Curious About the Universe

Sixth graders have begun their exciting interdisciplinary unit through Saint David's ongoing one-of-a-kind partnership with the American Museum of Natural History - Hayden Planetarium.

The Digital Universe takes our boys on a scientific exploration of the cosmos, with the museum's educators and astronomers leading several sessions at the AMNH, while Saint David's teachers create related rigorous engaging learning assignments and activities in science and English classes.

This partnership is unique in the depth of its integration and collaboration, with our boys granted private ongoing access to the Hayden Planetarium and it proprietary UniView software. The boys master the data-visualization software as they research, write, and prepare for a multimedia planetarium show that poses a space-related (astronomy) research question of their choice.

For example, some will explore the Big Bang Theory. Others, may investigate which planets might support life. The boys will present their final shows in the dome of the Planetarium for their parents and classmates in March.

Curiosity about the universe runs deep; this partnership harnesses that inquisitiveness to produce a singular, spectacular learning experience for our boys.

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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!

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