Students will examine environmental racism by exploring how polluting industries, highways, and waste facilities have historically been concentrated in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color across American cities. Using maps, short documentary clips, and data from cities like Flint, Washington, D.C., Jackson, and Mobile, the class analyzes how redlining, zoning policies, and unequal political power have shaped unequal access to clean air, safe water, and green spaces. Students will engage in guided discussion and primary-source analysis to connect environmental conditions to public health outcomes, encouraging critical thinking about how historical decisions continue to impact urban communities today and what environmental justice could look like moving forward.

Imagine being back in high school having to decide which college to go to after getting three acceptance letters. We will model this decision making to understand how a simple neural network works. A neural network, or artificial neural network, is a computational model inspired by the biological neural network. It's a cornerstone of modern artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, designed to recognize patterns in data by mimicking the way human neurons signal to one another. Our goals in this class are to simulate how a neural network “thinks” by creating a simple, human-driven model for choosing a best-fit college, and demystify the working of neural networks. In our bonus time, we will broadly discuss AI.

 

(Registration limited to one parent or grandparent of students in grades 9, 10, or 11.)

Welcome to “College Cluster: Beyond the Numbers," where you are not just a GPA or a test score, but a unique individual with a story to tell. Gone are the days of merely being a statistic; holistic admissions is the name of the game. The admissions committee is on a quest to uncover the real you—your passions, quirks, and the sum total of your experiences. As a participant, you'll navigate the labyrinth of college admissions—perhaps you’ll excel in academics, dazzle with your leadership in extracurriculars, or reveal the depths of your personal growth as you present an authentic version of yourself.

The Dark Side of the Moon—Explained!
Thomas Scholz, 5th Grade Head Teacher and Lower School Science Curriculum Coordinator

Ever wonder when the next full Moon will rise—or why we never actually see the so-called “dark side” of the Moon? In this hands-on class for curious students, we’ll demystify the rhythm of the Moon’s phases and reveal the fascinating interplay between the Sun, Earth, and Moon that creates them. Through guided observation and simple modeling, you’ll explore how the Moon’s orbit and Earth’s rotation shape what we see from night to night.

By the end of the session, you’ll be able to explain why the Moon is visible from Earth, describe its changing appearance throughout the lunar cycle, and even predict the next phase in sequence. Whether you’re gazing at the sky from your window or leading a moonlit hike, you’ll never look at our closest celestial neighbor the same way again.
If the mysteries of the Moon captivate you, in the immortal words of Pink Floyd—may we “see you on the dark side of the Moon.” 

 

Gulliver’s Bingo is a fun, interactive game that gets students on their feet and serves as a collaborative way to learn and review a unit. Everyone can play a part; the ones who are the least prepared won’t be embarrassed, and everyone leaves with a more solid understanding of the material. In Trevor’s current Utopian & Dystopian Literature course, we read Gulliver’s Travels, and play this Bingo game as a review once the class has finished the novel. Our version will be adapted, of course, because you will not have read the text, but it’s still fun, accessible, and a quick way to learn about this classic, hilarious, satirical text. No preparation is needed; however, if you do happen to know anything about Gulliver’s Travels, you will have an advantage, and maybe you’ll even earn some extra credit.

 

 

Successful communication on a vacation makes the experience that much richer and enjoyable. Join us for a Spanish lesson where you will learn key vocabulary for talking about accommodations and describing a vacation using simple sentences. This session offers a glimpse into one of the many engaging ways our students learn Spanish in Middle School at Trevor Day School. No prior knowledge of Spanish is required, as much of the lesson will be conducted in English. ¡Buen viaje!

In Trevor’s Modern Japanese Literature course, students are introduced to some of the major writers and thinkers from a period of over 100 years. We examine the struggle for a national identity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the people attempt to reconcile centuries of tradition and the desire to become a modern and consequently more Westernized nation. This moves us into the interwar years where Japan feels compelled to prove itself to the West, and on to the postwar years which are fraught with uncertainty, angst, and fear. 

This is where Yukio Mishima’s “Death in Midsummer” fits in. Written in the last year of America’s occupation of Japan following WWII (1952), this short story captures the aftermath of a fatal accident on a beach in the Izu Peninsula, and explores how the surviving characters deal with their feelings of grief and guilt, as well as the kinds of strategies they use to cope. Mishima deftly draws parallels between the anxiety of the characters and those who survived the atomic bombs at the end of the war. 

Following brief writing to get your thoughts down, and some historical and cultural framing, the majority of the class will be discussion-based. To prepare for this class, you will be asked to read Mishima’s short story, “Death in Midsummer.” 

Simulating Purebred and Hybrid Genetic Crosses Using Hershey's Kisses 

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the patterns that emerge during both purebred and hybrid crosses when a trait is exhibiting complete dominance. This lesson helps students to see that an allele (version of a trait) can be present in someone’s DNA (genotype) but not show outwardly in their phenotype, which both helps dispel the myth that a trait can “skip a generation” and helps students understand why a trait can emerge in offspring when it did not appear to be present in the prior generation. This activity also introduces students to the use of Punnett Squares— showing that although Punnett Squares predict probability, alleles are passed on randomly and surprising results can emerge. Finally, this activity will demonstrate that the more data are collected, the closer actual results come to the theoretical (comparisons are made to Gregor Mendel’s pea plant experiments). A very popular question asked when doing this activity is—do we get to eat the Hershey's Kisses at the end?? The answer is YES!

These 45 minutes together are going to fly by! We'll start with the secret codes of The Function Machine (a visual metaphor for a function, acting like a device that takes an input, applies a specific set of ordered operations, and produces a unique output). We’ll then move on to the famous Knight's Tour (a classic math/graph theory problem), and finish with drawing puzzles (otherwise known as Topology). Just think, one day, you'll be the “Life of the Party” all because of your mathematical know-how.

 

This highly participatory class will use the tool of ‘significant objects’ to explore relationships and characters. Drawing on an example from The Empire Strikes Back (Yoda, Luke, and his X-wing), we will think about the way a physical object can symbolize a deep dynamic of an important relationship. Students will brainstorm an original scenario, and we’ll storyboard an example of basic shot coverage (wide shot, close-ups, and insert shot of the object).

Why do concert tickets disappear instantly, grocery prices feel unpredictable, and “hidden fees” seem unavoidable? In this fast-paced, interactive mini-class, we’ll explore the economic forces behind the everyday frustrations of modern life, and why they’re not accidents. After a brief introduction to core ideas such as scarcity, incentives, and behavioral economics, small groups will engage in a hands-on activity that challenges them to “fix” common modern annoyances, ranging from subscription creep and airline seating to shrinkflation and surge pricing. Along the way, we’ll uncover how companies design systems around predictable human behavior and why many irritating experiences are actually rational outcomes of today’s markets. No prior economics knowledge is required. This session is designed to be engaging, humorous, and immediately relevant, offering a clearer understanding of how the modern economy works and new ways to think about everyday decisions and the economic world Trevor students are navigating.

How the heck does a panda eat bamboo?! Bamboo! Bamboo is more like a building material than a snack, and yet, they do it. They couldn't live without the stuff. But how? And how do hyenas crunch bones? And how do cows eat grass all day long? (If you chewed as much grass as they do, your face would likely break!) Come to think of it, how are any animals adapted to consume their diets? How do lions slice through an animal hide and raw meat with their teeth? How are humans adapted to eat what we eat?

A species' diet is one of the most fundamental aspects of its biology, and although you know what many animals eat, have you ever thought about how they process that food? Well, Dr. Hartstone-Rose sure has! In fact, he's spent most of the 25+ years since graduating from Trevor studying how animals are adapted to do what they do. His lab analyzes adaptation across all of the "levels of deadness"—from live animal behavior (the least dead you can be), to dissection and analysis of bones and teeth, to examinations of the fossils of long-extinct species (the most dead)—to learn about how living species process foods, the anatomy that allows them to do so, and ultimately to be able to use this understanding about living species to reconstruct the masticatory behaviors and abilities of extinct species.

Join our alumnus Dr. Hartstone-Rose for this session to learn about this work, and what the heck it has to do with Winnie the Pooh!