Category: Human Impact

The SPARK is Lit!

4/26/2022

The year is slowly starting to wrap up, but that doesn't mean our work is done! Students are working hard on our end of the year projects, including SPARK. Each year, our students find a cause they are passionate about that sparks interest for them, and they create an end of the year project about it. This process includes research, finding credible sources, and creating a call to action to help get others involved. Topics range from gaining support for LD classrooms, to creating pamphlets to raise awareness about water conservation. We can't wait to see how their final projects turn out!

In addition to SPARK, MCS kids are also publishing a poetry book for their LA class. Over the course of the year, students have been writing a variety of different types of poems to strengthen their writing skills. As a class, they are taking these poems, and working in teams to help write, proofread, design and publish a class poetry book (which will even have it's own ISBN!) By the end of the year, the students will have a complete book that they created together to share with the world. We're so proud of the hard work they've been doing, and can't wait to share their book with everyone!

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MCS Joins Climate Crisis March

9/24/2019

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As our world gets warmer, slowly consumed by trash and negative human impacts, it is more important than ever that we take a stand for our planet. This month, our students wanted to make sure their voices were heard by attending the Climate Crisis March in downtown San Francisco. Together, they joined thousands of passionate students from all over the Bay Area (and the world) to march in a fight for the future of our environment. Calls for action and responsibility were made throughout the streets as students carried so many handmade signs and flyers. It is so important that we work towards a better future, and so dire that students stand up for theirs - we are so proud of them!

With the world in its current state, we are quickly running out of fossil fuels, and are digging a larger and larger whole in our ozone. Our environment needs help, and won't be sustainable without appropriate action from humanity. As our Science class discussed when talking about energy, the current system of fuel is insufficient for producing what humanity needs long (or even short) term. By protesting in solidation with the powerful Greta Thunberg for renewable energy, our students are hoping to bring about action towards saving our world and their home. Visit the Climate Reality Project to learn about what you can do to spread awareness and help protect our planet today!

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Ocean Ambassadors, Away!

5/20/2019

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We're off to save the ocean! For the past month, MCS students have been working so hard on their Ocean Ambassador projects, and this week they finally got to showcase their work! The Ocean Ambassador Program at the Marine Mammal Center in Marin helps to inspire middle school students to become spokespeople for the environment, and jumpstart a new generation of young scientists. Our students, along with students from other local middle schools, created a variety of projects focused on saving marine life around us to share with others, and inspire them to stand up for our animal friends!

By inventing new things, fundraising with handmade novelties, and even building board games, students at MCS were able to share their concern about the ocean with other schools and students. Collectively, our students raised over $400 for the Marine Mammal Center, which will go towards researching environmental conservation and providing homes for many of our displaced animals. MCS even caught attention from other schools with one of our students' Ocean Fact Mad Libs, which will hopefully be used to teach kids in other places about protecting the environment! We are so proud of these guys, and all their hard work! Yay saving the environment!

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Congrats, Class of 2018!

6/4/2018

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It's that time again! This school year has been a wild ride here at MCS, and we could not be more impressed with the hard work and dedication each one of our students has exhibited all the way through! We are so grateful for all the parents, educators, and sponsors who worked with us to make this year amazing! This week, we were happy to announce our 2018 graduates at our year end ceremony, and showcase their SPARK projects, Human Impact efforts, and more as we celebrate their accomplishments this school year!

Over the past 6 months, students rehearsed scenes from the Shakespearian classic, A Midsummer Night's Dream to perform at graduation. The play was first introduced in our Literature class, and expanded into Drama, so the students could begin to embody the characters both analytically and physically. Our kids not only performed wonderfully, but created beautiful backdrops, scenes, and props all on their own! Round of applause to all our actors in the making!

6th grader presents SPARK project on the dangers of smoking and vaping

As part of our ceremony, students also presented their year end SPARK projects, and shared their work with parents, educators, and representatives. These projects focused on human impact in the world, and how we can innovate to create solutions to environmental issues, such as littering, deforestation, pesticide use and more. Each student chose a topic that was important to them, and chose to either raise a call to action or create an invention to help the cause. The kids did such a thorough job, we actually had representatives from the WildCare Rescue Service, and Friends of the Urban Forest attend our ceremony to receive donations, collected by our students, in person! Way to go guys!

7th grader presents her project about the impact of pesticides on wildlife

Graduating 8th grader presents her SPARK project in which she created a portable water filtration system to help combat pollution.

Presenting to a representative from the WildCare Rescue Project

Our Graduating 8th grader presents her project about planting trees to the San Francisco Friends of the Urban Forest!

To represent breaking through barriers in both learning and life, students broke boards using self defense skills taught by Delonzo Pope in our PE classes.

Overall, we are just so proud of our kids this year, and look forward to another year of growth and learning this Fall! Have an excellent Summer everyone!

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More Human Impacts - Math!

5/29/2018

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Human Impacts continued! Students have been working incredibly hard to complete their SPARK Science projects on various topics of human impact in the environment over the past few weeks, and now they're ready! Using our integrated learning method, our class created their own math problems to represent their scientific cause in the real world! Since each student thinks about math differently, they each have their own unique way of representing their math process too, which was absolutely amazing to see! Check out their environmental math problems below - more about SPARK to come!

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Nature in Navato

5/4/2018

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MCS gets moving on our Human Impact studies with an adventure to the Marin Museum of the American Indian. With our wonderful guide, Alicia, we learned about how the Miwok people treated their environment and conserved the resources around them. We are hoping to bring back some of these ideals and practices to help continue to save our dwindling natural resources!

We also got to learn about the houses, called kotchas, where the Miwok people lived and slept, and the importance of baskets and tools to the tribe. Students were even given a chance to use handmade drills and practice drilling the way the Miwoks would have to make holes to build!

Thank you to Alicia and the Marin Museum of the American Indian for giving us a great experience. We learned a lot and are looking forward to next time!

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Human Impact with MCS!

4/30/2018

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Hey again! Another update from us here at MCS! Recently, we've been focusing human impact and the positive effects it can have on our environment. We wanted to see what kind of difference one class can make by diving in head first. MCS took took to the neighborhood and began Plogging! What's Plogging you ask? Plogging is a Swedish sport of jogging and litter collection made popular as part of a recent trend in fitness and environmental conservation. In a two-mile span, we were able to collect 12 big trash bags of trash in under an hour! Now that's a workout!

To see how others have been making positive Human Impacts in our community, we also too a trip to our local food bank to help package food for delivery to families in need. Students took a tour of the warehouse, and learned about how the food bank functions to aid families. With the help of MCS students and other volunteers, the food bank was able to package over 1400 lbs of food that will be sent to families all over the Bay Area! To find out how you can get involved, visit the SF-Marin Food Bank website here, or contact your local food bank warehouse!

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The SPARK is Lit!

MCS Joins Climate Crisis March

Ocean Ambassadors, Away!

Congrats, Class of 2018!

More Human Impacts - Math!

Nature in Navato

Human Impact with MCS!

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