On Tuesday at 3:30 PM in the top-floor cafeteria outside my office, there will be an informational session for all Gateway sophomores interested in learning about summer science opportunities.
All G10 students, especially those earning honor roll-level grades, are strongly encouraged to attend. This is going to be an extremely competitive summer in which to obtain a meaningful job, internship, or pre-college opportunity.
G10 Summer Science Opportunities Meeting
Spring Programs at MIT
As of 8:00 PM tonight (February 17), registration is now open for MIT's two spring enrichment programs for Boston-area middle and high school students.
The Spark program is a one-day extravaganza of workshops on a diverse array of topics, often very kooky ones. This year's Spark program will be held at MIT on Saturday, March 7, from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Past Spark offerings have included "Swing Dancing," "How to Survive a Zombie Attack," "Snap, Crackle, BOOM! A Fiery Introduction to Chemistry," and "Things from Australia that Can Kill You."
The HSSP program is a semester-long program of weekend classes. The Spring 2009 HSSP program will run from Saturday, March 14 to Saturday, May 2. Classes are between 1.5 and 2 hours long and run for 8 to 10 weeks. Past HSSP classes have included "Politically Inclined Math," "The Chinese Artistic Experience," and "Advanced Computer Game Hacking."
For more information and to register, please visit the home page of MIT's Educational Studies Program and look for "Spark/HSSP Registration." If you choose to register for one or both of these programs, please make sure to fill out the online financial aid form, as these programs should be free to all O'Bryant students due to our school's participation in the free lunch program.
More Upcoming Medical/Science Explorations
Congratulations to our five Gateway freshmen students - B. Brito, S. Hussein, D. John, O. Oyedeji, and J. Valcin - who represented our program admirably at today's Job Shadow Day at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
For students who were not able to participate in this event, please stay tuned for the next opportunity to visit Dana-Farber. Our Dana-Farber contacts currently are working to confirm an afterschool field trip opportunity for Gateway students to visit their Department of Radiology.
This coming week, we have a Friday afterschool opportunity for students to visit the Harvard Medical School/Partners Healthcare Center for Genetics and Genomics. Permission slips will be distributed in all Gateway science classes early next week, and I also will email the permission form to all Gateway parents with email addresses. We may need to pick out of a hat for this one, as limited spaces are available.
Upcoming Medical/Science Explorations - Grade 9
As I will announce in tomorrow's Biology classes, a number of opportunities are now available for Gateway ninth-graders to explore their interests in medicine and biomedical science.
First, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has invited us to send a small number of ninth-grade students to participate in their Job Shadow Day on January 30. Applications will be distributed to interested students tomorrow, and they will be due back to Dr. Wu by the end of Friday, January 23.
Secondly, we will be nominating students to participate in Harvard Medical School's Mentoring for Science 9 program, which meets afterschool on Wednesdays during the spring. Students will be asked to express their interest in this program during Biology class tomorrow, and applications will be due to HMS on Tuesday, January 27.
Finally, all ninth-grade students are invited to enter Harvard Medical School's Reflection in Action contest, in which students explore medical/health themes through original artistic works. Students who submit winning entries will be invited to participate in a daylong symposium at Harvard Medical School in April. Interested students are invited to meet with Dr. Wu tomorrow afterschool, in Mrs. Shields' room.
First Gateway Academic Night (1/15)
This Thursday, our Gateway program will host its first Academic Night for Gateway families, to showcase the creative projects that have been undertaken in the Gateway classrooms this year.
All students who are accompanied by an adult family member will receive extra credit (details to be determined by our teachers later this week). Also, all students who volunteer to help our teachers set up and break down this event will be rewarded with pizza before the start of the program!
