Moving on

Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

–Tennyson (1842): Break, Break, Break via the Poetry Foundation.

I feel as if I’ve been posting more poetry than normal. I know I’ve been reading a lot more. It’s a habit I fall back into at major transitions. I’m leaving Lamplighter Montessori in Memphis and instead of doing everything in the Middle School, I will be taking a more Math and Science oriented position at the Fulton School at St. Albans near St. Louis. I’ve really enjoyed being the Middle School teacher at Lamplighter, so it is hard to leave, but the hardest part of moving on is that, in my multi-age, single-teacher classroom, there are seventh graders who I won’t be able to take through the full cycle.

It’s particularly hard because I’m leaving behind an exceptional group of students that any teacher would love to have in their classroom. They’re kids who love to learn, are serious about their work, and are well-balanced, “normalized” Montessori students; the epitome of constructivist education. For this reason, I know they’ll do well, which is some consolation (I also have a lot of confidence in their new teacher), but I will miss not being able to work with them.

Saying goodbye to the graduating students was also more difficult than I expected. There’s always some sadness in seeing them move on, but it is part of the normal progression of things, so it is a sweet sorrow. Now, however, my moving to another city introduces another element to a naturally traumatic change, especially for the kid who have had a harder time making the transition. Part of the safe anchor back to middle school, which some students need during that first year of high school, has become untethered.

At least, with the blog and email it is harder to loose all contact, but electronic communications cannot always satisfy the need to know that there is something, somewhere, safe behind you, somewhere that will provide a little unconditional positive regard we all need sometimes. Admittedly, this is often an illusion, institutions evolve, but I think it is a useful fiction we all need sometimes.

There is a lot to commend my new position, which I will undoubtedly be writing a lot about over the summer as I prepare classes, but after talking to my students individually today, I feel like I need to take a moment to reflect on what has been a few, wonderful years. Hence my need to resort to poetry.

Coastal Science Camp at the Gulf Coast Research Lab

Dip netting in a small estuary.

As you may have guessed from the previous posts about waterspouts and the dolphin, we’ve been on the Gulf coast for the last few days. Specifically, we were visiting the Gulf Coast Research Lab‘s Marine Education Center for two days for our end-of-year trip.

It was excellent. The weather was perfect; sunny with lots of cumuliform clouds for shade but little rain. However, the what really made the trip work was that we had a good, interesting, and varied program, directed by an excellent instructor, Stephanie T..

Stephanie T. pointing out the finer points of piscine morphology.

For reference (to link all posts about the Coastal Science Camp):


View Coastal Sciences Camp, Gulf Coast Research Lab in a larger map

Dolphin

Dolphin in the boat's wake.

We weren’t looking for them at the time, and later when we were looking for them we didn’t find them, but on our trip back to the GCRL-MEC a dolphin decided it wanted to play in our boat’s wake.

It would jump through the face of the bow wave. Usually horizontally, but vertically once or twice.

Playing.

Dolphins usually travel in pods of up to a dozen or so individuals. This one, however, was alone. We’d seen it earlier, while we were walking on the beach and picking up trash. The dolphin may have been playing or eating, but it was certainly scaring the small fish. A couple birds took advantage of this to make their own catches, with near vertical dives into the gently rolling waters of the sound.

It was wonderful to observe.

Bird caught in the middle of a dive, just before it splashed into the water.

Waterspouts

Two waterspouts seen over Ocean Springs.

As we waded through the Mississippi Sound, doing the Sting Ray Shuffle, sampling for benthic fauna, we came across these two waterspouts. Our guide, Stephanie, from the Gulf Coast Research Lab’s Marine Education Center, said they’re not that common.

Subtly sinuous.

They’re quite elegant.

In the distance.

Fortunately, they were very far away.

Fascinating.

Call of Duty Poem

I encourage my students to write what they know.

Bullets flying past my face,
After the enemy like a chase.
Grenades landing right beside me,
I’ve now deployed my RC-XD.
Staying camouflaged on my hands and knees,
LOOKOUT, SNIPERS IN THE TREES!

A silenced weapon keeps me stealthy,
Kill the enemy, with my Valkyrie.
Dolphin dive onto the ground,
My magazine is almost out of rounds.
I get shot with a pistol,
In the back of the head.
My teammate tries to revive me,
But it’s too late, I’m already dead.

— Harrison Hill

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

The BBC has an excellent article on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) launched on the second to last shuttle flight to investigate the origins of the universe. NASA’s page is giving regular updates.

What’s nice is that the basic physics of magnetic spectrometers, where magnets are used to deflect the motion of charged particles, should be accessible to middle school students once they get into electricity and magnetism.

How the AMS works. Image from CERN via the BBC.

Transition Radiation Detector determines highest-energy particle velocities
Silicon Trackers follow particle paths; how they bend reveals their charge
Permanent Magnet is core component of AMS and makes particles curve
Time-of-flight Counters determine lowest-energy particle velocities
Star Trackers scan star fields to establish AMS’s orientation in space
Cerenkov Detector makes accurate velocity measurements of fast particles
Electromagnetic Calorimeter measures energy of impacting particles
Anti-coincidence Counter filters signal from unwanted side particles

— Amos (2011): Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to go on Endeavour shuttle on the BBC.

For additional information, that really gets into the nuts and bolts, you can go CERN’s technical site or get more general info at their public site, which has a wonderful set of videos and animations.