Home » Posts tagged 'Experiential Learning' (Page 11)
Tag Archives: Experiential Learning
Memoirs of a Self-Professed Drama Geek
By Charlotte Wood, V Form
Memoirs of a Self-Professed Drama Geek
I am a fantastic liar. I lie every day for hours at a time, occasionally to hundreds of people at once. I practice lying in my free time. I never feel bad, I always get caught, and I think it actually makes me a better person. People love my lies, and so do I.
No, I’m not some sort of psychopath, I’m an actor. When you think about it, that’s all acting is, really. Lying. Don’t get me wrong, I hate lying in the conventional sense. Honesty is the best policy, as they say. However, I firmly believe in the value of lying with the consent of the party being lied to, or, in other words, acting. (more…)
The Circadian Clock and The Adverse Effects of Elevated CAT Level
By David Baek, VI Form
The Circadian Clock and The Adverse Effects of Elevated CAT Level
Introduction: This project probes into the molecular mechanism of the circadian clock of Drosophila Melanogaster. The circadian clock exists in all living things and regulates the daily rhythm of organisms’ metabolism, behavior, and other outputs that affect the organisms’ development (CH Ko, 2006). The circadian clock is a field that researchers and scientists have yet to fully understand due to the ambiguity of how circadian clock affect invertebrates and vertebrates. To uncover one small aspect of this obscurity, this study seeks to find the effect of sleep deprivation on antioxidant defense in fruit flies. If there were to be a link, the investigation would be significant as the effect will explain how sleep deprivation in humans can lead to the weakening of their antioxidant defense, leading to multiple cardiovascular diseases and pathological conditions such as plaque formation in vessels (Takeda, 2011) (Dominguez-Rodriguez et al, 2009). (more…)
Connection By Pride: JeJu Island to St. Mark’s Exchange
By Kasey Kim, IV Form Exchange Student from Korea International School (KIS)
Connection By Pride: JeJu Island to St. Mark’s Exchange
When I first told my parents that I was going to apply for the St. Mark’s exchange students program, they initially came up with concerns: “Will you be able to handle everything?” and “Won’t it be hard for you to follow up all the missing work after you come back?” This program is a month long trip, and my home-school, Korea International School Jeju (KIS), just started their second quarter. We do have to make up nine tests and two projects after we return back to Jeju, and our new friends here at St. Mark’s have been demonstrating similar reactions to my parents: “That is so unfair!” and “Do your teachers really want you to have cultural exchange here.” The extreme follow up work is the reason why most students at KIS give up on this opportunity – but I was never more confident or ardent of anything else before. I cannot identify myself only as a student with high GPAs and successful academics. Now, here I am in Southborough, meeting amazing new people and experiencing new things that I had been only watching on Nickelodeon and Disney channel shows. (more…)
From Classroom To Lab: My Work With T Cell Therapy
By Lilly Drohan, VI Form
From Classroom To Lab: My Work With T Cell Therapy
This summer, I traveled to Seattle, Washington to work in the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute. My biology teacher presented me with the opportunity, and I immediately got my hands on it. Studying cancer at the microbiological level in Advanced Biology my junior year really challenged me and stimulated my curiosity, but what I experienced during August turned my attraction into almost an obsession. Dr. Michael Jensen, the director of the lab, takes an approach to pediatric cancer therapy that not many take: using the body’s own immune system to fight off the cancer. Dr. Jensen and his team reprogram immune cells called T cells using virus technology to give the cells specific properties that help them proliferate and target specific molecules expressed on cancer cells. This form of therapy is incredibly innovative and creative, and it was so captivating to be at the forefront of the further development of the treatment for just a brief month.
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To Go Through Hell and Resurface
By Isabella Cruz-Nascimento, V Form
To Go Through Hell and Resurface
Crazy, insane, bipolar, OCD–all terms that have worked their way into colloquial language. Most people use them to describe themselves; “Oh my God, I am so OCD, I can’t handle messy rooms” is a sentence that could be heard regularly among teenagers. However, swap in a teen that genuinely displays compulsive behavior and the declarations turn into murmurs of, “What’s wrong with her?” “She needs to calm down,” “They need to medicate her already”. Mental illness is inconsequential and intriguing, until one sees its effects in person. In a community like St. Mark’s, being diagnosed with a mental illness can be onerous, not only because of the rigorous environment, but also because of the burden of the connotations that come with having a diagnosis. In an environment that demands perfection, I sometimes feel branded as incapable of success because of my diagnosis. For the majority of the past two years I have kept my dishonorable secret closely guarded. I refuse to do that now. (more…)
En français: Madagascar & Bruxelles, Belgique
The following descriptions are written by French 2 students who engaged in a
project making brochures that detailed different Francophone countries.
Like a Rock Star
By Charlie Sellers, Head of the Modern Languages Department
Like a Rock Star
I had a very busy summer vacation. It was also a phenomenal summer full of adventure and self-
discovery. A day after finishing my end of the year duties at St. Mark’s –advisee letters, grades, comments, and faculty meetings– I left for China with 10 St. Markers and our former Chinese teacher, Showjean Wu. After two weeks in Beijing at our partner school, I was back in the States. My wife and I were moving from the house across from the thirds’ soccer field to a bigger house at the end of the thirds’ soccer field, and I needed to pack. My wife, Michaela, was busy finishing up classes and end of the year events –she teaches 5th grade at a public school in Sharon, Massachusetts– and we had another big adventure planned for the day after she finished classes. We were about to embark on an 800-kilometer (about 500-miles, a little longer than the distance from (more…)
The World Behind the Curtain
By Yusra Syed, IV Form
The World Behind the Curtain
Over the summer, I was fortunate enough to travel to different parts of India and visit schools, universities, and orphanages for a ten-day service trip with three other girls from the United States. My favorite part of the trip was our first stop, Hyderabad, India, where we visited Challenger Girls Orphanage. (more…)
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