LWGMS news

Strong Voices for Humanity

2009-10-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

A note from Patti --

Today I had the great pleasure of attending the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center’s Voices for Humanity luncheon, where Tong Yuan (’11) and our humanities and art teacher, Lindsey Mutschler, were two of the esteemed speakers. They were both inspiring – truly highlights of the day! And they were in good company -- Randy Dorn, Enrique Cerna (KCTS), and author James Waller also spoke at the event.

The artwork of Hailey Jenkins (’09) was featured on the invitations and placecards, letters from Leila (’11) and Emelia (’11) were featured in the printed program, and cards featuring the artwork and artist statements of Elena (’10), Finn (’11), Emma (’11), Hana (’10), Andrea (’11), and Jillian (’10) were for sale at the event.
I am so pleased that LWGMS students and teachers so genuinely lent their voices and vision to this worthy cause. I was especially proud to hear Tong Yuan speak today about the way that learning about the Holocaust has affected her, and to hear Lindsey speak about how teaching about the Holocaust fits her personal teaching philosophy as well as LWGMS’s mission of educating girls to work for social justice.

LWGMS first invited a Holocaust survivor to speak at our school in 2001. These speakers, such as Hester Kool who was honored at today’s luncheon, have shared their stories with our students, lending relevance and impact to their learning as only a personal connection can. The goal of the Holocaust Education Resource Center is to provide resources for teaching about the Holocaust in order to give a voice to those who can not speak. It is no wonder, then, that our students and their role model teachers – all of whom are strong in mind, body, and voice - were welcomed today as part of this important program.

"She-Bot" Update...sort of...

2009-09-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

This Saturday a group of Lake Washington Girls Middle School students, parents, and faculty made its way down to Seattle Central Library expecting to learn something of the whereabouts of the now-famed "She-Bot" who left her quiet, comfy existence in Kirsten Rooks' science classroom and headed straight for the trash. Well, not really. Before she was fit for the bin, she spent some time with the researchers from MIT's SENSEable City Laboratory who fit her with a small, smart, location aware tag: "a first step towards the deployment of "smart-dust" – networks of tiny locatable and addressable microeletromechanical systems." Wait. What?

We thought we went to the library to learn about trash, but Carlo Ratti, director of SENSEable City Laboratory, and his team first introduced the audience of more than 50 of Seattle's finest environmentalists to the absolutely inspired, innovative, and incredible work they've been doing in Boston (and all over the world) for more than three years. The lab's mission, to look at how we can embed technologies in cities, and at how embedded technologies in cities can help us understand them and one day change them, was revealed to us through short presentations (with fantastic graphic renderings) of a few of their many projects. "Computers," said associate director Assaf Biderman, "are making their way out of their home, out of the office, and into the streets. They are increasingly present in our pockets, street lights, traffic lights, urban furniture, and infrastructure. There’s a blanket of increasingly dense interconnected computers covering cities. This allows us to extract and put back information at specific locations. So we thought, why not apply the thinking that’s behind human computer interaction to cities?"

Ratti and Biderman told us about EyeStop, a touch-screen bus shelter that monitors environmental conditions (weather, air quality) and real-time bus movement, and also provides information and communication tools that can interact with your cell phone (sending tweets if your usual bus is running late, for example), scheduled for installation in Florence, Italy, next month. The EyeStop, which has touch sensitive "e-Ink" screens as well as LEDs, features a bus map plotting locations in real-time, email and Web access, tools for planning a best route and getting directions, a community bulletin board, and, of course, a place for silent video advertisements. Intended for tourists as well as locals, the EyeStop tools are accessible in several languages.

Another project, the Copenhagen Wheel, aimed to transform bicycle use in Denmark’s largest city where there are more bicycles than people, through promoting urban sustainability and building new connections between the city’s cyclists. They made the bikes "smart mobile sensing devices that map[ped] the real-time flow of people and environmental conditions in Copenhagen." This was achieved through strategically placing small location and environmental sensors on bicycles to gather information as people rode through the city. The data from the cyclists was used to understand more about city dynamics, and eventually power applications of benefit to citizens, city municipalities and researchers interested in bettering them, making their city more efficient and user- or biker-friendly.

It is hard to convey how exciting it was to learn about these projects, mostly because my mind was - and still is - about to burst, but by the time Ratti and Biderman got around to talking to us about Trash, we were all hooked, and actually more prepared to understand the mechanics of the Trash Tracking program. 3000 pieces of Seattle trash were tagged, taken back to their "homes," and disposed of or recycled as they would normally have been. Once picked up by Waste Management, one of the sponsors of the project, the tags somehow sensed movement, triggering a search for nearby cellphone towers. The tag then sent an SMS (i.e. text message) containing this information to MIT, where software compared it with standard maps of cell phone signal strength to determine the position of the tag. The tags calculate the ongoing location of each piece of rubbish and report back to a central server, where the data is analyzed and viewed in real time. And back to the "smart dust": yes, someday these tags will be as small as particles…and attached to, well, whatever!

Seattle's Waste Management is very interested in the results of the Trash Track project, hoping that finding out more about how trash goes through the systems will help them improve their logistics, from trash transportation to recycling to disposal systems. But Waste Management isn't the only thing the experiment hopes to improve - the researchers want to get at the root of the problem: how we treat consumables in the first place.

"Trash Track has the potential to encourage people to make more sustainable decisions about what and how much they consume, and how it affects the world around them," said Biderman. "The project represents a type of change that is taking place in cities: a bottom-up approach to managing resources, promoting more informed decision-making in the public through the use of pervasive technologies and information."

Naomi True '10, head of the LWGMS Green Team, attended the presentation and is as dedicated as ever to help our community consider and improve the way we handle and treat trash and recyclables. Already this year she's addressed the student body about waste free lunches – informing her peers which typical lunchbox items are reusable, recyclable, and which are not – and is creating a series of green goals for the year. Naomi is one of many LWGMS students who strive to be contentious consumers and stewards of the environment, excited to be part of the MIT Trash Track project.

We did not find out where our "She-Bot" is, but the MIT team will continue to track data through October 11, presented online and at the Central Library, and we have no donut she'll make her presence known…she's an L-Dub girl after all!

-Shannon Blaisdell

What’s a retired girl robot to do?

2009-09-15T14:35:00.000-07:00

Why, track trash, of course! Come hear what she has to tell us about where our garbage really goes this Saturday at Central Library.

Little did Kirsten Rooks’s science students at Lake Washington Girls Middle School know when they built a solar robot last year that she would find meaningful retirement work as, well…trash.

Last week as part of an MIT study, the school’s “she-bot” was one of some 3,000 other pieces of garbage fitted with electronic smart-tags and ceremonially tossed into ordinary garbage cans.

Using the cell-phone technology in her tag, LWGMS’s “she-bot” has been faithfully reporting her whereabouts back to MIT computers, allowing researchers to monitor the journey from garbage can to landfill in real time.

This Saturday, September 19, you are invited to Central Library (1000 4th Ave) from 11am-12:30pm to hear all about her amazing journey.

Why should we care where our garbage goes? Because there’s a lot of it—almost 400,000 tons of waste, yearly, from Seattle alone—and because we don’t know nearly as much about the “removal chain” as we do the “supply chain.” Gaining more information about the waste stream will not only help us build more sustainable infrastructures, it could foster real behavioral change. If you know exactly how long a drive that Starbucks cup has to take in order to become landfill…you may just think twice before tossing.

That’s what the folks from MIT’s “Trash Track Team” believe, anyway. And that’s why they’re tracking trash in two cities— New York and Seattle—this fall.
As for the Lake Washington Girls Middle School “she-bot”…well, until Saturday she remains persistently unavailable for public comment. A source close to her, however—Lake Washington Girls Middle School Head of School Patricia Hearn—notes that the “she-bot’s” Trash Track is just one part of a much larger environmental campaign the young female environmentalists at Lake Washington Girls Middle School are taking on this year.

“Lake Washington Girls Middle School is proud to participate as one of just a handful of ‘Washington Green Schools’—schools that work intentionally to eliminate waste and to undergo voluntary waste audits in order to educate more sustainably,” says Hearn. “Our involvement with Trash Track is one part of this new campaign, and we couldn’t be more excited to hear what our ‘she-bot’ has to teach us!”

Please join us Saturday to find out!

Update! Read the New York Times article about the trash tracking project.

Student Art Show 2009

2009-08-19T00:10:00.001-07:00

Summer Backpacking Trip 2009

2009-08-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from our backpacking adventure to Rialto Beach in the Olympic Peninsula. I was so busy having fun that I didn't take pictures every day, but these should capture a good slice of the trip. Jenny and I had a fabulous time, and look forward to our trip next summer! If your daughter has more photos to add to the blog, please have her email them to mutschler@lwgms.org. Enjoy! ~Lindsey

More photos from "You Can't Take It With You"

2009-06-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

"You Can't Take It With You" opens tonight!

2009-05-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

The LWGMS 8th grade's play You Can't Take It With You opens tonight at Theatre Off Jackson. Suggested donation is $8.00. Performances: Friday, May 29 and Saturday, May 30 7:00pm 409 7th Avenue S., Seattle.

2009 Jacob Friedman Writing & Art Contest

2009-05-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the LWGMS students who were recognized for their excellent writing and art in the 2009 Jacob Friedman Writing and Art Contest sponsored by the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center. Congratulations to teachers Lindsey and Jenny for guiding the students through the process.

Eight hundred 5th-12th grade students from 68 Washington schools entered the contest. Students from our small school of 54 girls won ten of the 23 awards:

WRITING I (5th & 6th Grade):

Andrea (First Place), Tong Yuan (Second Place)

WRITING II (7th & 8th Grade):

Ilana (Second Place)

ART I (5th & 6th Grade):

Finn (First Place), Emma (Second Place), Andrea (Third Place)

ART II (7th & 8th Grade):

Hailey (First Place), Elena (Second Place), Hana (Third Place), Jillian (Honorable Mention)

We Love Spirit Week!

2009-02-06T14:47:00.000-08:00

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spirit Week 2009

On Kooky Day, students and staff had fun with their most interesting outfits. On Food Day, costumes included grapes, bananas, berries, ice cream sundaes, peanut butter, and hamburgers. On Fairy Tale Day, there were witches, princesses, kings and queens, some pigs, and three Pinocchios. On Switch Day, there were LOTS of girls dressed as Patti, which this year meant they wore a big "pregnant" belly. We also had at least one of every other faculty/staff member, and a few girls dressed as Daisy the dog. Finally, on School Colors Day, everyone sported their Scarlet and Silver with pride!

LWGMS Turns Ten and Celebrates in Style!

2009-01-31T13:08:00.000-08:00

Lake Washington Girls Middle School celebrated its ten year anniversary with a great party! All current LWGMS students performed. Speakers included Lauren Luke, LWGMS's first alumna to graduate from college, Janet Brodsky one of the founding parents, and Sandi Cioffi, our keynote speaker.

Inauguration Day -- January 20, 2009

2009-01-21T14:28:00.000-08:00

LWGMS held a school-wide Inauguration viewing party. In preparation for this historic event, students researched the process of presidential inaugurations, assigned "colors" for a Red, White and Blue Potluck (see photos below), and read articles on the significance of this inauguration.

Red, White & Blue Potluck

2009-01-21T14:13:00.000-08:00

LWGMS students kicked off Inauguration Day in style, with a VERY colorful potluck!

LWGMS Students March for Peace and Justice

2009-01-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

On Friday, January 16, Lake Washington Girls Middle School joined Giddens School and other Central District schools in a March for Peace and Justice in honor of Martin Luther King Day. This march was organized by Giddens third and fourth graders - impressive!

The march was featured in the Seattle P-I. See photos from the march (#5, 8, 13, and 14 feature LWGMS) and photos below.

L-Dub student recognized at MLK Celebration

2009-01-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

LWGMS 8th grader, Jaida, won first place in the King County Civil Rights Commission’s MLK essay contest. Jaida was recognized at the 22nd Annual King County Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration on Thursday, January 15, at the Paramount Theater.

Jaida with the LWGMS 8th grade class, teacher Jenny Zavatsky, teacher Lindsey Mutschler, Head of School Patti Hearn, members of Jaida's family and Councilmember Larry Gossett.

This was the third time that LWGMS students took top honors in this contest. To see the four past winners from LWGMS, visit the 2008 celebration page and the 2006 celebration page.

To learn more, to read the winning essays, or to see photos from the 2009 event, visit the King County website. The event will be broadcast on King County Television Channel 22 for those who were unable to attend. King County TV will broadcast the show on the following dates:

* January 16 at 7p.m.,
* January 17 at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. and
* January 18 at 9:30 p.m.

Arsenic and Old Lace a huge success!

2009-01-12T12:14:00.000-08:00

On January 8 and 9, LWGMS sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students performed Arsenic and Old Lace in the LWGMS Auditorium. The show was a fantastic success due to the hard work of the cast, the crew (including 8th grade stage manager Thea) and the directors, Nora Utevsky and Rebecca Mostow.

Alumnae Family Dinner and Festival of Lights

2008-12-12T16:27:00.000-08:00

LWGMS hosted the second annual Alumnae Family Dinner on December 11, followed by the 11th annual Poetry Night, called the Festival of Lights. Both were huge successes!

Jena and Tessa - Class of 2008

Pliny, Ella, Jena, Shannon, and Safiya - Class of 2008

Anna, Fiona, and Hannah - Class of 2007

Founding Board Member, Donna Mackenzie

Sixth graders visit water treatment plant

2008-11-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, November 6, the sixth grade class visited a local water treatment plant as part of their study of Puget Sound.

LWGMS Girls Use Their Voices to Get Out the Vote

2008-11-04T13:28:00.000-08:00

LWGMS students rallied today on the corners of 12th and Union and 23rd and Cherry to encourage local community members to vote.
The energy in the air was palpable. Cheers, chants, beeping, waving, and calls of support came from passers by. KING5 news stopped by and interviewed a few students, and that news story aired today at noon.

See the clip from King5 news:

Hear and see the girls chant their support for democracy in action in this video clip:

More photos...
"Vote and make your voice heard," say the sisters in their adorable "vote" hats.

Vote like a girl!

Vote because I can't!

The King5 cameraman and reporter film students for the news.

An Explosive Chemistry Class

2008-10-21T18:39:00.000-07:00

On October 20, L-dub had its second guest teacher from the Science and Math Institute (SAMI) at BCC, part of our partnership with the college. The professor, Jenny, talked with the girls about what they knew about chemistry. Then, this:

(Click the "play" arrow above to watch the video.)

Fuerza Volleyball

2008-10-13T19:59:00.001-07:00

Pre-game warm ups & rules of the match are part of the team work!

Go for it!
L-Dub girls are all smiles!

6th Grade Goes to Eastern Washington !

2008-10-12T13:14:00.001-07:00

8th grade geology trip, fall 2008

2008-10-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Class of 2009 set up their camp at Wanapum State Park on Wednesday, October 1. They then visited the Gingko Petrified Forest before heading to Frenchmen's Coulee to see basalt columns and view the Columbia River. The next day, they headed to Dry Falls, Coulee City and then to Lake Lenore Caves State Park for a hike to the caves. They stopped at the Wild Horse statues on the way to Diatomite mine. On the last day, they met up with the sixth grade class, who were on their own three-day field trip, for lunch and some games.

More Ashland Photos 2008

2008-10-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

Arrival at Cox Hall

It's nearly Halloween!

Isn't she lovely...? Isn't she wonderful...?

A picnic break during the long drive

7th grade goes to Ashland!

2008-10-06T10:48:00.001-07:00

The Class of 2010 visited the Oregon Shakespeare Festival during the week of September 29. They saw five plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Comedy of Errors, The Clay Cart, A View from the Bridge, and Othello. They also took a backstage tour of all the OSF theaters and participated in several classes and prologues, including a stage combat workshop and a performance class. The girls stayed in dorms at Southern Oregon University and enjoyed campus life and the town of Ashland.

Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess visits LWGMS and lives to blog about it

2008-09-18T11:15:00.000-07:00

His 9.17.08 blog, City View, had this to say:

Hope: Morning, Noon and Night

I had a great day today!

The day started at Lake Washington Girls Middle School near 18th and East Cherry Street where I had a discussion with a class of 8th graders about public corruption, ethics in government, character, and American campaign tactics. Wow! Those girls were impressive. Their questions were focused and cut right to the heart of the issues. They invited me as an elected officials after reading Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men, a novel loosely based on Gov. Huey Long of Louisiana.

The girls were from across Seattle. Engaging with them was a measure of hope—they were bright, very aware of contemporary issues and problems, and well read. The last question of our hour together was right off the front page of the morning newspaper: "What do you think of the government taking over AIG?" I admitted I didn't know enough to answer.

Read the entire blog entry here:
http://timothyburgess.typepad.com/tim_burgess_city_view_/2008/09/hope-morning-no.html