The composting initiative has significantly cut down Brookline High School’s carbon emissions
The smallest actions sometimes have the greatest impacts, even here at the high school. Last year, Brookline High School saved eight metric tons of carbon after composting, reducing our output of greenhouse gases that are detrimental to the environment.
Social Studies teacher Roger Grande said that he believes the high school community needs to reevaluate how we think about our effects on the environment.
“For several years, I’ve been thinking that it’s not just me wanting change. The climate crisis is intensifying, and we as a school, along with all schools really, need to train students with the skills to be prepared and to be resilient to adaptation,” Grande said.
Grande applied to the Innovation Fund’s “Innovation Fellowship” two times before his third proposal was accepted. He plans to use the resources to make his sustainability initiative become a reality.
GraduateGreen is the term Grande coined for this sustainability initiative. He hopes that students will graduate from the high school with a green mindset, and that they’ll consider the impact they have on the environment as they move on to college or a career.
Grande is also the advisor for the Food Justice Club, who worked with the Environmental Action Club to develop lessons to be taught during advisories throughout February. The clubs collaborated to create three lessons: Recycling, Compost and Food Waste, and the Food System.
“As a school we have an opportunity to cultivate habits of the mindset. This is something that everybody can be involved in. It can be our culture change.” — Roger Grande, World History teacher
Seniors Grace Sokolow and Gigi Walsh are the co-leaders of the Food Justice Club, which is working with Grande to bring improved sustainable culture to BHS. Sokolow said that Grande wants this to be a student initiative.
“We have a composting system in place, we have a recycling system in place, and now it’s up to the students to use it correctly and effectively,” Walsh said. “There is always more progress to be made in sustainability and that both come from the actions of the students as well as actions and policies that are up to the administration.”
Some teachers are currently implementing lessons of sustainability into their curriculum. Grande believes this should be done on a larger scale, even in departments whose classes are less connected to environmental issues.
“It’s not the science department’s job. It’s no more their responsibility than it is for the rest of us,” Grande said. “Climate change is the consequence of economic and political decisions, and it’s going to take economic and political decisions to resolve the issue.”
Grande said that it will take a cultural shift in how we think about education in order to implement sustainability into all subjects. He thinks this can be achieved if the students can, keeping the larger impacts in mind, change their routines because of learning about sustainability in the curriculum.
“As a school we have an opportunity to cultivate habits of the mindset,” Grande said. “This is something that everybody can be involved in. It can be our culture change.”
According to Grande, the ultimate vision is to make the Brookline school system into designated Green Ribbon schools. The U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School’s aim is to encourage districts to start sustainability practices that reduce environmental impact and cost, and improve health and wellness with sustainability culture.
Sokolow is excited to start teaching the sustainability curriculum in junior advisories, and she hopes that students will be open to trying something new for the environment.
“People would be surprised how easy it is to make some of these switches, and how good it feels to know you have power over how much plastic you use in your life,” Sokolow said. “I want people to give this a shot, come at it with open hearts and minds, and try to do something sustainable.”
While global prospects can seem grim, Walsh remains optimistic. She believes students care about these issues, especially after demonstrating at the Boston Climate Strikes, and will feel empowered in understanding their impacts on the environment.
“I think students should care about sustainability because it’s an environmental issue, but beyond that it is a human rights issue and it’s an issue that is going to directly affect our lives in more ways than we can imagine,” Walsh said. “I think our actions and decisions we make now are going to directly shape the future we experience.”
Roger Grande, the BHS Innovation Fund 2019-2020 Innovation Fellow is taking on climate change at BHS:
Roger Grande has been teaching social studies for 20 years at BHS and was named the BHS Innovation Fund Innovation Fellow for 2019-2020. The Innovation Fellow is a BHS faculty member serving as a catalyst for innovation in the BHS community, sparking interdisciplinary collaboration within the school, and supporting innovative projects at BHS. In this role, Roger will focus on building a learning culture of climate sustainability at BHS. Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time and will impact every BHS student. As such, BHS seeks to develop a culture of learning and sustainability among all students to give them the leadership skills and tools needed to tackle issues related to climate change at BHS and beyond. Roger answers five key questions about his plans to engage the BHS community in issues of climate sustainability.
How will you build a learning culture of climate sustainability at BHS and why is it important?
My goal is to make climate change a school-wide mission at BHS, one that will produce many tangible benefits that the community will see and feel over time. Making sustainability part of our classroom and school culture makes for great education and addresses some of the things we all aspire to: building a common purpose, social solidarity, empowering students to lead and innovate, ownership over learning to address challenges, examining our impact, systems thinking, addressing equity and more.
We have a long way to go to build a true sustainability culture at BHS but I’m excited about the opportunities ahead. I have been meeting with multiple stakeholders at BHS and in the town of Brookline, including town officials, school employees, members of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, advocates and even people from other districts to better understand the challenges to improved recycling and composting and reduction of waste, and ultimately methane production. I see a number of exciting areas where we can make an impact. Currently, I’m working with students to design lessons that will be taught in Advisory with the goal of creating a learning sequence for the whole year that will train and teach students about improving waste practices. I will also launch a paper challenge and a water bottle challenge to reduce waste—the money from the bottle challenge will be used to support the Brookline-Nicaragua Sister City project to support their water treatment initiative. My aim is to expose students in as many areas as possible across the school and cultivate a sense of importance, stewardship and common mission.
What are the key challenges/obstacles that you see in addressing climate change?
Until now climate change has been covered in only a handful of science class lessons. We haven’t had the systems, synergies and support in place to develop robust curriculum and integrated learning experiences to better educate our students. My goal is to develop authentic, school-wide educational initiatives that support and engage BHS staff and students and create hands-on learning experiences. I see opportunities to provide support and leadership to teachers to help them begin finding connections between what they are already doing and sustainability education. I also see opportunities to integrate waste collection, cafeteria, restaurant and school store into sustainability learning opportunities.
How will you work with BHS faculty and students to make sustainability part of the classroom and school culture to affect change?
I plan to work with the BHS faculty and students to integrate sustainability in many different ways. I’ve been working closely with BHS teachers and students on sustainability initiatives and curriculum development including developing a Concept Curriculum Map. Soon I will engage staff, students and community members in focus groups to gather input, develop additional ideas, and build a vision for BHS as a sustainable institution. I will also meet with food services, along with Food Justice students, to brainstorm ways we can reduce waste and emissions generated by supplies, menus and other practices. Additionally, Brookline Schools will soon have access to a freight farm, and I will work with the company to develop internship opportunities, curriculum and hopefully a summer program for Steps to Success students. Stay tuned for more details and opportunities for involvement.
What do you hope to achieve? What does success look like?
My aim is to make sustainability part of our common culture and expectations: common norms and practices in the cafeteria regarding waste; more teachers who are explicit about using less paper and reusing supplies; and, more sustainable practices in terms of the food and food service in the cafeteria and restaurant. My goal is to have at least two teachers in every department modify, amend or add to their curriculum so that sustainability is embedded into lessons and classroom practices. I also hope to create more opportunities for student leadership such as “compost captains” in the cafeteria.
What does the opportunity to be an Innovation Fellow mean to you and how has it influenced you as a teacher at BHS?
The short answer is much more than I had imagined. In fewer than two months, I have learned a lot, have connected with many people I would not have otherwise, and have begun to build excitement across the school. I have deepened, energized and accelerated my thinking and excitement, and have begun to think about how to continue to lead this essential work beyond this year.
In the 2019-2020 academic year, the BHS Innovation Fund launches these new programs that foster the culture of innovation throughout the school:
Experiential Physics for 9th grade, a robust, new physics course that develops scientific, engineering, and entrepreneurial skills to teach students collaborative approaches to designing solutions to today’s problems. Faculty Leads: Julia Mangan, Jennifer Spencer, and Stacy Kissel (Science)
Hub/Advisory, an updated approach to school-wide Advisory that emphasizes community and connection among students and faculty in a homeroom-style setting. Integrating BHS and PSB practices such as Finding Yourself in the Curriculum, Mindfulness (both Innovation Fund initiatives), and Restorative Justice, HUB will be responsive to the always-changing needs and concerns of the entire high school. Faculty Leads: Emily McGinnis (World Language) and Beau Morimando (Special Education English) HUB co-leaders
Brookline Lens, a career-focused arts elective that gives students the opportunity to learn business management skills as part of a student-run production company that provides photography and videography services to the community. Faculty Co-Teachers: Thato Mwosa and Lori Lynn (Visual Arts)
In addition, the Fund continues to support Finding Yourself in the Curriculum, a school-wide initiative that serves as a vehicle for learning about self-identity; building empathy; promoting awareness regarding power and privilege; inspiring action; and embedding course-specific curriculum around social identities.
Click here to browse all of the Innovation Fund’s programs.
After observing plant species in the Arnold Arboretum, students then choose a specimen to illustrate.
The curvature of a bird’s beak. The hue of a flower’s petal. The texture of a tree’s bark. Although many may consider the spheres of art and science to be entirely distinct, their observations of the natural world fall hand in hand.
Through the creation of scientific illustrations, the Drawing for Understanding in Field Science course employs both artistic and scientific knowledge, making it one of the most unique and all-encompassing classes offered at the high school.
According to visual arts teacher Donna Sartanowicz, the idea for the course was initially conceived when she and Jill Sifantus, a retired science teacher, partook in a workshop at Harvard University. The workshop highlighted the close relationship between illustrations and the study of the natural world. Feeling inspired, the two of them accepted a grant from the Innovation Fund to establish the course, where Sartanowicz would teach the artistic aspects while Sifantus would teach the scientific aspects.
Students took a field trip to the Arnold Arboretum to gain inspiration.
Sartanowicz believes that this course gives students, who may be apprehensive of the arts, an opportunity to see that there is more to it than they might think.
“For me, I felt like a lot of kids were afraid to take art because they think they’re not talented, or they’ll have to draw self-portraits, or paint feelings, or whatever, but art has a very practical side,” Sartanowicz said. “It’s a way of studying the world and communicating what you know.”
Similarly, Visual Arts Curriculum Coordinator Alicia Mitchell believes that the interdisciplinary nature of the course makes it attractive to both students who are interested in science and art.
“It’s a good class for either student,” Mitchell said. “It’s good for the artist who wants to get better because this class hones in on observational drawing, attention to detail, and accurate reproduction. For the student who loves science, to find out that their love of science can blossom into a different career and way of expressing themselves can really open up their thinking around the sciences.”
Ultimately, the course began receiving financing from the high school itself rather than the Innovation Fund. With this, only one teacher was permitted to teach the class, leaving Sartanowicz as the sole instructor.
As an arts teacher, Sartanowicz felt like she needed help to incorporate the scientific elements of the course. To do this, she invites graduate students from Harvard University to give presentations that are relevant to their curriculum.
“I decided if I couldn’t have a science teacher, I would have scientists instead,” Sartanowicz said.
Apart from in-class studies, the course has the opportunity to create and display illustrations at the Arnold Arboretum. During the first semester, students visit the Arboretum to see its extensive library, herbarium, and gardens before choosing a specimen to base their drawing off of. Their work is then put on display, with the last exhibit having gone from Dec. 1 to Jan. 15.
Junior Anjali Mitra, for example, chose the Japanese Zelkova tree because it grows in her neighborhood, so she found a personal connection with it.
After their trip to the Arnold Arboretum, students then chose an specimen to illustrate.
According to Mitra, scientific drawings like the one she did for the Japanese Zelkova are all about a balance between what is written and what is shown.
“You find certain aspects about the organism that you want to convey through your art, and other ones you want to convey through writing,” Mitra said. “You can’t draw the name of the tree, but you can write it. Sometimes, the leaf shape is more easily drawn than described. So you find something you’re interested in, deepen your understanding about that thing, and then try to convey your sense of wonder through
your art and how you put together your piece.”
Sartanowicz also believes that illustrations, as opposed to photographs, allow for a greater understanding of the subject matter.
“Drawing is much more active than taking a photo,” Sartanowicz said. “You spend much more time and much more of your attention understanding the form, how it’s all put together, and how it works.”
From the scientific knowledge gained from research to the emotional connection that is felt with the subject matter, Mitra sees these illustrations as a bridge between the worlds of art and science.
“Art is a lot more emotional,” Mitra said. “In some ways, it’s how you think and how you feel. Science is the things you know, and combining the things you know with the things you feel can create very powerful pieces.”
How did you come up with the idea for the course? It came from a workshop that Jill Sifantus, a since retired biology teacher at BHS, and I attended at Harvard University. The workshop focused on the very close relationship between art and science at the advent of serious scientific study of the natural world. Drawing was a routine part of studying the natural world for communicating ideas and discoveries.
What was the goal? From our different vantage points — Jill, in the science department and I in visual arts — both came away thinking that this very old school idea would be a great new way to engage students in learning both subjects. Students learn in different ways and drawing is another system — just like language or mathematics — that they can use to learn information and express understanding.
Can you describe the Innovation Fund’s role in developing and expanding the course? We were fortunate to have this idea while teaching at Brookline High School because of The Innovation Fund, which allowed us to put our idea into practice. The Fund’s review board was instrumental in helping us to hone our idea and think through all the possibilities. The grant money allowed us to teach and learn collaboratively for three years and this was some of the best professional development I have ever experienced. Working with Jill to integrate science teaching into the way I teach art enabled me to confidently teach this course on my own once the grant period was over.
This partnership opportunity resulted in a course so unique to our school that teachers from other schools have asked to visit and learn about this program, so they might propose something similar for their students. The ripple effects of the Fund’s generosity in supporting innovative educational ideas is spreading even beyond the walls of Brookline High School. What happened after the three-year funding period ended? After the funding period was over, the school picked up the class but did not keep it as a co-taught class. Since Jill was much closer to retirement than I was, it seemed better for me to continue the class solo. Although the three years of the grant were like “biology boot camp” for me (I hadn’t taken bio since high school) I decided that to keep up the rigor of the science end of the class, I would invite scientists into my classroom.
I had taken a project-based learning workshop a few years ago that stressed real-world questions and connecting with the professional community for launching, guiding, and giving feedback to students. In that first year after the grant, I did a lot of work setting up partnerships with institutions like the Arnold Arboretum, the Blue Hills Trailside Museum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and graduate programs at Boston University, Rhode Island School of Design, Harvard University and Tufts University.
How has the partnership with community organizations benefited the course? The institutions allow my students to have experiences with the natural world and to hear about people working in the field as naturalists, curators, educators, illustrators, and researchers. Though the universities I have connected with graduate researchers who present their research and talk to my students about what it is like to study and travel the world as part of their research. So much of what students learn about in regular science classes is second-hand information from books. Having the researchers come in helps students to understand that science is not a fixed set of information — that there is still more to be investigated and understood and that they could be a part of that.
In its sixth year, the class seems to have a great reputation. What’s happening now? I have presented this course as a visiting speaker in the art education department at Boston University last year and will do so again this year. I have also presented this work, for the second time, at the National Art Education Association Conference this year. I continue to meet individually and informally with both art and science teachers from other schools/districts wanting to start a similar course.
Many in the education field talk about interdisciplinary and STEAM [science, technology, engineering, art, and math] classes but few receive the kind of support we got from the Innovation Fund to make it happen. The impact on students has been tremendous, as evidenced by the continued popularity of the course and students recommending it to other students.
In 2012, Siena Fried was a student in the pilot class of “Drawing for Understanding in Field Science,” supported by the BHS Innovation Fund. Siena had previously taken drawing and painting classes with BHS Visual Arts teacher Donna Sartanowicz, and saw the class as the perfect combination of her passions.
“I love biology, and I love art. This class was a way to do both.”
The class honed her skills and taught her how to observe something from real life and capture it on paper. Siena credits Ms. Sartanowicz for her mentorship and support in developing her portfolio for college applications. She also credits BHS for preparing her well for the Cleveland Institute of Art where she graduated in 2017.
Even better, the Innovation Fund class led Siena to her career as a biomedical artist. A biomedical artist, in many ways, is like a visual translator. As a bio-communication professional, Siena illustrates complex scientific concepts for research as well as the public.
Siena now works for a company in Newton that creates medical apps for students to help them understand human anatomy and physiology even before they touch cadavers, let alone real patients. “It’s safer and easier to have something digital,” she says. She also freelances for pharmaceutical companies. Patient education is a passion. She enjoys creating visual images for education materials that help patients understand procedures and make them less daunting.
Biomedical art has many avenues beyond medical education. A friend of Siena’s designs exhibits for a natural history museum. Attorneys use scientific illustrations to explain medical information to juries. Other medical illustrators specialize in certain areas like surgery or ophthalmology, or in types of media, like animation or 3D models.
Five years since taking Drawing for Understanding in Field Science at BHS, Siena remains enthusiastic about the class. Because her sister, a BHS senior, is taking the class and Siena keeps in touch with Ms. Sartanowicz, she knows that the class has evolved. “It was great when I took it, but it’s even better now,” she says. “I would retake it if I could.”
How did you come up with the idea for the course?
What happened after the three-year funding period ended?
How has the partnership with community organizations benefited the course?
BHS 2013 alum Siena Fried describes the impact of Innovation Fund class, “