Digital Universe Field Study Takes Flight

On Friday Saint David's kicked off its new Digital Universe unit of study in the sixth grade science program. The unit is being conducted in a new partnership with the Digital Universe Flight School at the American Museum of Natural History. It will transform the boys’ study of astronomy. Our boys will learn to use cutting edge technology tools, with real-time data, to explore the universe.

They will research a question about astronomy, within the purview of our 6th grade curriculum, that is of particular interest to them and use professional astro-visualization software to develop and perform an engaging Planetarium presentation to share their findings inside the dome of the Hayden Planetarium.

This project is interdisciplinary in nature and will entail the boys' storyboarding and scripting their shows in English class and focusing on scale of the universe and the working of various technologies and methods for capturing and visualizing astronomical information in science classes, as well as a research/technology strand.

On the first day at the Museum, they were encouraged to brainstorm ideas for space shows, providing answers to the question: If you had your own personal space ship, where would you go on vacation? Why? Their answers included the constellation Orion, Saturn, The Crab Nebula, The Edge of the Universe, Mars, The Asteroid Belt, and Pluto.

Later, they were introduced to Uniview, software that visualizes space data, and were charged with flying from the Earth to the moon, practicing with the software and camera controls.

The Museum's director of astrovisualization, Carter Emmart, modeled a high level tour of the universe using Uniview. The boys were so excited to have access to such sophisticated equipment to explore and study the universe.

The class will spend the next several Fridays working on this unit at the Museum. In teams of two, they will create a 5-minute, real-time space show, which they will narrate and present to parents at the Planetarium.

What a rich and exciting project for our boys.

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a thrilling flight!

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OLIVER!

This morning our fifth graders continued a great year-end tradition at Saint David's, The Fifth Grade Musical. The boys performed Oliver! and they were fantastic, providing impressive performances and demonstrating great vocal ability. They have been mastering the dialogue and musical numbers for weeks, and clearly gave it their all. Congratulations to the cast on a job well done, and to their Producers/Teachers James Hubbard and Jamie MacNeille, Director Phyllis Clark, Musical Conductor Jeff Moore, and the Parent Committee of Cynthia Chapman, Susan Kissane, Tara Neumann, Joyce Restituto, and Ann Roberts. Musical theater is alive and well at Saint David's!

Sixth Graders Meet with Dr. Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History

Dr. Carter Emmart with Saint David's Sixth Graders This past Friday, as part of our unique partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, sixth graders had the great honor to attend a private lecture given by Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at AMNH. Dr. Emmart told the boys about his passion for science along with an overview of the history of the Hayden Planetarium. He also gave the boys advice on how to take scientific information about the universe and compile it into an interesting and captivating show for an audience. The boys were able to see Dr. Emmart's original sketches, which helped create the Uniview program they are using to develop their presentations. The session provided our boys with an opportunity to learn how art and science come together in the planetarium, and to obtain expert advice on developing their own space shows from one of the creators of Uniview . You can learn more about Dr. Emmart's work and Univie...

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