy of neurologists recommend an eclectic regimen
of engaged abandon.
When one must leave the sand-lot
and seek a formal education, the traditional classroom can often amount
to a lot of serious business. There are
rules to follow, subjugation-demanding tests, and authoritative personalities requiring complicity. A free spirit,
continued on page 2
s a result of the growing
concern over our future
preparedness for global competition and ability to ensure
national security – STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) programs
have been devised to integrate
science and technology into
the broader curriculum of
most educational institutions.
Recently, urgent appeals have
been made to STEM education to add another element,
art, into the innovation tool kit
to ensure a prosperous future.
While adding art to the mix will
undoubtedly enhance creative
problem solving, the question
remains as to whether we can
go even further in bringing relevance and understanding to
the morality, history, and social context brought forth by
STEM subjects. Can we, in an
educational environment, put
forth the possibility of not only
technological innovation as a
solution but social and moral
innovation as well?
The science department at
Speyer considers science to
be a humanity: a field of study
vital to helping us understand
continued on page 3
The Play Within The Play
continued from page 1
accustomed to a da Vinci-like proprietorship over his or her creative
world, may be in for a rude awakening when plopped down in such an
environment. Many a creative soul
has wilted like an unwatered fern
in an August heatwave because the
abilities they developed as aficionados of play were not supported in
their formal education.
Members of the Speyer faculty strive
to strike a balance between supporting the playful nature of our students
and bolstering the essential skills required for advancement. When designing projects for sixth graders, we
realized that in order to truly engage
them, we needed to trigger the same
regions of the brain as those that
could be activated by a pile of dirt
and discarded wood scraps. At times,
teachers feel tremendous pressure
to have students “learn” a proscribed
slate of information. It is at that moment that we must pause and ask
ourselves how we can make this
playful. Straight up memorization is
an important skill, but just as a child
memorizes the rules of a backyard
game or the attributes of an invented
Dungeons & Dragons’ character, one
can unlock the mysteries of iambic
pentameter and understand Hamlet’s
dilemma on a level far deeper than
can be understood through memorization alone. It’s all in the spirit in
which the lesson is presented. Even
better, the students don’t realize it’s
a lesson because, by design, it bears
the hallmarks of something fun.
When working with the sixth graders
on various projects, we, the faculty,
imagine them as adults, working at
places like NASA, Google, or the New
Yorker Magazine. While those institutions give off an aura of serious
business, many of the skills required
to be successful in such establishments first took root in childhood
play. The Speyer faculty thus holds
the notion of play in the highest regard. When a child plays, she will
hopefully learn to trust her creative
2
The Speyer faculty
holds the notion of
play in the highest
regard. When a
child plays, she will
hopefully learn to
trust her creative
instincts, listen to
others, delegate,
take risks, decode
puzzles, understand
the rules—amend
and break them—
and take others’
feelings into
consideration.
instincts, listen to others, delegate,
take risks, decode puzzles, understand the rules, amend the rules,
break the rules, and take others’ feelings into consideration. We know
our scholars possess vast storehouses of factual information. Their
brains move with the rapidity of the
Finnish luge team. But knowing all of
those facts isn’t the true destination.
It is only one component of what we
hope will be a well-rounded, selfactualized team-member. Someone
who knows how to play well.
A compelling example of the importance of play in our lives can be
found in Randy Pausch’s "Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." Faced with the knowledge that his remaining time on
Earth was limited, Dr. Pausch spoke
of powerful lessons he absorbed and
applied as an innovator in the field
of virtual reality. Lessons he learned
on the football field, watching Star
Trek, pondering the life of an astronaut, and “geeking out” with the
World Book Encyclopedia book set
his family kept in his den, all coalesce
into an essential stream of life lessons. Dr. Pausch's childhood games
served as the supporting walls of his
adulthood. To listen to him speak is
to get a window into the playful exuberance of this ingenious man, who
maintained a deep appreciation for
the significance of play even as a
professor at Carnegie Mellon. We at
Speyer strive to implement a similar
method in our sixth grade classroom,
in the hope that our students will excel academically while continuing to
tap into those wonderful resources
they learned, and continue to learn,
in their backyards, in playgrounds,
or even on a mound of dirt next to a
wood-framed house.
gated how scientists discovered and harnessed nuclear
power through the lens of
the social and scientific milieus of key researchers including Antoine Lavoisier,
Emily du Chatalet, Michael
Faraday, and Lise Meitner,
whose work lead to Einstein’s famous equation
E=MC2. They concluded
the unit by learning how to
balance nuclear equations.
Steven Johnson’s interdisciplinary The Invention of
Air: A Story of Science, Faith,
Revolution, and the Birth of
Nobel prize winner, Roald Hoffman, speaks to Speyer 6th graders about his play "Oxygen."
America, lead us into the history of the chemical revoluScience IS a Humanity continued from page 1
tion that yielded our modern conception of combuswhat it means to be a human being living on Earth.
tion. We replicated experiments, using modern safe
We believe that children do not look at the world with
methods, that generated hydrogen, oxygen and cardisciplinary blinders and at Speyer scientific investibon dioxide, first in the lab and then on stage during
gations are integrated into the social context of the
the scholars' performance of Oxygen.
entire curriculum.
Our recent work with the 6th graders on the play, Oxygen, by Nobel Prize winner and chemist Roald Hoffman and world-famous chemist Carl Djerassi takes
place in the context of a year-long study of combustion, beginning with the investigation of a candle
flame, guided by experiments from Michael Faraday’s
"Chemical History of a Candle." While reading John
Hershey’s Hiroshima in history class, scholars investi-
Scholars had the opportunity to pose their own questions to Roald Hoffman on May 5, when he visited
Speyer to watch the students perform scenes from
the play and engage in dialogue about its content.
The unit concluded with a full live performance of the
play to parents and faculty on May 22 – an experience
and learning opportunity that far surpassed even the
scholars’ expectations.
Speyer 6th graders, playing Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Joseph Priestley, and Carl Wilhelm Scheele, argue about who "invented"
oxygen first in the performance of the play, Oxygen.
3
Books and Beyond…
T
hanks to the hard work of the Parents' Association's Library Committee, a thoughtful partnership with
the Bank Street Bookstore, and the
creative support of the entire Speyer
community, Speyer hosted its firstever Book Fair in early April.
During the three-day event, the entire Speyer community - and even
our postal carrier! - browsed and
purchased books and educational
resources that had been thoughtfully selected by Speyer teachers and
curated by Bank Street's staff. Over
$14,000 was generated from the Fair,
in addition to hundreds of books
purchased and donated to Speyer's
growing classroom and schoolwide libraries.
One of the highlights of the Book Fair
was a visit from writer, cartoonist,
and graphic novelist Dave Ronan,
whose Astronaut Academy books
are beloved by many Speyer scholars. Ronan spent a lively afternoon
with Speyer's fourth and fifth grade
scholars, sharing his story of how he
combined his love of drawing and
impressive imagination to create a
career that he loves. As Speyer scholar Max Eastwood reflected, "It was
really interesting to learn about how
Cartoonist and writer, Dave Ronan, sharing his ideas about imagination and drawing.
he wrote Astronaut Academy and
how he planned out his ideas and
his books in advance. He also told us
about how he came up with his own
ideas after reading lots of other books
and comics." During the visit, scholars had the chance to share their
drawings with Ronan, who gave
feedback and encouragement, and
provided scholars with insight and
inspiration about turning one's passion into a meaningful career.
The first Book Fair was a success resulting from the cooperation of parents, faculty, and staff – galvanizing
the entire community around something it feels strongly about: books
and the magical opportunities for
learning that they provide.
Congratulations to The Speyer Legacy
School for clinching 3 National Titles
in 2013-2014!
1st Place – 5th Grade Team – Orlando, FL
1st Place – All Girls' Nationals (U10) – Chicago, IL
1st Place – K-5 Championship – Dallas, TX
National chess tournaments are rigorous competitions that require all
participants to maintain an intense level of focus. The board to the left
is the result of an extremely challenging game that inevitably ended
in a draw, allowing Speyer to take first place in the All Girls' Nationals.
4
Being InSpeyered by Real Mathematics in
Sian Zelbo’s New Book, Camp Logic
A
s a young student, Sian Zelbo,
Speyer’s math instructional specialist, did not particularly like math.
Instead, she loved what she perceived at that time as more creative
subjects, such as art and writing, as
well as subjects that are often cited as
bearing a close relationship to logic,
like languages and grammar. Sian ultimately decided to attend law school
in the hope that the artful reasoning
she would learn and use there, and as
a practicing attorney, would perfectly complement her strong inclination for logical thinking and creative
problem-solving. It did not.
In keeping with Sian’s continuing
efforts to motivate children to
become more engaged in the study
of math and to help them reach
their full mathematical potential, she
has co-authored and illustrated a
book entitled Camp Logic, which is
being crowdfunded by its publisher,
Delta Stream, online at: http://www.
moebiusnoodles.com/camplogic
until June 14, 2014. Sian wrote Camp
Logic for teachers and parents to use
with their students and children in
an effort to help reveal to children the
exciting world of mathematics. The
book is composed of mathematical
Speyer is receptive to different teaching styles
and stands firm in its belief that students
should not be pigeonholed, intellectually or
otherwise, by their grade level or age.
Sian left the practice of law to pursue
mathematics, which she felt could
be a more suitable study in which
to implement and practice creative,
critical thinking. She also wanted to
prove to herself that she could understand math in a new way, rather than
in the monotonous, traditional way
she had learned math growing up,
and teach this alternative approach
to math to young students. And she
did. Sian enrolled in the math education program at Teachers’ College,
Columbia University, where she began her journey towards what she
describes as “real mathematics”: understanding math to be as creative
a subject as art or writing, and not
simply a tool used by schools to assess students’ understanding of the
way in which numbers work.
activities that Sian developed and
Can you solve for F and T?
implemented during her work at the
Center for Mathematical Talent at
the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, and
at Speyer.
According to Sian, the holistic approach that Speyer uses in educating its students is an essential part of what lead her to discover and refine various activities in her book. The fact that Speyer is receptive to different teaching styles
and stands firm in its belief that students should not be pigeonholed, intellectually or otherwise, by their grade level or age, provided Sian with a unique environment in which to create engaging mathematical puzzles for Camp Logic,
and understand how the activities she created would be received by children
of varying abilities within the same age range.
The activities presented in Camp Logic are engaging and challenging reasoning puzzles, stories, and games, and have little to do with the dry problem sets
that many students associate with math. Sian’s hope is that the problems in the
book will increase students’ enjoyment of - - and, consequently - - confidence
in, math, and influence them to consider it as an exciting and creative subject
to be enjoyed rather than feared.
5
Student Spotlight: Harper Learmonth
O
They picked 150 students in middle
schools around the country to win.
n May 5th, sixth grader Harper
Learmonth was awarded a $1,000
scholarship by MathMovesU, an organization that seeks to generate a
lifelong connection between inquisitive, evolving minds and the mathematical universe. As an added bonus
resulting from Harper's accomplishment, the Raytheon Company donated a matching amount of award
money towards a scholarship fund at
Speyer Legacy School.
Harper's laurels are the result of her
authorship of both an essay and a
keynote presentation on the Golden
Ratio, a mathematical concept that
has been used to analyze the geometric proportions of natural objects
and even man-made systems such
as financial markets. We asked Harper a few questions about her fascination with math and science.
Q: When did you know that you
loved math and/or science?
A: I’ve always loved science but I figured out I love math, too, in the middle of this year, when we were working on geometry problems and they
started becoming fun. But I’ve always
really enjoyed math. In the 5th grade
I started to memorize Pi, and now I
know Pi to 80 digits.
Q: What is the Golden Ratio/Phi?
A: The Golden Ratio is a ratio that is
found by many people to be pleasing to the eye. It is the ratio of 1:Phi.
Phi is an irrational number, similar
to Pi. Phi starts as 1.618. You can see
this ratio in a snail’s shell, and in our
galaxy. Even the human hand. When
the ratio is expressed as a rectangle
people call it the Golden Rectangle.
Q: What is the after-school STEM
program you attend? How is it connected to the scholarship?
Q: What led you to apply for this
scholarship?
A: I go to a science afterschool STEM
program. The teacher there told me
that she thought I would like to enter, and it would be fun for me. She
oversaw my project. I based my presentation off a project I had done at
school on the Golden Ratio. I reread
my book chapter on it, and also did
research online, and used the facts I
had to explain how the Golden Ratio
moves the world around us. I talked
about how people make conscious
choices to put things in the Golden
Ratio. Certain business logos are in
this ratio. And I talked about how it
was interesting that there was one
common rectangle that everyone
agreed was beautiful when many
people often have different takes on
what is and is not beautiful.
Q: What is the scholarship for?
A: You had to submit a PowerPoint
presentation on how Math Moves
You and the world around you.
A: It’s a program through the (University Settlement’s) Beacon Program, where once a week there’s a
new science experiment or contest
that we do as a group. It’s for middle
school and high school students. For
example, we have done engineering
projects where we once tried to see
how far you can get a marshmallow to travel and land in a cup. Some
people made slides and others made
ziplines for the marshmallow. We’ve
dissected frogs and a fetal pig. We
made telescopes. The teacher at the
program, Maryann Stimmer, recommended I enter the contest because
she thought I might like it.
Q: What do you plan to do with your
scholarship money?
A: Save it for college.
Q: What do you think you may do
professionally one day?
A: Be an astronaut or a teacher. I
may also want to work with animals, because they’re so much better than humans.
Q: What are some of your other
interests?
A: I like writing stories about science
and fantasy fiction. I recently finished
a story about a girl going into a purple portal that smelled like crunchy
cheese. She met a dog-like creature
who guided her through tunnels inside the walls of a cave and tried to
help her find her way home.
Answer to Science Challenge (from previous issue)
Sam and Ryan may have both used the same amount of water from the same kitchen sink. They may have placed
that water in the same container and freezer, but was it the same temperature to start with? Ryan's water was
warmer and under the Mpemba effect, warmer water freezes faster than colder water. Does this sound right to
you? How can you truly know?
6
Born to Run
By Laura Gonzalez
M
y mother asked me if I wanted to try
running a half marathon and I thought
it was a good idea. Running would keep
me in shape and I would have a big athletic goal during the school year. It's good to
have a goal, especially if it's physical. Getting my own shiny medal is what inspired
me to participate in a half marathon this
past April. However, doing the work was
really its own reward.
Every Sunday I trained with a group of
moms that live in my neighborhood. We
started out with only a couple of miles and
it gradually turned into a 10-mile run. My
mother helped me out a lot with the train6th grader, Laura Gonzalez, pushes on to complete her first half marathon.
ing. She was the group's coach and instructed us on where to run, how to keep
pace, and when to change speed. She also taught us
I learned that to achieve a goal as hard as a half marhow to save our energy and how to stay hydrated. My
athon, there are challenges along the way, such as
running partners were also a big help. They kept me
having to get up on race day at 5:00 am, running on
focused and entertained. If I needed help they could
Thursdays after a long day of school, training in cold
call my mom if she wasn't running by my side.
weather and keeping pace so I could finish the race
and not run out of energy.
My favorite part of being in the women's half marathon
was the cheering from an incredibly fast and famous
The experience was exhilarating and I plan to do it
long distance runner, Deena Castor. While I was on the
again because I want to beat my time by at least 10
course I got a "good job!" from the star athlete. In that
minutes in the next women's half next April 2015.
moment I got so pumped to finish the race and felt so
proud of myself for knowing I would complete it!
2014 InSpeyered Auction
Raises Record $416,000
T
he Speyer Legacy School’s 5th
Annual InSpeyered Evening
held on May 15th in the school’s
new building was a tremendous
success, raising over $416,000 in
support of the school. Portions of
the proceeds will be allocated to
the creation of A Maker’s Lab – a
hands-on studio where students
will tinker, innovate, and build
using equipment such as 3D
printers, laser cutters, and microcontrollers.
Months of planning by Auction
Committee Parent Co-Chairs,
Michele Felsher and Mila Jeneste,
made the evening one that none
of the attendees will ever forget.
Parent volunteers transformed
the school’s main hallway – the
“Boulevard” – by incorporating
lit tables and stunning flowers
as well as over 200 carefully displayed silent auction items. A Live
Auction and Paddle Raise, led by
experienced auctioneer, George
McNeely, concluded the event,
together raising over $275,000.
7
Parent Spotlight: The Innovating World of Joe Masibay
T
he Speyer Legacy School is proud not only of its incredibly talented scholars but also of its accomplished
and innovative parents like Joe Masibay: a toy designer,
entrepreneur, and father of first grader, Leo Masibay. InSpeyered recently sat down with Joe for a quick chat .
Q: What was the first toy you ever made? What did it
feel like when you saw that toy on a store shelf for the
first time?
A: Of course, I'm not saving the world, but I do feel fortunate to have a career that plays to my strengths and that
I find fun. Toy design is a great line of work for a person
who has lots of gadgets and mechanical ideas, and who
likes to take things apart and put them together. Even if I
A: My very first toy design was a popsicle stick and rubber band switchblade that I made as a kid. You gotta understand, I grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the
1970s – self-defense was on my mind. The first professional toy I worked on was the McDonald's Furby Happy
Meal Toy back in 1997. The real thrills came later when I
started seeing various Fisher Price toys that I had worked
on up on the shelves. Best of all was a mini stunt action
figure toy line called Bonkazonks (you can check it out at
Parent, Joe Masibay, at his Breadbox Studio
Joe demonstrates toy design to fascinated children
weren't making them, I'm pretty sure I would have some
sort of toy collection going. Also, I have always wanted to
work for myself; I like the feeling of my days being my own
even if I have to work round the clock to keep it going.
Bonkazonks.com) that my buddy and I invented on our
own and licensed to Hasbro. When I went to ToysRUs in
Times Square and saw those toys for sale on the shelves, I
was over the moon. It was the best feeling.
Q: How did you begin your career as a toy maker? Was it
in school or after you finished school?
Q: Tell us more about design and 3D printers. How has
this changed the design/toy industry?
A: I have always liked to build things. In college I majored
in Industrial Design. The idea was to become a furniture
designer but a few years out of college I got a job at a small
toy invention firm in Chicago and it's been toys ever
since. When we moved to New York in 1999, I founded
Breadbox Studio and worked for myself for a few years.
Eventually, I was recruited by Fisher Price. I worked there
for quite some time and was assigned to what was arguably the coolest job ever: the Thomas train line. (At the
time, my son Leo was train obsessed. So I was definitely
daddy of the year, in his eyes, for a few years running.)
I have worked on the designs of at least 100 Thomas &
Friends trains and created heaps of play sets. Great as it
was, I eventually found myself itching to get back to my
own business, so a few years ago I left FP and have since
been focusing on Breadbox Studio. I am also an adjunct
professor in the toy design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
A: Just like toys, there's nothing new about 3D printing.
The industrial technology has been used in every type of
product design field (and architectural modeling) since
the 1980s. 3D printing changed product design by changing the workflow process. Instead of creating a model
by hand, which could take months, designers have been
using CAD (computer aided design) to develop products
quickly. It’s now possible to start designing a small prototype in the computer in the morning and have a 3D printed
model in your hand by day's end. That's pretty revolutionary. What's suddenly so exciting about 3D printing is the
arrival of desktop 3D printers and the possibility of making
the technology accessible to everyday inventors and educators. Last year, a Speyer scholar visited my studio and
designed a character sculpt. I 3D printed it and he had a
little toy of his own creation in his hands the next day.
Q: Would you say this is the best job ever? If so, why?
Q: Tell us about Speyer and the curriculum’s relationship
to innovation and creation.
continued on page 10
8
Dancing is Discovery
By Kelly Buwalda
M
artha Graham, an American
choreographer who was known
as the mother of modern dance, said:
"Dancing is discovery, discovery, discovery." At Speyer Legacy, we dance
to discover.
How do we discover?
The dance program at Speyer provides a comprehensive experience of
the art form, giving every scholar the
opportunity to move to live music, develop coordination, spatial awareness
and movement skills, and perform as
unique individuals within an ensemble. Through a sequential curriculum
and an annual theme that propels
dancing and learning, we empower
the bodies and minds of all scholars.
Every class includes the universal
rigors of dance – from warming up
to mastering individual steps with
precision and excellence – and ultimately their integration into complex movement sequences. We
engage every scholar with an accelerated pace of instruction, dynamic
and full energy movement, and the
challenges of brain and body that
are inherently demanded through
dance. By ensuring success for every
child, our class environment is joyful, positive, and alive with creative
and critical thinking.
Teaching artists from the National
Dance Institute (NDI) lead Speyer's
dance program. NDI is an internationally-recognized arts education
organization founded in 1976 by
Jacques d’Amboise who believed
that the arts have a unique power
to engage children and motivate
them toward excellence. Inspired
by Jacques’ legacy and the pedagogy of NDI, three teaching artists
(two dancer-choreographers and a
musician-composer) conduct every
class. The teaching artists collaborate
with each other as well as with the
scholars, with the intent of providing a professional artistic experience
The kindergarten class strut their stuff in "Dragons and Dynasties"
4th graders peforming "Year of the Horse"
rather than developing professional
dancers. With the belief that every
child is a dancer and musician, and
that an embodied creative experience shared with others through performance deepens and enriches our
humanity, the teaching team aims to
develop future creative thinkers who
appreciate the arts and are familiar
with its many facets.
Each year we employ a theme, which
influences the styles of dance we
teach as well as the choreographic content. This year at Speyer our
dancing was driven by an exciting
exploration of China. The Kindergar-
ten, 1st, and 2nd grades focused on
storytelling through dance as well as
sharing facts and dancing about famous places in China, while the 3rd
and 4th grades learned traditional
Chines folk dances. One grade integrated the skills we learned in a ballet technique class into a folk dance
from the Northwestern Province that
called on similar skills (i.e., the specificity of port de bras - the arm carriage); another grade contrasted the
footwork of an ancient Tibetan folk
dance with contemporary movement; and yet another grade united
to perform a high-energy Mongolian
Horse dance that included the use of
continued on page 10
9
Dancing is Discovery continued from page 9
props, which is an element that distinguishes Chinese dance. This year
we also incorporated a Choreography class for the 5th grade scholars.
Their dance embodied the concepts
of yin/yang and was made entirely of
movement generated by the dancers
and constructed in a collaborative
method. Through this rich process,
the scholars' work culminated in an
exceptional product: two stellar productions danced to live music and
performed at both The Speyer Legacy School as well as the NDI's Center
for Learning and the Arts.
So, what do we discover?
We discover that movement that appears easy is sometimes difficult, and
that even simple steps require great
focus and energy to dance them fully.
We discover that we can dance complicated sequences and sharpen our
memories. We discover that some of
us feel more natural in front of an audience, while others face their fears
and increase their confidence with
each performance. We discover new
5th graders dancing to "Yin Yang"
cultures, people and places. We discover new music and embody it with deeper
understanding. We discover we are greater together than apart, and celebrate
individuality within group choreography. We discover that dance is not as limited as we may once have presumed -- that dance is transformative for all of us.
We discover the joy of hard work and togetherness. We discover new strengths
within ourselves.
Parent Spotlight continued from page 8
A: My son Leo is in first grade and I have been so impressed with the way his teachers at Speyer are helping
him learn and grow. Earlier in the school year, the scholars in his class created board games based on their study
of the Dutch and the Lenape. The 1B teachers organized
a culminating event so that parents could come to class
and spend time playing the games. I was so impressed
with how the children creatively applied their knowledge.
To turn a bunch of historical facts into a board game that
has rules and strategy and scoring, and that's also fun is
no small deal. It was very innovative and it allowed them
to use very high-level skills. In that one project, I saw the
children pull together knowledge absorbed from their
classroom studies as well as skills they've gleaned from
chess, art, and math enrichment. What a wonderful way
to let these amazing Speyer scholars spread their wings
and show their brilliance!
More info about Joe Masibay can be found by watching a
recent Intel video:
http://vimeo.com/originals/empoweringinnovators/84413329
10
Contributors
Writing
Rod Alonzo
Kristina Berger
Kelly Buwalda
Nermeen Dashoush
Beth Efran
Jennifer Frankel
Laura Gonzalez
Kimberly Schwab
Sunil Weeramantry
Photography
Marty Granger
Kevin Hatt
Mark Rosenberg
Cast of
Oxygen
(in order of appearance)
Michael Manta as
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
Harper Learmonth as
Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze Lavoisier
King Snider as
Phlogiston
Laura Gonzalez as
Oxygen
David Gonzalez as
Joseph Priestley
Aaron Lieberman as
Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Emma Walter as
Mary Priestley
Paige Linzo as
Sara Margaretha Pohl
Lorelei Coline-Hatt as
Prof. Astrid Rosenqvist
Tiago Gonzalez-Gangemi as
Prof. Bengt Hjalmarsson
Andy Weng as
Prof. Sune Kallstenius
Ebow Biney as
Prof. Ulf Svanholm
Nayu Lee as
Ulla Zorn
Production Crew (l to r): Max Selendy, Narrator/Props, Sarah
Weiner, Director, Gabriel Jacoby-Cooper, Lighting Designer
11
Spring 2014
InSpeyered
Self portraits of 4th graders.
Speyer Legacy
School
The
925 9th Avenue, New York, NY 10019
Place
Stamp
Here