Online Ceremony Marks Celebration for Eagle Rock School’s Newest Grads

As we continue to operate almost entirely online amid COVID-19, we again switched things up — this time for our 81st trimester graduates — with an online Celebration of Graduates.

Those graduating this trimester include Forrest Henninger, Ethan Gallagher, and Daniel Rios. Traditionally, graduation ceremonies take place in the Human Performance Center on our campus in Estes Park, Colo. However, due to the health pandemic, our campus has remained closed to students and visitors since March, and all of our staff and students have remained engaged through remote work and learning.

The 81st trimester Celebration of Graduates was delivered online last week through Zoom, highlighted by a video containing faculty speeches, remembrances, pictures, shout outs, and advice to new and current Eagle Rock School students from the departing graduates themselves.

Although a live pomp and circumstance celebration was not an option again this trimester, Forrest, Ethan, and Daniel have the opportunity to “walk” the next time an in-person graduation can take place on campus.

Below are biographies of each graduate, including information about what they learned, what they achieved, and what their future plans entail: Continue reading…

Neuroscience Students Expound on Findings During Eagle Rock TED Talk

In the final trimester of 2019, a half dozen Eagle Rock School students participated in a unique class offering called “Neuroscience,” that put its full focus on functions of the human brain — that mysterious grey-hued organ that is crowded inside each of our skulls.

This 10-week class was taught by our science instructional specialist Sara Benge and Chelsea Ehret, our 2019/2020 Public Allies Teaching Fellow in Science & Math, with the purpose of exploring the anatomy, physiology, and habits of the human nervous system.

In addition to discovering how different parts of the brain and nervous system work together to allow us to perform day-to-day duties ranging from doing the dishes to, well, breathing, the class also focused on how the system affects our personal lives.

TED Talk Eagle Rock School
(Image © Sara Elise Benge)

Specifically, students enrolled in the class learned how the human nervous system responds to our personal surroundings and experiences. Students’ conducted experiments, collected data, and then analyzed that information in order to determine how the brain has an impact on our decision-making and health. Perhaps even more important, they learned how  Continue reading…