Helen Higgins, Author at Eagle Rock Blog

The Joy of Math Club

Eagle Rock School’s Math Club started out with a small group of students hanging around after class to play some games — specifically, the students and I spent the hour before dinner playing code-breaking and multiplication games, and it soon became apparent that Set was evolving as the game of choice.

The game of Set pushes its competitors to discover patterns in sets of three cards at a time, and it quickly became an addictive pastime for my Math students. They began playing in the Lodge at mealtimes, then found themselves playing a few hands during class breaks. This soon spread to the evening hours with participants “practicing” in their houses.

Turns out that, for the most part, these card-carrying Set players were also heavily involved in recruiting for the school’s Math Club.

Faith Kroma, who graduates this trimester, is the founder of Math Club. It was Faith who persuaded anyone and everyone she ran across that they should show up after class for Math Club, and what students soon discovered was a Continue reading…

Physics Students Journey to CU Boulder for Lasers, Lenses and Learning

As a physics student and mountain biking enthusiast in college, I never imagined I would have the opportunity to combine these two activities. Eagle Rock’s support of interdisciplinary courses has allowed me to do just that by teaching physics through the lens of mountain biking.

The Physics of Motion class here at Eagle Rock School focuses on scientific investigation and experimentation both in the classroom and out on bikes. From Newton’s Laws to gear ratios and rotational speed calculations, we’ve dug deep into the exploration of mechanical physics.

When my co-instructor, Ally Bolger (Eagle Rock’s 2015/2016 Public Allies Teaching Fellow In Science), and I first read over the class enrollment list, we were surprised to find all of our students were female. To celebrate the rarity of an all-female physics class, we looked into support groups for diversity in science and came across the Women In Physics collective at The University of Colorado, Boulder.

As a teacher, attempting to arrange field trips can often mean sending email after email with no success or even response. In this situation, my introductory email to Women In Physics was met with Continue reading…