One student ran to grab her saxophone while others picked up their violins and violas and two sat down at the piano.
When jazz musician Regina Carter stopped by the Reed Campus Center, she sidestepped the typical lecture format in favor of a workshop that was more like jazz music itself: collaborative, improvisational, and enthralling.
In front of a small audience of students and faculty, she invited the Upper School String and Wind Ensembles to stand up and play with. The group was joined by special guest Chris Brashear, on guitar, and by Fine and Performing Arts Department Head Ben Demerath, on bass.
George Howe Colt, who has written intimate tales of boyhood, sibling relationships, and family history, will speak about his work on Oct. 7 as part of Williston Northampton School’s annual speaker series.
Mr. Colt, the bestselling author of The Big House, will present the next lecture in the Writers’ Workshop Series—all of which are free and open to the public—at 7:00 p.m. in the Dodge Room, Reed Campus Center.
Along with The Big House (2004), which was a National Book Award finalist for nonfiction and a New York Times notable book of the year, Mr. Colt has written November of the Soul: The Enigma of Suicide (2006) and Brothers (Scribner 2012). He worked for Life magazine as a staff reporter and has also published pieces in The New York Times, Civilization, and Mother Jones.
In its “briefly noted” section, The New Yorker summed up The Big House this way: “Colt’s account, like the house that lies at its center, is full of surprises and contains more than seems humanly possible: a family memoir, a brief history of the Cape, an investigation of nostalgia, a catalogue of local fauna, a study of class, and a meditation on the privileges and burdens of the past.”
Following Mr. Colt, this year’s Writers’ Workshop Series will feature talks by novelist Jennifer DuBois ’02 on October 17 and Mr. Colt’s wife, essayist and reporter Anne Fadiman, on November 3. The series, now in its 17th year, was founded by Madeleine Blais P’00, ’04 and Elinor Lipman P’00 and, in addition to four lectures by prominent authors each fall, includes master classes for Williston students.
There was just one phrase that Andrew Watson wanted students to remember after Upper School assembly on Friday morning. He had the students write it down:
“I am not a turtle,” they wrote.
Mr. Watson, of Translate the Brain, had returned to the Williston Northampton School for his second year to talk about neurological studies and how those translated into studying more effectively.
While a baby turtle is born with all the neural pathways it will ever used, or ever need, human brains are constantly evolving, Mr. Watson explained.
“During the time we’ve been alive, the way we’ve studied the brain has very dramatically changed,” he said, adding that scientists now understood that memory was not static, but growing and changing.
The eighth graders had trowels; the seventh graders were armed with clipboards. It was early on a Friday morning and the middle schoolers were on a mission to harvest the garden.
Last spring, the now-eighth grade had chosen seeds and starter plants—squash, watermelon, onions, potatoes, sunflowers, and Brussels sprouts—and then mapped out their plantings.
They decided questions such as: What needed sunlight? What needed shade? How big would the plants be as they grew? How did the plant beds needed to be spaced and oriented?
For the second year, Williston Northampton School will host a Genetic Update Conference (GUC) with speaker Sam Rhine. The conference will take place in the Williston Theatre on Tuesday, October 14 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and is open to the public.
Mr. Rhine has spoken to high school students across the country and around the world about the field of genetics for the past 30 years, including at a similar conference that Williston hosted last year. According to his website, he excels in “taking biology out of the textbook and applying it to real life.” During his one-day conferences, Mr. Rhine covers such topics as genetic advances, the latest research, and career opportunities.
Mr. Rhine received a B.A. and an M.A. from Indiana University, was a doctoral candidate at Indiana University School of Medicine, and was a Lalor Foundation Fellow at Harvard Medical School. He received the Distinguished Hoosier Scholar Award, given to a native Hoosier for outstanding commitment to science education, by the Hoosier Association of Science Teachers (HASTI) in 2007.
One student ran to grab her saxophone while others picked up their violins and violas and two sat down at the piano.
