List of 20 news stories.

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  Exploration Week 2019

  At Gann, we are passionate about helping students explore learning that may not be possible in the four walls of a classroom. And so we craft hands-on learning opportunities each year in which Gann students cultivate awareness, curiosity, and respect for the world around them.
  
  Enter Exploration Week, a weeklong adventure which took place last week that lets students immerse themselves in a new place and topic.
  
  
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  Calligraffiti: The Art of Language

  Language learning at Gann is as much about immersing yourself in cultural experiences as it is about mastering vocabulary and grammar. Recently, Gann's Arabic students enjoyed a uniquely immersive experience.
  
  Last week, Gann welcomed the esteemed Islamic calligrapher Hajj Wafaa to campus as part of an ongoing Arabic III unit on the use of calligraphy as an expression of identity. Throughout the unit, students have been researching the history, purpose, and forms of Arabic calligraphy.
  
  
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  Gann Academy Women Excel in STEM

  Gann women compete on the math team and are members of the Women in STEM club. They take upper-level science, engineering, and math courses. Gann women just plain love any activity that kicks their left brain into gear. 
  
  "Gann was a very supportive place for me," says Gann Academy alum Zoe Weiss '17, who now studies computer science at Brown University and has dreams of working for Pixar. "My teachers in all my STEM courses were very encouraging." While at Gann, Weiss was named a winner of the National Center for Women & Information Technology Award for Aspirations in Computing, through its Massachusetts affiliate. The award recognizes high school women for their computing-related achievements.
  
  
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  Shalom from Israel

  Gann's myIsrael 2019 trip is in full swing! Our tenth graders are in week three of six in their journey exploring the land of Israel through an exciting mix of experiential learning, camping, sports, art, high-tech, community service and more.
  
  
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  Politics and the State of the Students

  An Op-Ed by Leora Soibelman '21 published in the Shevuon Hatichon student newspaper.
  
  The word "politics" produces an eye-roll every time I say it. 
   
  That reaction reveals a larger problem in our society: people are wary of government. An institution that is meant to help us and represent our beliefs has become the thing that Americans want to talk least about. And that attitude adds to the cycle that got it there: if people don’t believe in government, it stops working.
  
  One step at a time, I’m trying to change that.
  
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  March Madness: Mock Trial Advances to Final Four

  It was a Friday morning and the whole school was gathered for Hakhel, Gann's weekly student-run assembly. Talya Lerner '19 had just been called for an announcement. "After going undefeated in our division," Talya starts, then pauses for dramatic effect, "we made it all the way to the final four!" The whole student body let out a cheer.
  
  
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  The Battle of Lexington

  The Battle of Lexington, a historic moment in New England history, was fought this month by students at Gann. But, instead of soldiers on a field, the battle consisted of specially-crafted robots completing complex missions. And, just as in battles past, Gann Robotics walked away with many accolades.
  
  
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  Constitutional Scholar Visits Gann's Supreme Court Class

  Constitutional scholar and law professor at Fordham Law School Jed Shugerman visited Gann Academy's Supreme Court class this week to discuss Marbury v Madison, the 1803 Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in the United States.
  
  "The Supreme Court class at Gann is unique in that we don't just read and analyze influential court cases, but we debate and re-try them," said Yoni Kadden, teacher and Gann History Department Chair. "This course is taught in the same style as one you'd find in law school. And, having such an influential constitutional lawyer like Jed Shugerman join the class adds an extra level to the debates." 
  
  
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  Gann Class Project Featured Nationally on NPR's Here & Now

  Gann Academy's "History of Disability in America" and "Graphic Design" classes combined history, art, and activism to create a nationally-lauded museum exhibit entitled "Division, Unity, Hardship, and Progress: A Disability History of the United States" that was recently featured on NPR's Here & Now.
  
  
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  Women in STEM Explore the Simulator Program at Boston Children’s Hospital

  Throughout the school year, Gann’s Women in STEM club brings in influential women to discuss careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). From hands-on demonstrations of cutting-edge military fabrics led by a female engineer to lessons on coding, this female-identifying group is both practical and engaging—and it's one of Gann’s most popular clubs. 
  
  
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  Six Weeks in Israel

  Week one of the sophomores' myIsrael excursion is complete, and oh what a week it was!
  
  

  "Being in Israel with my grade has been one of the most challenging but also one of the most rewarding things I’ve done in as long as I can remember," said Shira Hoffer.
  
  
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  Using Theater As A Platform For Activism

  After the Parkland shooting in 2018, Gann students staged protests and lobbied their legislators. Gann's Red Curtain Drama Club took to the theatre, acting in and directing a performance of “Natural Shocks” that was featured on WBUR’s The ARTery.
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  CEO of PresenTense Israel Leads Discussion on Social Change Through Entrepreneurship

  For a decade, PresenTense Israel has promoted entrepreneurship as a vehicle for social change and has played a pioneering role in the StartUp Nation. In Israel, they launched the first social venture accelerator, the first accelerator for Arab tech entrepreneurs, and the first accelerator for Haredi women. To date, they have 40 accelerator programs, have launched 450 ventures, and helped create more than 2,000 jobs.
  
  PresenTense CEO Rachel Shaul, along with three alumni of the accelerator programs, visited Gann Academy for a panel discussion on entrepreneurship, coexistence, Israeli innovation, and helping underserved communities within Israel. The visit was part of the PresenTense Boston and New York Road Show being sponsored by the Israeli consulate.
  
  
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  Cleaning Water and the Flint Fiasco

  Cleanliness and schoolwork don't always go together, but in the 10^th grade chemistry lab, students worked to clean 500 milliliters of filthy water. Students syringed out the oil floating on top. Then they filtered the liquid with sand and charcoal, and used a process called flocculation which caused the suspended pollutant particles to clump together and sink to the bottom.
  
  "The lab showed me how much time and effort goes into making water clean," said sophomore Halle Sisenwine. "I am lucky to live in a place where I can take for granted that my water is safe to drink."
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  Righting a Wrong: Waltham’s Forgotten Cemetery

  Hodaya Propp, class of 2017, was recently featured on the front page of the Waltham News Tribune for a project she started at Gann. For her senior capstone, Hodaya used her community organizing skills to work with the local government and national stakeholders to right a wrong committed years ago in Waltham.
  
  
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  Robots Make Physics Come Alive

  Ninth-grade students are gaining an out-of-this-world experience in Steven Cavendar-Wood’s Physics class. Meet Sphero, a ball-like robot bringing to life concepts like motion, force and velocity that students will use to explore a faux extraterrestrial terrain.
   
  The 14 Spheros — think Star Wars’ BB-8, but smaller — are the centerpiece of Cavendar-Wood’s mechanics unit. “We wanted to ramp up the physics curriculum and make it more engaging and accessible to all sorts of learners,” says Cavendar-Wood.  “The students are excited about the robots, and, by extension, they’re getting excited about physics—delving in at a whole new level.”
  
  
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  Students visit Alabama lynching site to offer Jewish prayers at memorial

  
  For years, students from a Jewish high school in Massachusetts have been making annual pilgrimages to Alabama to learn about the civil rights movement.
  
  A group of 25 high school students from Gann Academy of Waltham, Mass., is in Birmingham today. They are touring the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and Kelly Ingram Park.  
  
  
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  Seniors Take Charge of Own Learning During Ma’avar

  One senior is building a “happiness app” that leverages the most current psychological research. Another is teaching at a school in Tel Aviv. A couple of boys are driving through the U.S. heartland, interviewing people about the state of the country, then creating a podcast from their research. Students are interning at hospitals, a Tufts medical lab, a state senator’s office, and in the photography department of a local newspaper.
  
  
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  Students Explore Selves and World During Explo Week

  Come the end of May, the halls of Gann are quiet.
   
  Where have the students gone? They are volunteering in a Head Start program, planting vegetables on an organic farm, visiting the Alabama landmarks of the Civil Rights movement and building homes with Habitat for Humanity in North Carolina. And that’s just a sampling of the rich experiences offered during Exploration Week, better known as Explo Week.
  
  
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  Researchers and Soul Searchers

  Head of School, Rabbi Marc Baker
  Around the corner from Gann (or just through the woods, if you take a short-cut) is the site of The Fernald School. Before it was closed just a few years ago, Fernald was a center for adults with developmental disabilities. However, earlier in its history, Fernald was called a “School for the Feebleminded,” and its namesake, Walter E. Fernald, was an advocate of eugenics. Recently, the City of Waltham acquired the property and is in the process of determining what to do with it. This past summer members of our faculty were introduced to the archivist who has been charged by Waltham to consider how best to preserve the memory of the place and its history. This is where the project begins.
  
  
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