FlexFriday

Students from both the Berkeley Heights and Bronxville campus met at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. In this exciting cross-campus event, students were able to explore the ship's fascinating exhibits. Students also participated in an educational workshop that focused on the Intrepid's role in the Vietnam War.

Students donned waders and set off into the water with collection nets at the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge, in a continuation of this special FlexFriday series that began with a workshop in January. Students worked as a team to gather and identify the species they found and categorize them into pollution-tolerant, pollution-sensitive, and pollution-intolerant groups. Then they assessed their findings to determine what parameters might be affecting biodiversity and macroinvertebrate life. 

Berkeley Heights students gathered to greet a variety of scaly and slithery guests during a campus visit by the NJ Snake Man. Students had the opportunity to view and learn about all types of snakes and other reptiles. The program featured a unique feeding session and a lesson on how snakes are best handled.

Educators from the Great Swamp visited the Berkeley Heights campus to bring students a hands-on water quality testing program. With a demonstration using their Enviroscape three-dimensional model of a community, and a topographic model of the Great Swamp Watershed, students learned about the “real” water cycle. The presentation included discussions of what a watershed is, where our drinking water comes from, where our waste water goes, point versus nonpoint source pollution, human impacts on local waterways, and best practices to reduce our impact on local waterways. This visit will be followed up by a field trip in the Spring!

Bronxville students dove into detective work in the lab at the Regeneron Lab on Friday. The day’s exciting activities included fingerprint collection, differentiation and analysis. Students learned how to lift and analyze fingerprints from surfaces, and analyze their own fingerprint minutiae.  Then they were tasked with using the skills they learned during the lab to solve a mystery!

In an exuberant display of creativity, showmanship and humor, 16 performers wowed their families, peers and teachers with music, comedic skits and visual art at the Berkeley Heights FlexSchool Talent Show last Friday.

FlexSchool students learned about climate change, disaster preparedness and off-the-grid agriculture aboard the Science Barge – floating sustainable urban farm docked in the Hudson River!

Meet Uno – a bald eagle who was rescued after being found, injured, emaciated and unable to hunt in Sitka, Alaska in 1989. FlexSchool students were treated to a “meet and greet” session with Uno, along with other awesome birds of prey, during a recent FlexFriday visit to the Raptor Trust.

FlexSchool students and staff donned chest waders and waded out into the Hudson River, dragging a 30-foot seine net to collect samples of various species of fish, crab, shrimp, jellyfish and more on a recent FlexFriday excursion to the Center for the Urban River (CURB) at Beczak.

At last week’s special multi-campus FlexFriday event, FlexSchool students crafted handmade messages of kindness and support, and attached the notes to warm blankets to be distributed to individuals experiencing homelessness. Then they were treated to a live Q&A with Mike and Nick Fiorito, founders of the charity Blankets of Hope. Students shared some of their own charitable endeavors and were able to get advice from the experts on how to take it to the next level.

November is Native American Heritage Month, and in honor of this cultural celebration, Bronxville students traveled by bus to our Berkeley Heights campus to share a special FlexFriday event.

As we prepare for a special multi-campus event with the Red Hawk Native American Arts Council later this month, our respective campuses have been busy exploring different parts of Native American history and culture.

At FlexSchool, we love hands-on, project-based learning! This week, FlexSchoolers were challenged to transform math class into their own bubble factory. They applied their math skills to every stage – from calculating their daily output, to comparing shipping rates to making and testing a real bubble solution. Who knew math class could be so much fun?

Students from both FlexSchool campuses rolled up their sleeves for a FlexFriday volunteer day at the Pleasantville Community Garden, which grows fresh, nutritious food for donation to local food pantries – an important component of a crucial food supply that might otherwise only include nonperishable and canned foods.

FlexSchool students on both sides of the Hudson River enjoyed a crisp, sunny winter’s day in the outdoors this past FlexFriday.

FlexSchool students got to meet video game producer Steve Patterson on a recent FlexFriday virtual visit. Steve told the story of how he broke into the business, and shared his best tips for building a successful career in this exciting field!

Ever since cardboard entrepreneur Zachary Rotholz of Chairigami introduced FlexSchool kids to the art, science and business of cardboard carpentry in a hands-on workshop, our students have been busy designing and executing their own original creations for our Cardboard Box Challenge. Last week, the students exhibited their work in our Virtual Fair -- and Zachary even returned for the event, to see everyone’s finished products!