🎓 One of the many great opportunities that Wakefield students get is access to the incredible Mr. Matt McDonough and his expertise in college counseling (2nd picture on the left). Recently, our Upper School was invited to attend a college fair hosted by @foxcroftschool where they perused all of the attending schools to discuss their options and what’s available to them as they decide on their paths for undergrad. Mr. McDonough also takes the juniors on a college tour every year and works closely one-on-one in advising and assisting with their college application process. 🎓
#wfs #collegefair #collegecounseling
🐣 The day has arrived! Our chicks have started hatching!! Students in the Lower School have been learning and doing activities all about the embryonic process of how an egg becomes a chick. 🐣 #wfs #lifescience #babychicks #scienceclass
🌏 Happy #EarthDay! In celebration, we are shining a light on the work of one of our new Upper School teachers, Mr. Charles Botwick. He has been at the forefront of environmental engineering and technology since 1973. To fortify his foundation for environmental expertise, he spent grad school learning from one of the most well-known ecologists, Mr. Howard T. Odum, who received the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Ecology, the Crafoord Prize. He also studied under Dr. George Woodwell who proved the concept of biomagnification in the food chain.
Professionally, Mr. Botwick has worked many years as an environmental tech consultant advising the Pentagon and the White House, participating in a select Senate Environmental Committee, and consulting over 150 environmental engineering and tech companies. He was a consultant for FEMA, where he wrote the protocols for handling toxic hazardous waste after disasters. This opportunity arose in 2001 when he served on a task force mitigating the environmental consequences of the Houston Medical Center flooding which was one of the biggest medical waste disasters in US history.
Fortunately for Wakefield students, Mr. Botwick has brought his wealth of knowledge and experience to our Upper School. Local ecology students have been tracking their personal use of plastics and applying that observation to gain perspective on local and global use of plastics. They also investigate recent news reports to analyze their environmental impact on society and discuss these impacts as a class. Mr. Botwick holds class discussions on the carbon footprint of food production, the use of solar power to improve agricultural practices, and current news surrounding the impact of PFAS contaminants. To bring the professional world of environmental policy to the classroom, he held a mock global climate change conference where students had to identify with a country of their choice and debate their renewable energy needs.
Mr. Botwick’s class is an excellent example of student agency in action, allowing them to discover how “everything is everywhere connected,” through student-directed research and discovery, guided by his expert oversight. 🌏