Academic Update, Fall/Winter 2022

Academic Update

As Brunswick strives for the fullest intellectual development of every young man, our academic programs seek to instill in each student a desire to learn, to challenge each boy to fulfill his unique potential, to foster critical-thinking skills, and to develop the creative and independent qualities of mind necessary to reach intellectual maturity and increased self-confidence.

This new e-newsletter, to be published twice yearly, offers parents a top-line view of the latest happenings and curricular initiatives in selected academic departments. For greater detail, please refer to the Course Catalog.

English Department

PHILOSOPHY & GOALS

The English department challenges students on several levels of perception and understanding. Upon graduation, a student will not only have made significant strides toward developing reading and writing skills, but will also have gained the less quantifiable yet arguably equally essential ability to enjoy literature’s power to reveal both the wider cultural landscape and the nuanced interior of his own self.

▶ GREAT SPEECHES , a new Upper School English elective, is offering students the chance to learn about some of the great oratory of the last hundred years while they also practice some of the most valued skills in today’s work environment: public speaking.

Now in its second year, the course explores how great oratory has often served both as a vehicle for change and as an articulation of cultural values and aspirations, such as John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address or Margaret Chase Smith’s plea for decency on the floor of the Senate in 1950. Students closely examine a set of important addresses delivered by Franklin Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, Steve Jobs, Elizabeth Glaser, Nelson Mandela, and Jon Stewart.

The course is taught by Taryn Petrelli, who is in her 10th year at Brunswick after having taught Middle School English.

“The great thing is I love teaching this class,” Petrelli said. “I really enjoy it. What I love about it is that it has value. Students can take these skills and use them in other classes and beyond.”

Students deliver two large speeches as part of the course, and they also practice the kind of impromptu, off-the-cuff speaking that they might encounter down the road in a job interview.

A Greenwich Academy and Middlebury College graduate, Petrelli also works with all senior boys on their Senior Voice; she finds this work especially enriching.

“I get to meet and get to know every senior in the senior class,” she said.

▶ ANDREW LAUDEL is a new seventh grade English teacher at the Middle School.

Originally from Missouri, Laudel has a background in musical theater and attended the University of Michigan. He is also a Teaching Fellow with

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Scholastic and an AP Reader for the College Board.

Laudel was an actor in New York serving as a tutor at StreetSquash, an urban youth enrichmment program in Harlem, when he found himself called to teaching.

“I was one of the tutors,” he said. “I loved it, and I felt useful. I went to grad school, and didn’t look back.”

A teacher for about the last eight years, Laudel is the founding AP Literature teacher at Uncommon Leadership Charter High School in East New York.

Laudel said seventh grade English students are super energetic and love learning, and getting back to his roots as a Middle School teacher has been rewarding.

“Seventh grade is the most exciting age to teach,” he said. “Students are so curious, and they are trying on different roles and personalities to figure out who they want to become. It’s cool to be part of their lives at that important time.”

Laudel said seventh grade English students focus on literary analysis, with the goal of improving their ability to analyze literature, and a related goal to build empathy for others.

▶ BRUNSWICK “LIFER” JAMES WHITTEMORE ’13 returned to Maher Avenue this fall to teach 10th and 11th grade English.

Whittemore earned a Classics Diploma from Brunswick before heading to Dartmouth College to major in Classical Languages and Literatures. He was a teaching intern at Brunswick for two years starting in 2018; in his second intern year, he was given his own English and Latin classes.

Whittemore most recently taught Latin at New Canaan Country School. He said he came back to Brunswick partly because teaching English is his true passion, and partly because Brunswick feels like “home.”

“I was a Brunswick student for 14 years,” he said. “The program Brunswick has is incredible. It feels like an opportunity to come home.

“What I enjoy most is the opportunity to interact with the Brunswick students who bring so much to the table.”

As a Brunswick student, Whittemore was a member of the Cum Laude Society, a Senior Prefect, a Writing Center tutor, and played both varsity golf and squash.

Now, he is also coaching varsity squash and junior varsity golf.

Most recently Whittemore’s 10th grade students have finished reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, while 11th graders have finished Shakespeare’s MacBeth.

Lion King

▶ IN A FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND FIELD TRIP designed to dovetail with the boys’ study of Shakespeare, freshman English students trekked into Manhattan in November to take in a performance of the epic Disney musical The

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Students have been studying Henry IV and Henry V in class, and English teacher Pete Adams said the comingof-age theme of the musical is reflected in 16th century plays — and the juxtaposition of the brilliant English bard with a modern, in-the-flesh Broadway production makes for especially fertile ground for learning.

Upper School teaching fellow Sandro Mariani ’16 and senior Magnus O’Reilly ’23, one of Brunswick’s strongest English students, accompanied the 20 freshmen on the trip.

Adams said O’Reilly provided a cool and fitting “circle” moment on the trip, speaking to his younger classmates on the steps of the New York Public Library about his own journey through high school and the part that Courage, Honor, Truth has played in it.

“Magnus embodies the kind of transformation we want to see in our boys,” Adams said.

▶ A NEW PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE course is being offered to Upper School boys. Taught by Brian Freeman, the course begins with Plato, one of the most literary of philosophers, and considers some of the important questions he asks: What is the good life? What is virtue? How are the human soul and the ideal political state best framed? What is the function of art?

Students also read writers influenced by Platonic thinking, from Thomas More to Thomas Mann and Iris Murdoch. Students further consider how Aristotle’s influence — especially on character — can be traced in literary works from ancient times to the present, from Euripides to Shakespeare to Stoppard.

Students will consider Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy and its impact during their third quarter of study. Finally, in the spring, boys will investigate the role scientific and language-centered philosophies have had on postmodern conceptions of time, chaos theory, and the development of technology and ideas of the multiverse.

▶ ADAM GIDWITZ , author of the best-selling children’s books A Tale Dark and Grimm, In a Glass Grimmly, and The Grimm Conclusion, visited with Middle and Lower School boys in October.

“He spoke to the boys about his own life story of struggling a little in school, and having stories in his head that he would act out in play,” said Beth Barsanti, Lower School librarian.

“He didn’t realize until he was a teacher that the stories could become books that kids would love. He had an inspiring message of doing what you love.”

Gidwitz received a 2017 Newbery Honor for The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog.

History & Social Sciences Department

PHILOSOPHY & GOALS

Upon graduation, students will be empathic global citizens, and will do more than merely understand the historical forces that have shaped the contemporary world. The history department works to ensure students witness how human agency has impacted the past and understand those forces that have advanced and regressed the human condition — so that they will be inspired to act for the betterment of humanity.

▶ UPPER SCHOOL HISTORY welcomed a new teacher this fall who brings deep expertise in military history and a singular passion for educational gaming.

Jared Fishman, who joined the Brunswick faculty after many years at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, N.Y., is teaching the freshman Modern World History course as well as two new electives, History of Warfare: Development of Linear Warfare 1700-1918, and The Birth of Modern Warfare, 1918–present.

“We are unbelievably fortunate,” said Kristine Brennan, history department chair. “This will be an amazing fit for our boys. This type of class really appeals to boys — both the content and the role-playing. It really speaks to different types of students.”

Fishman is also serving as the faculty facilitator of the Model U.N. Club.

A co-founder and co-director of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society – Next Gen, Fishman served

as a presenter at the North Atlantic Simulation and Games Association conference in Montreal in October. Fishman presented a workshop on the game “Diplomacy,” a classic title that’s been played worldwide for decades. In the workshop, Fishman put attendees on teams, representing the great powers of Europe on the eve of World War I. Over the course of their time together, players got a chance to form alliances, participate in intrigues, and work toward strengthening their nation’s power.

▶ THOMAS O’TOOLE, PH.D., executive director of the MPA Program at Cornell Jeb. E. Brooks School of Public Policy, visited an AP U.S. Government class in May to lead a public policy simulation around how a community might work to divide money from a tobacco company settlement. O’Toole spent two days working with students, leading boys through the process of policy making, and the sometimes “messy push and pull of different stakeholders.”

“I thought it was a useful experience for the boys,” said history teacher Andy Riemer. “There was some real insight into the policy-making process, including stakeholders inside and outside of government. It was one of the more enjoyable things they did all year.”

▶ MIDDLE SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHER Kyle Miller ’08 presented an assembly on the importance of baseball in American history, and in particular, the return of Major League Baseball to New York City following 9/11.

Miller’s presentation was a mix of history, sports, and personal reflections. It included a video of Mike Piazza’s iconic home run at Shea Stadium, a game Miller attended when he was 11, as well as another video of President George Bush throwing out the first pitch at game three of the World Series at Yankee Stadium.

The presentation was capped by an appearance by Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees and Adam Ottavino of the New York Mets, famous athletes who discussed their experience as professional baseball players.

▶ FIVE UPPER SCHOOL STUDENTS were honored for historical analysis last spring in a Fairfield regional contest organized by Connecticut History Day.

Jackson Fels ’23 earned first place in the Senior Paper Division for To Peking for Peace: How Daring Diplomacy Transformed Sino-American Relations ; Sayah Trahanas ’25 earned second place in the Senior Individual Documentary Category for The Fall of the Berlin Wall; and James Lynch ’25,

Michael Contino ’25, and Sam Barsanti ’25 earned first place in the Senior Group Performance Category for 1980 Olympic Boycott .

Connecticut History Day is one of 58 affiliate programs of National History Day, engaging over 4,000 middleand high-school students in historical research, interpretation, and creative expression through projectbased learning. The program seeks to bring students, teachers, museums, and scholars together to support young people as they engage in history.

The 2022 theme was Debate and Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences.

Fels actually won multiple honors for his essay on SinoAmerican relations. He won third place in the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History essay contest for high-school students, and the piece also appeared in Seriatim Journal of American Politics, published by University of Virginia.

▶ FOURTH GRADE BOYS kicked off their study of Colonial America with a field trip to Old Sturbridge Village in late September.

The trip is a longstanding tradition for Lower School boys; this year, 48 students and their teachers and chaperones enjoyed beautiful weather as they trekked up to Massachusetts to get a feel for a rural New England town in the 1830s.

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“There was genuine excitement from the boys to get back in time and reflect on what life was like back then,” said Suzie Foyle, head fourth-grade teacher. “I do think it’s a great way to bring history to life for these boys.” Boys got to check out the work of all the artisans of the age, from the blacksmith to the cooper to the potter; it all served as research that laid the groundwork for the culmination of their study — a reenactment of the village of Hingham, Massachusetts, in the year 1764.

▶ AP ART HISTORY STUDENTS visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Met Cloisters in October and December, the first time students have been back in the galleries since before the pandemic. “When you get them out of the classroom to apply what they’ve learned, it generates an enormous amount of excitement,” said Brennan. “The docents were incredibly impressed with their knowledge.”

RECOMMENDED

Art Exhibits

• Metropolitan Museum of Art — The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England

• Whitney Museum of Art — Edward Hopper’s New York

Books

•

The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War by Louis Menand

• How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

• Athens: City of Wisdom by Bruce Zee Clark

• 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir by Ai Weiwei

• Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light, 100 Art Writings, 1988-2018 by Peter Schjeldahl

Podcasts

• History Extra

•

In Our Time: History BBC Radio 4

• Ancient Greece Declassified

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Academic Update

From the onset of their science experience, students engage in hands-on, inquiry-based science through interactive, investigative study. The science department develops students’ skills in scientific observation, data collection, analysis, and the drawing of scientific conclusions to ensure young adults’ scientific literacy and strong, scientific critical-thinking skills.

▶ UPPER SCHOOL SCIENCE STUDENTS are enjoying a growing array of elective offerings, giving both students and faculty a chance to explore new interests and even spark a new passion.

Principles of Geology, taught by J. R. Mastro, is a new class offered to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. It presents an overview of Earth from a geological perspective — with an emphasis on how plate tectonics, the grand unifying theory of geology, explains how the map of our planet’s surface has changed radically over geologic time.

“We have so many kids enrolled in science,” said Dana Montanez, science department chair. “Offering a wide range of electives is very much like college. We have passionate teachers, who inspire our students.”

▶ TO WIT, a new Upper School Astronomy Club was created this fall by Daniel Hu ’23; science teacher

Chris Forester is serving as the faculty advisor. Hu became interested in the subject after taking Forester’s astrophysics class last spring; he is also doing an independent study involving astronomy this year.

Hu is using a large telescope, owned by Brunswick, to do his independent study.

The inspiration and passion for the club comes from Hu.

“Since there were no astronomy-related clubs at school, I thought it would be a great idea to start one to give students an opportunity to explore the night sky,” Hu said. “I knew from taking Mr. Forester’s class that the school has a very nice telescope (Celestron NexStar 8se), so it was the perfect set-up.

“This time of the year, we mostly looked at the Moon, Saturn, and Jupiter,” he said. “The biggest challenge is probably the weather, as we need clear skies to observe, and right now winter is the cloudiest season.”

PHILOSOPHY & GOALS

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▶ LOWER SCHOOLERS , meanwhile, trekked out to the Outdoor Classroom in October to investigate and connect with nature, and the myriad lessons offered there.

The all-school visit gave each and every Lower School class a chance to experience the Outdoor Classroom, which is sandwiched in a sliver of woods adjacent to the Lower School and Cosby Field. Third graders, in particular, used the classroom for a concentrated study of flora and fauna; they created “Travel Poster” projects that highlight some of the main attractions of the outside space.

“There’s so much out there to see and to teach,” said Brett Martell, Lower School science teacher. “We’re so lucky. It’s right there. It’s right in front of us. We could spend the entire year looking at things outside.”

Spring will be especially colorful on Edwards Campus thanks to the effort of third graders who worked with Dana Montanez to plant 1,200 bulbs.

The flowers should show their colors in front of the Lower School, the Pre School, and Squash Courts; Narcissus bulbs will be added to the mix in mid-February.

▶ HERE ARE SOME DETAILS of what Brunswick students in every division have been studying in science this fall:

• Pre-K has done a variety of lessons on trees, habitats, pumpkin seeds, sink/ float, volcanoes, and some observations of color tablets and creation of polymer worms.

• Kindergarten did a unit on materials with an initial focus on wood. They observed wood and talked about the origins. They sanded wood to create sawdust and used wood shavings to create their own particle board pieces.

• First grade got into weather reports.

• Second grade studied states of matter.

• Third grade has done a bird project.

• Fourth grade has done a mixtures-and-solutions project, and has also studied the human body.

• Fifth grade dissected crayfish in November.

• Sixth grade created Earth cut-away models.

• Seventh grade used microscopes to examine cheek cells and onion cells to identify the structure of a plant cell versus an animal cell. They built biomolecules with Legos and tested unidentified items to see which bio molecules were present during a “Halloween Whodunnit” experience.

Science

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• Eighth grade did group projects in which students designed and conducted their own experiments.

• Freshman Biology has been learning how to read nutrition labels, using a variety of energy drinks as a starting point. What is in energy drinks? What is monitored and required by the FDA and what is not?

• Honors Biology has focused on plants and ecology, with extensive examination of organisms with microscopes. They have studied seed germination and dissected a lily.

• Biology of Human Health has been using Daphnia to investigate the effects of stimulants and depressants on heart rate. They have used spirometers to measure lung capacities, and to see how chest versus diaphragm breathing affects maximum lung volumes.

• Marine Biology students have taken two field trips, one in September to study aquatic life in

Long Island Sound, and another in December to visit The Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk. At the Aquarium, students got the chance to observe some of the animals they study in class; especially informative was the seal feeding, which featured a new tank that offers views of the seals swimming and resting under water, as well as the stingray and shark touch tank, which gave students the chance to feel skin texture.

• Engineering students have studied trusses and bridge building.

• AP Physics has worked on

Newton’s Laws with an activity using force probes to look at forces in equilibrium (First Law) and the vertically accelerated mass (Second Law).

• Honors Physics has studied linear motion, objects in free fall, and projectile motion; they were also planning to launch air-powered rockets to demonstrate how projectile motion is applied to rocket science.

Computer Science Department

PHILOSOPHY & GOALS

The computer science department helps students become real innovators by providing them with active, hands-on learning experiences to develop 21st-century skills. Inquiry-based, age-appropriate studies begin with simple drag-and-drop programming languages (Lower School), move up to more advanced programming techniques (Middle School), and culminate with high-level programming languages and app development (Upper School). Geared to honing critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, studies in computer science are a mandatory graduation requirement.

▶ AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CLASS designed to blend coding with creativity in visual arts is in its third year at the Upper School.

Computer Science Chair Sunil Gupta co-teaches the STEAM course, Coding Palette, with Andrew Hall, chair of the art department.

The course uses a digital sketchbook to combine creativity with problem-solving skills to advance both visual literacy in technology and coding literacy within

the visual arts. This semester-long course can fulfill either an art or a computer science requirement. Coursework, which is heavily project-based and emphasizes cooperative teamwork, challenges students with interests in both computer science and the arts. Students use Processing, an open-source programming language developed by the MIT Media Lab, to produce tangible projections of their work using a variety of media.

“Andrew and I love teaching this course and are constantly amazed at the sheer level of creativity shown by students drawing in a digital sketchbook with code and then rendering it physically in a variety of ways,” Gupta said. “Projects covered so far include digitally replicating the work of artists Piet Mondrian, Eugenio Carmi, Frank Stella, and Wassily Kandinsky and others.”

Academic Update

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▶ BRANDON LOPEZ joined the faculty of the computer science department this year under the mentorship of Sunil Gupta.

Lopez is a 2022 graduate of Florida International University in Miami; he’s teaching three introductory sections of computer science.

Lopez said teaching high school has been a fulfilling experience so far.

“Seeing students progress from not knowing anything at all to understanding and being able to apply their learning is great to see,” he said.

▶ MEANWHILE, two after-school enrichment programs taught by Lower School technology teacher Tim Coupe, as well as a new Coding Club, are boosting computer science learning opportunities for ’Wick’s youngest.

Lego Robotics and Drone Club are offered by BASE, Brunswick’s in-house, after-school enrichment program.

In Lego Robotics, boys use motors, sensors, and a programmable “brain” to build robots; Coupe said it can take six to eight weeks for a successful build, and just a few short weeks ago, students were finally getting their “bots” to show some get-up-and-go.

“We brought it to life!” one team exclaimed, as another team moved to learn how it all came together and asked for help.

“It was a beautiful example of collaboration,” Coupe said.

In Drone class, boys fly in pairs in Camuto Auditorium. Boys work to loop their drones through challenging courses as they also improve coding skills.

▶ A NEW LOWER SCHOOL CODING CLUB is further enhancing computer science learning for ’Wick’s youngest. The club had its first meeting in December; it sees about 12 Upper School students run a Saturday morning meeting for 30-40 Lower Schoolers.

“Upper School boys contacted me and asked: ‘Can we do this?’” Coupe said. “It’s affirming to watch.”

▶ IN OTHER NEWS, RYAN KULSAKDINUM ’23 was cited by College Board for achieving a perfect score on the AP Computer Science A exam in May 2022. This is his second consecutive perfect score, as he aced the AP Computer Science Principles exam in May 2021 as well.