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.”
Ted Dintersmith and students hold a roundtable discussion surrounding topics like college and new innovations in education. Dintersmith, author and innovator, visited the high school on Sept. 20.
If you find yourself questioning the way Brookline’s education system is structured, you aren’t alone.
Ted Dintersmith, an advocate of innovation in education and author of What School Could Be, visited the high school on Sept. 20 during G-block. The visit was organized by the Brookline High School Innovation Fund, and it gave Dintersmith and 15 students an opportunity to discuss whether BHS is doing a good job for its students. Later that evening, Dintersmith led a second similar conversation, facilitated by WBUR’s Meghna Chakrabarti, in the Roberts-Dubbs Auditorium.
In discussing improvements needed in Brookline’s education system, Dintersmith and students focused specifically on the way students approached the college application process. In the conversation, Dintersmith and the students believed that the education system should do a better job of letting students explore options other than college and follow their interests more freely.
Dintersmith shared that an alternative to college – a gap year – can be a great idea, financially speaking.
listen “The gap year is for most kids, freshman year in college, where they spend 70,000 dollars to go to a bunch of parties and figure it out,” Dintersmith said. “I would say that most people think that a gap year is expensive; I’ve talked to kids that take a gap year who actually make money during the year, and for some reason people are just really reluctant to even think about that.”
According to junior Jasmine Benitich, with going to college as a norm, it can be difficult to approach alternatives such as a gap year.
“I grew up in a really strict household, so a gap year is never an option we have. It’s kind of a bridge to giving up,” Benitich said. “I don’t think I was ever taught in high school that a gap year is okay.”
Senior Ben Haber added that attending college is commonly what one has to do to succeed.
“There is the rare exception, like Mark Zuckerberg, who dropped out of college, but it is so rare and it’s so hard to ask students, ‘Why don’t you do something bolder, why don’t you do something different,’” Haber said. “I’d love to live in a world where we can all explore what we want to do, but we were born into a world where our education system has so much power.”
Dintersmith emphasized that if students are to go to college, it is important for them to know what they want to get out of their experience.
listen “It’s really easy to say, ‘I’m going to spend all college so that I can get the right job or graduate program. Then I’m going to spend those years so that I get into the right promotion,’” Dintersmith said. “You can do that for year after year after year and end up at my age and say, ‘I never did what I wanted to do.’”
Another area in which schools could improve, according to senior Eva Stanley, is encouraging students to follow their passions.
“Third grade onwards, we start to snap students into formulas, like ‘memorize this verb tense,’” Stanley said. “You get less and less flexibility up until the point in high school where you do have options to explore, but you become so afraid of how that’s going to impact your chances of getting into college, so you’re not going to take risks.”
Dintersmith believes that although college admissions tend to push towards the “routine and formulaic,” students should still remember to follow their interests instead of what everyone else is doing.
“Would you rather do the things you are passionate about and bring that to life in an essay or just keep checking off all those boxes?” Dintersmith said.
Juniors Josh and Kayton Rotenberg were participants in the high school’s trip to Berlin last October for the World Health Summit. This was just one of many trips the Global Leadership program runs.
Last October, sophomore Zeb Edros found himself surrounded by other people who truly cared about health issues in the world. The catch? He, along with other students from the high school, were the only non-professionals at this conference. Oh, and they were in Berlin.
Every year, students have the opportunity to travel to places such as Amsterdam, Portugal, Nicaragua, Tanzania and Berlin, some in the Global Leadership class, some not, but they all have a shared an interest in world health and learning.
The trips serve as a non-traditional approach for the students to learn and gain experience in a different environment.
According to social studies teacher Ben Kahrl, who teaches the Global Leadership class, the trips function to give the students insight on real situations.
“The trips have two purposes. One is for students to work with and get mentoring from adults who are seeking to solve real-world complex problems. The other is so that they can see these real-world complex problems,” Kahrl said.
According to Edros, who travelled to Berlin for the World Health Summit this past October, the conference was a unique experience for him.
“I think the fact that we were the only students at a professional conference meant that everybody talked to us as if we too were their equals, which let us understand not just more about their fields, but just how to interact with these people in general,” Erdos said. “They answered our questions. They gave us advice on our futures which is really helpful.”
Kahrl believes that the information and skills that the students learn on trips like these will help improve their future and their range of possibilities.
“They {now} have confidence. They can enter the adult world and have conversations with professionals rather than being on the sidelines,” Kahrl said. “Students get exposed to possible careers that they wouldn’t otherwise, simply because they meet people who do things they’ve never heard of.”
According to Kahrl, many of the students who go on Global Leadership trips are in the Global Leadership Class. Sophomore and Global Leadership student Jack Heuberger said that the students do a lot of work pertaining to many different aspects of global problem solving.
“You also learn about situations happening in other countries, such as the Libya slave crisis, and you have to think about ways to possibly solve those problems,” Heuberger said. “It’s about a lot of learning about how the world works and government and how other governments work together, and it’s a lot of critical thinking and collaboration.”
Kahrl said that he hopes to expand the program and give the opportunity of traveling and learning to many more students in the future.
“My goal is that all students, regardless of their socioeconomic background, have a chance to get mentoring from people around the world, and to have an opportunity to travel to places where these challenges are real and immediate” Kahrl said.
Perspectives of a Mathematical Mind aims to integrate many themes into the one class.
By the end of high school, an average math student can write a geometric proof, solve a quadratic equation and maybe even calculate a derivative. Give the student a traditional math textbook and a sheet of lined paper, and they’ll know exactly what to do — but ask that same student about non-euclidean geometry, game theory, the history of math, or real-world applications of operations and formulas, and you will likely receive a blank stare.
That is, unless you ask students from a senior math class, Perspectives of a Mathematical Mind, which introduces non-algebraic college math and connects concepts with other disciplines such as art, music and history. Through taking the class, students incorporate their own interests with math projects, which deepens their engagement and understanding of the material.
Math teachers Betty Strong and Grace Wang brainstormed the idea for the class after observing a lack of student interest in other algebra-based math classes.
“We would sit around and just be like, ‘it’s such a bummer that students don’t get a chance to see all of this really cool stuff about math,’” Strong said.“There’s so much more to math that kids don’t see.”
After submitting a proposal to the Innovation Fund, then called the Twenty First Century Fund, Strong and Wang received a grant to run the class for three years. After this trial period, the funding for the course was incorporated into the school’s math department budget. The class now covers topics such as tessellations, fractals, art, music and more. Although the class includes some mathematical calculations, the bulk of the class is spent completing other activities.
“We do a lot of group work and presenting, we watch videos, we read articles, we do a lot of discussions, we do a lot more in-depth math investigations,” Strong said.
Although she was already on the advanced math track freshman through junior year, senior Damani Gopal chose to take Perspectives this year, in addition to Advanced Placement calculus.
“I want to study computer science when I’m in college, so obviously the STEM fields are really big in my life,” Gopal said. “Taking a second math was a big benefit.”
Senior Noah Sesling chose to take the class after a presentation given to his Trigonometry and Analysis class junior year. Prior to taking the class, he had struggled to connect class material to his daily life.
“I liked the idea of taking a math class that actually could teach me things that I could apply to the real world,” Sesling said.
For Gopal, learning about other aspects of math has allowed her to extend her existing knowledge of STEM. She particularly enjoyed a unit on game theory, a field of study that is heavily rooted in human psychology.
“It’s the analysis of how two or more parties choose to play a certain game, so it can be like applied to fights like wars, or it can be applied to games,” Gopal said. “There’s a lot of connection to computer science to that. I’ve done game theory independently, so it was lot of fun to do it in school.”
During a unit on math and art, Gopal was able to apply her interest in coding to an end of unit project.
“I made a computer program that depicted tessellations and fractals, so involving coding with math,” Gopal said.
Sesling has incorporated his interest in music with math class. At the high school, Sesling participates in both Camerata choir and the a capella group, Testostatones. For one of his projects, Sesling studied twelve-tone serialism, a form of music composition.
“It basically uses numbers to create melodies,” Sesling said. “I found that really interesting, the way that Perspectives taught me and gave me the resources, and opportunities and open-endedness to actually explore how math and music come together.”
According to Strong, a unique aspect of the class is that it is non-leveled, allowing students who normally don’t interact an opportunity to learn together.
“There’s not a lot of prerequisite knowledge that students need, so we take kids from the college prep level all the way up to the advanced level,” Strong said, “the course is based on each student reaching their own level of mastery, so there’s a lot of individualization.”
For Sesling, taking the class has helped him recognize the significance of mathematical concepts.
“[Before Perspectives] I spent a lot of time memorizing and just trying to think of concepts that didn’t have a meaning to me. This idea of just 1+1=2,” Sesling said. “But with perspectives, it’s a lot more [of] much larger concepts rather than simple small ideas or equations. It’s not like anything you have to memorize, it’s just concepts, like how math would relate to everyday experiences or other forms of art.”
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, “
