NA June Term

Mr. Kesler, Ms. Pasquale

The Makerbot Replicator is a computerized glue gun that prints by building up thin beads of hot glue into solid objects! CAD software such as the freeware programs Sketchup and OpenSCAD are used to build the 3D models. In this course, you’ll learn to use several different design programs to model and print all sorts of objects. If you can imagine it, you can (eventually) build it! You might design a piece to replace the broken arm of your prized Bionicle, or you might print out some replacement buttons for your shirts. If you’re interested in computers, sculpture or architecture, physics or engineering, mathematics, or if you just love watching the Makerbot “go,” this course is for you!  See for yourself what the Makerbot can do (on YouTube). Also visit thingiverse.com for an idea of what is possible with this amazing device.

Final Assessments/Products: individual project, component of group project

Short title (transcript): 3-D Printing and Technical Drawing

Dr. D., Dati

Are you bored living in New Jersey? Are you bored living in the 21st Century!? Come with us to a different place and time. In this course, we will time travel to an international city in a designated year sometime in the last millennium or two where we will attempt to recreate its habitat and atmosphere. To do this, we will delve into history, religion, science, industry, food, fashion, arts, and culture to the degree that we feel comfortable rendering a genuine and respectful recreation. Our goal will be to transform one location on NA’s campus into a different place and time so authentically that its visitors on Day 8 will feel teleported in time by confronting the sights, sounds, smells, people–the ethos–of a place and time of our choosing. p.s. The City and Year of our adventure will remain a mystery to ALL of us…until it is revealed in a draw right before June Term begins. (In 2023, we traveled to London, 1587.)

Final Assessments/Products: Constructing the city and portraying one of its residents.

Short title (transcript): “[city], [year]” TBD (e.g. “Mexico City, 1583” or “Zanzibar, 1802”)

Mr. Coe, Ms. Morgan

Why do humans love the thrill of being scared? From the Grimm fairy tales to recent box office successes, the horror genre has proven to be a tried-and-true method of titillating and entertaining—all while asking important questions about humanity. American literary stalwarts like Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King built their empires on their ability to scare their readers, while still keeping them coming back for more. This course will open up the minds of all enrollees to the many different subgenres of horror along with analysis of the underlying subtext each author and genre offers. Following in the footsteps of those great American masters of horror, for your final assessment you will create your own, completely original American horror story and breakdown the subtext and storytelling elements you chose to highlight your intended message.

Final Assessments/Products: original horror narrative

Short title (transcript): American Horror Stories: Text and Subtext

Ms. Brodie

This course offers you an opportunity to actively manipulate your work in the final stage of the ceramic process: the firing. You will learn about the techniques and procedures developed by 16th Century Japanese potters through independent research, slide presentations and demonstrations. Raku is an exciting process with its spontaneous immediacy and its delicate blend of control and experimentation.  You will learn by creating hand built and thrown pieces using a special clay body and glazes.  Finally, your work will be heated in an outdoor kiln in a rapid firing cycle, the pots being placed into and removed from the kiln at or near the optimum firing temperature with metal tongs.  The hot pieces are then placed into combustible materials in order to alter and enhance the surface.

Prerequisite: At least two semesters of upper school Ceramics

Final Assessments/Products: hand-made and thrown pieces, a journal/sketchbook

Short title (transcript): The Art of Ceramic Raku Firing

Mr. Rowling, Ms. Ferentinos, Dr. DelRusso

"A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are." Ara Parasheghian

Are you devoted to a personal pursuit of outstanding achievement in athletics and other leadership positions? Would you like to gain the skills to knowledgeably inspire and pass on your passion to your peers and future generations? If so, “Coaching 101: the X’s and O’s and beyond” is for you.

During the course you will uncover what makes a good coach through personal reflection, readings, guest speakers, attending a pro practice, and most importantly, practical application. As a group, you will create a new sport, and determine the objectives and rules. Each afternoon, as coaching pairs, you will decide the most important skills to coach, and then plan and run a practice. The rest of your classmates will be your team. Homework will include video analysis of the practice to provide feedback to your “coaches.” On the final day, a champion coaching pair will be crowned through a competition that will determine who has combined knowledge, execution, and leadership most successfully. It’s certain to be nine days of activity, creativity, excitement, and competition.

Final Assessments/Products: Video production for skills instruction, Practice Plan and execution, Final class-wide competition, game-day coaching, Formulation of a personal leadership/coaching philosophy that can be applied not only to sport but also to work, family, and life.

Short title (transcript): Leadership through Coaching

Mr. Ryan, Mx. Vallone

Have you ever wanted to build a robot but felt intimidated to even begin to try to learn about how to do so? If so, this class is for you! In addition to learning the basics of robot programming (with Vex language ROBOTC Text), and experimenting with sensors and actuators, you will work on developing a robot for our class SUMO BOTS competition. Along the way, you will consider some of the big existential questions that underpin the development of robotic intelligence: How will robots affect the future of work? How will robots change modern manufacturing? What do we mean by “machine learning?” You will finish the course with a robot competition!

Final Assessments/Products: design and build a robot

Short title (transcript): Robotics and its Impact on Society

Mr. Viola

Have you ever wondered how a stage is built for a theatrical production? How about the lights and projections of an immersive rock concert? Or even how The Weeknd navigated the technical elements of the Super Bowl halftime show? This crash course of all things Technical Theatre will answer questions like these and more. In this course, you will explore the technical elements of a theatrical production and learn how to provide clear and concise technical support that enhances an audience member’s understanding of the story being performed. You will engage with and investigate the technical theatre process and its various tools to prepare a complete design for the Fall 2024 Play and present select elements for actor usage.

Final Assessments/Products: A showcase of your design plans and creation of elements of your team’s design

Short title (transcript): Introduction to Technical Theatre

Ms. Ciampaglio

This course will focus on how several molecules have radically changed the course of history. For example, the search for spices (pepper, nutmeg, cloves) led to the “Age of Discovery” where European explorers ventured throughout the world in a quest for these substances. Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) prevented scurvy and allowed long distance sea voyages. The impact of each molecule (or class of molecules) will be examined from a historical viewpoint. Laboratory experiments have been selected for each of these molecules. It is anticipated that you will develop an appreciation of the role that chemistry has played in history and how chemistry plays a dramatic role in our society. Polymers (fabrics, plastics), pain medication (aspirin), antibiotics (penicillin), dyed fabrics, explosives, perfumes, and energy conversion (batteries) are a few topics that will be explored theoretically and experimentally. This course will build on the concepts from the traditional chemistry course but the emphasis will be on history and real world applications and less on theoretical concepts and problem solving.

Final Assessments/Products: presentation on a molecule and its associated scientists and impact on history

Short title (transcript): Breakthroughs in Modern Chemistry

Mr. Worrell, Mr. Gold

Develop your personal point of view as you take multiple field trips to different locations like the High Line, Chinatown NYC, Sandy Hook, Liberty State Park and locations around school. Working with Canon Rebel DSLR cameras and utilizing Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software in the Digital Media Lab, you will gain real hands-on experience with location-specific photography. The multiple locations serve as practice on shoots, and back at school, you’ll experiment with photo-editing software and apps. Additional time will be spent planning a group exhibition and preparing your photos for print and slide show display. While this June Term course is an introduction to on-location digital photography, students with prior photography experience are encouraged to work at their own level of expertise.

Final Assessments/Products: portfolio of photographs and a class exhibit

Short title (transcript): Digital Photography — On Location

Mr. Grossen, Mr. Smith

Create a story and a world of your own, then lead other students through a personalized experience. If you have ever wanted to create your own board game, this is the course for you. We will explore the basics and nuances of game design, and you will learn about different rule sets for all sorts of tabletop and cooperative games. In addition to rule sets, we will consider the design and construction of pieces to use while playing as well as the art, design, and marketing of games.

Final Assessments/Products: a complete prototype game with all rules, components, and pieces

Short title (transcript): Game Design

Ms. Ortega, Mr. Chang

In this course, you will read, watch, and discuss texts about contemporary issues in urban spaces. You will analyze visual interpretations of these issues and create your own portfolio with your visual reflections about cities and their unique dynamics. We will focus on three major topics: visual renditions of cities and the concept of cinematic; human experience and the challenges of living in cities and cities and historical developments. In order to produce your visual portfolio, you will learn camera and filmmaking techniques including shooting, working with natural light, and editing with professional software. You will learn how to give and receive feedback about your work in progress. You will assemble all your finished short films in a digital folder. We will film in two locations: New York City and Newark.

Final Assessments/Products: Three completed short films and daily written reflections.

Short title (transcript): Urban Spaces and Visual Imagination

Mr. Torson

Have you ever gazed at a magnificent building and wondered how it came to be? Are you interested in learning more about the theory and practice of architectural design? In this hands-on survey course, you will be tasked with designing a site specific structure that serves a specific purpose in society. To accomplish this task, you will gain the tools and practice the skills of the architect, from drafting elevation drawings that illustrate each side of the structure to creating a small to-scale 3D model built out of foamcore. The class includes an architect-led tour in New York City, where you will learn the terminology and core principles that go into sound design and function. Back at NA, daily small group daily build challenges will test your understanding of the engineering and aesthetics that go into architecture to withstand wind, water and earthquake simulations. This course isn't just about learning; it's about transforming the way you see the buildings around you.

Final Assessments/Products: elevation drawing and to-scale 3D foamcore model of site specific structure

Short title (transcript): Introduction to Architecture

Ms. Eggert, Dr. Vega

In 1906, W. K. Kellogg began mass marketing a flaked cereal with added sugar he called Corn Flakes. People adored it, and processed food was born. Today, we have hundreds of packaged foods in the grocery store that we all know and love, but what are these foods actually doing to us? This course will be an intensive study of the biological and nutritional aspect of the food we eat.

The themes of this course are (1) Nutrition and (2) The Food Revolution. In the first theme, we’ll look at the evolution of humans and nutrition to better understand what nutrients we need. We’ll study processed food, why it was created, and what problems have arisen from it. We will work with NA’s fitness coach in the Fitness Center and outside and we will learn how to track what we consume to better fuel our bodies for athletics. In the second theme, we will tour and shop at some local grocery stores. We will use the food we purchase to create a mea as part of the cumulative project. We will take a cooking class with a local chef and investigate current food trends. Above all, we will fully engage with the food that surrounds us every day and decide what we each think the future of food should be.

Students with food allergies: Please be aware that many lessons and experiences will involve common allergens such as dairy, eggs, wheat, soybeans, tree nuts, coconut, peanuts, and wheat, among others. We cannot guarantee an allergy-free space.

Final Assessments/Products: Food journal; Project on unrecognizable ingredients; Final Presentation on “Counter Revolution” with menus following a specific food trend; Cooking a side dish.

Short title (transcript): Nutrition and Food Science

Mr. Rollenhagen, Ms. Bond

This course will develop into student-directed media research projects in arts, music, literature, journalism and politics by focusing on America in an era that undoubtedly shaped your grandparents’ and maybe even your parents’ politics and artistic or scholarly interests. Following an early 20th Century primer, we will begin focusing with Malcolm X’s assassination (February 21, 1965) and conclude with President Reagan’s Inauguration (January 20, 1981). We will investigate how one genre or field responds to another as events unfold: What were journalistic responses to the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village? What did pop music or politicians have to say about the rebellions in Newark and Detroit? Did the moon landing affect music, dance or painting? In the end we will look at the 1980 Presidential Campaign for its influence (or lack of it) on our current state of American affairs. A field trip to sites of the Newark rebellions, the Stonewall Uprising, and the Columbia students’ protests will be scheduled half way through our work.

Final Assessments/Products: multi-media collage

Short title (transcript): American Dream Deferred, 1965-1981

Dr. Jacobsen, Dr. Thayer

We will start from basic physical principles of projectile motion and Bernoulli’s principle through the construction of water rockets. Next, we’ll explore gliders and use paper airplanes to discuss concepts of lift and drag; you will have the opportunity to compare different paper airplane models and determine which features of a plane are the most important. After the unit on gliders, you will build and fly a model rocket. A discussion of the design and chemistry of engines used in both model rockets and rockets designed to fly payloads to space will follow. The final topic will be on drones and how they fly, how they are controlled, and what they are used for.

Final Assessments/Products: portfolio documenting successful construction of long-flying paper airplane, high-flying water rocket, even-higher-flying solid-engine rocket, and small flying drone.

Short title (transcript): Exploring Flight: Gliders to Rockets

Ms. Monroe, Ms. Shapiro Cooper

Ever felt that you’ve found lifelong fulfillment in binging Youtube or Netflix for three hours? Yeah, neither have we. But there are tons of other stimulating, sensory experiences (floating, cooking, eating, hiking; music, art, obstacle courses, ASMR) that, done mindfully, can significantly impact our overall well-being. We all know it’s important to take care of our mental and emotional health, but how? We need motivation and consistent habits, and learning how to cultivate mindful daily living is just the thing that will help us do that. In this course, each day, we will delve into simple mindfulness practices (Buddhist, yogic, modern) and then apply them through increasingly challenging, pleasure-based experiences, from snacking to zip-lining. Ultimately, whether you want to reduce anxiety around academics, focus your mind for athletic performance or simply find more day to day happiness, by the end of the course, you will feel confident and calm with a mindfulness practice of your own design.

Final Assessments/Products: Your own mindfulness practice, facilitated by journaling and teacher conferences

Short title (transcript): Philosophies of Mindfulness

Mr. Crosby, Ms. Tupajic

Vertebrates are the undisputed rulers of the animal kingdom and, with that, the world. This course will trace the development of the vertebrate groups through discussions about, dissections of, and encounters with these amazing groups of animals. Discussions will center around the evolutionary development of the anatomical systems while the dissections will allow you to see their place and relationship to the organism as a whole. In the past, dissections included lamprey, dogfish shark, perch, bullfrog, turtle, pigeon, and rat. We will be able to see some of these animals firsthand on the field trip. This course appeals to those who don’t mind getting a little messy, enjoy the outdoors, and are not faint of heart.

Final assessments/Products: Digital Portfolio

Short title (transcript): Vertebrate Biology

Ms. Serrano, Mr. Romay

Do or Do not. There is no try. Engage you will with concepts and structures that have brought characters to life for centuries. This journey offers skills and knowledge in three categories: Mythology, creative writing, and Jedi training. Master characterization, dialogue, point-of-view, dragon training, and the development of plot and setting. By the end of your Padawan experience, you will have produced a literary master work and will have faced and conquered fears. Trust your feelings. Enroll you must!

Final Assessments/Products: a personal monomyth & some obstacles along your Hero's path

Short title (transcript): Creative Writing with Mythology

Ms. Lysinger, Ms. Ronan

What exactly is language? Where does it come from, and where is it going? Philosophers and linguists have been asking and answering these questions for millennia, but we only have 9 days, so after a brief overview of the features of natural languages, we will focus on the topic of constructed languages and take a crack at building the rudiments of an original constructed language. As time and class interest allow, we will apply this new knowledge to thinking about how languages evolve over time and how politics, social mores, and history shape what we consider to be standard language today and how they can influence our speech and writing in the future.

Final Assessments/Products: construct an original rudimentary language

Short title (transcript): Constructing and Deconstructing Language

Dr. Pascal, Ms. Miao

This course prepares you with the basic cooking skills you should know to become healthy and independent young people, while analyzing the main problems that Americans face when questions arise on how to improve our family’s health and well-being, build strong communities, and break our growing dependence on corporations. The course follows Michael Pollan’s work on the history of cooking, using the four elements that initiated the culinary traditions around the world: fire, water, air, and earth. The course will offer opportunities to cook meaningful dishes and reflect on the four elements while exploring their role in the history of our own culinary heritages.

Students with food allergies and dietary preferences: Please be aware that many lessons and experiences will involve common allergens such as dairy, eggs, wheat, soybeans, tree nuts, peanuts, and wheat, among others. We cannot guarantee an allergy-free space. If you have any dietary preferences, this course is designed to welcome variations of recipes depending on students' choices.

Final Assessments/Products: journal, family cookbook reflecting the role of the four elements, dish to share with classmates

Short title (transcript): Four Elements of Cooking

Mr. Beckman, Mr. Duhaime, Ms. Edwards, Ms. Fischer, Mr. Hawk, Dr. Hobson, Dr. Lankin, Mr. McCall, Dr. Nouaime, Mr. Stilliard

The researching and writing of the Extended Essay (a 4,000-word paper required of candidates for the IB Diploma), is one of the most intense and rewarding intellectual experiences at NA. Working collaboratively in this course, you will learn strategies and share ideas for research and writing. You will spend several days at a local university library identifying, gathering and reviewing sources. Under the supervision of the faculty mentors, and with ample feedback from your peers, you will refine your ideas into a clear and coherent argument. While the explicit context for this course is the IB extended essay, you will gain skills (research, planning, writing) essential to your future academic and professional success.  

Note that while all students in the seminar will produce a strong first draft of their research paper by the end of the course, IB diploma candidates and those non-diploma candidates seeking NA transcript recognition for their projects will be required to complete further development and revision of the final Extended Essay, due on June 19. Students will not be required to be on campus at all between the end of June term and June 19, but they must be available remotely at least part-time to complete a substantial revision of their initial draft.

Final Assessments/Products: a solid draft of the research paper—with full references

Short title (transcript): Advanced Research Seminar