9 minute read
NEW BUILDING PLANS
NEW ACADEMIC FACILITY TO SUPPORT ROBUST PROGRAM
Campaign to make the vision a reality
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Madeira’s tradition of honoring our natural landscape remains consistent in the plans for this project. According to Chad Floyd of Centerbrook Architects, “The building will interact with North Dorm and Schoolhouse I to form a new quadrangle. Its architecture harmonizes with Madeira’s Georgian style, except for a long north wall that overlooks the amphitheater, out of sight of the rest of campus. A dramatic three-story continuous wall of windows looks out over the wooded hillside.”
As the world becomes more interconnected, competitive, and complex—and as new technologies are adopted almost daily—the expectations placed on young people are higher than ever. Positioning students to succeed in today’s world requires an education that builds interdisciplinary connections—an education that reflects myriad ways of thinking and creating required of professionals in nearly every field. That education must link abstract concepts with practical applications and demonstrate how new technologies can transform lives.
It is essential that Madeira’s academic facilities meet the needs of our program. The new academic building that will house our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) program will not only satisfy this basic need but also will transform Madeira’s campus. As the only new academic construction in the last 45 years*, the new facility will honor our longstanding commitment to deliver an ambitious and comprehensive educational experience that prepares girls to thrive and lead. In addition, it will serve as a community space that will impact the way Madeira girls move across campus and the way that we teach, learn, and grow.
A hub for innovative, creative, and collaborative learning, with the ability to foster interdisciplinary work, the new academic building will allow Madeira to fulfill the promise to launch women who change the world by enhancing an already robust program with the facilities to support this learning. The building was purposely designed to integrate well with the existing architecture of the campus and to take advantage of the natural site. At the same time, it signals a bold future. Integrating the STEAM disciplines under one roof will ignite deep engagement, facilitate cross-collaboration, and promote student and faculty engagement that enhances learning and relationship building.
“The new building will have more space to explore passions and lay out projects, and I can’t wait to take advantage of it!” RENN GUARD ’22
Seniors Hailey Ho ’20 and Maria Lyons ’20 earned a gold medal at the 2019 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Giant Jamboree, a premiere student competition in synthetic biology. “I’d always viewed genetic engineering as something sinister that could only be performed by highly trained scientists in mysterious laboratories,” said Maria. “It turns out high school students can participate in iGEM.”
After finding out about the competition at a workshop at the Baltimore Underground Science Space (BUGSS), Maria recruited classmate Hailey to join her on the Baltimore BioCrew team, that worked for six months with a kit of biological parts to build and test biological systems in living cells, then present their project and compete for medals at the competition in Boston. BioCrew’s impressive gold medal project engineered bacteria to repopulate the microbiome after antibiotic treatment and fortify the gut against bacterial disease.
“Coming to iGEM, I was excited to gain research experience and to apply what I learned in school toward addressing real-world problems,” said Hailey. “Six months with the BioCrew was a roller coaster. Sometimes, we would go for weeks without much progress. Then, all of a sudden, good news just flooded in!”
Maria and Hailey enjoyed learning from other teams at the competition who created geneti cally engineered organisms to fight disease, manufacture drugs, and clean up the environment, sparking new ideas for next year.
for painting, drawing, ceramics, digital arts, photography, robotics, making, and fabrication.
HESTON FRIEDRICHS ’20 DEVELOPS VIDEO GAME TO AID IN UNDERSTANDING MENTAL ILLNESS
For an independent study during her senior year, Heston Friedrichs ’20 worked to develop her own video game to combat the stigma surrounding mental illness.
“I designed a game about mental health with the goal of helping people who don’t suffer from mental illness empathize with those who struggle with it.”
Using several high-end computers and the Unreal Game Engine, Heston teamed up with Educational Technology Specialist Ms. Tippens on the project.
“It’s amazing what we’re able to do now that we have the proper machines in place,” Ms. Tippens remarked. “I envision more independent studies like the one Heston did. Five weeks is not enough time to fully complete a video game. However, it’s enough to get a great start and have fully completed game design documents.”
Heston explained a bit more about the mechanics of the game, “The player opens the game in a world where they are going about their normal life. Soon after, they start falling into their mind where they have to confront common but misunderstood forms of mental illness, including anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder.”
Heston plans to present her game development at the upcoming MadeiraED Conference April 17. Go to www.madeira.org/madeiraed for details.
Science will be taught in five labs plus a sixth equipped for students to conduct advanced research.
STEAM CLASS DESIGNS WATER FILTER TO AID SYRIAN REFUGEES
How can we help Syrian refugees maintain drinkable water on their journey to another country? This is the question students set out to answer during their time in Topics in STEAM class, an inves tigative, project-based course, where students bring together science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics as a broad framework for discovery and analysis of the world around them.
Given recent world events, the class chose to focus on creating a cost-effective, mobile, and long-lasting water filter for Syrian refugees.
“The biggest challenge was trying not to solve too many problems at once,” said Caroline Cruze ’20. “The project began with seeking a way to collect, contain, maintain, and clean water for refugees who are traveling on foot. We decided on a filter that we knew we could build upon.”
After researching a variety of filtration methods from water purifying tablets to solar radiation, the group began to develop a prototype based on the use of activated charcoal. With guidance from instructors Mr. Tracey, Ms. Scott, and Ms. Roy, they experimented with everything from coffee filters to felt. After five prototypes, they ended up with a filter that combined charcoal, sponges, glass beads, felt, and a thin mesh screen.
The screens, sponge, and felt catch solids in the water, while the charcoal removes organic contam inants, pesticides, and herbicides. The beads break down the bonds of anything connected to the water, and those substances connected to the beads. The lightweight filter can travel anywhere.
STEAM projects are often linked to solving real-world problems. The next Topics in STEAM class will be studying the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ emergencies list and choosing a new issue to solve.
“My favorite part about STEAM is being hands-on and pushing myself. I look forward to more STEAM electives that will be created with the new building.” MAYLYNN RODRIGUEZ ’23
A dramatic lobby will connect all three floors while providing lounge spaces for study and student collaboration.
A large Flex Room will accommodate informal study, meetings, and special events, such as lectures, films, and receptions. It will include a catering kitchen, and opens onto a large terrace.
YOUNG ALUM DEVIN WILLIAMS ’13 CREDITS MADEIRA FOR HELPING LAUNCH ENGINEERING CAREER
Designing drones to deliver blood and medical supplies. Developing the iPad Pro. Graduating from MIT. These are just a few of the accomplish ments of Devin Williams ’13 since her days at Madeira.
“Madeira’s Physics with Trig class was the first time I realized engi neering was interesting and something I may be good at!” Devin shared. Currently a mechanical engineer at Zipline, a supply chain and logis tics company that delivers blood and medical supplies via autonomous drones to health centers and hospitals in Rwanda and Ghana, Devin credits Madeira with providing her a strong foundation. “Madeira definitely gave me my work ethic. It was a safe space to explore disciplines that I wasn’t always confident in. I not only had a strong foundation in physics and math before MIT, but I also knew how to write a research paper and create a compelling argument to express my ideas. Madeira also showed me the importance of strong female friendships. I have kept in touch with my classmates who have been some of my closest friends and confidants.” Devin is the only woman on Zipline’s mechanical engineering team. She is designing a system to increase the overall “smarts” of the drone to allow Zipline to serve more urban markets.
Co-Curriculum internships and connections were valuable to Devin’s career. “During my K2M internship, I learned how to use standard lab equipment that I still use today and how to document and run experiments in an engineering environment, and even got to see a cadaver lab where the products K2M designed were used by doctors to understand pain points and benefits. I contin ued my internship after Co-Curriculum ended and worked at K2M for a summer during college.”
Devin recognizes a hands-on approach is critical to nurturing engineering talent. “Madeira is a home for curiosity. My biggest advice when I meet young engineers is to start doing. Take ideas off a page and into a physical form, take things apart to see how they work, question why things are the way they are and see if you can make them better.”
Replacing Madeira’s current science facility is a critical need—and not only because our curriculum has outgrown it. We are limited by our current building, constructed in the 1970s, which is extremely costly to maintain, has an insufficient number of classrooms, antiquated laboratories, structural flaws, and inflexible spaces. The new building will elevate the program for Madeira’s engaged students and signals a bold new standard.
