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Gann Academy’s four robotics teams got ready to rumble for one final time this season at Needham’s annual Rocket Rumble tournament, which welcomed more than 40 Massachusetts teams. After spending months researching, designing, and constructing robots to take on serious engineering enigmas, Gann’s hard work paid off as their robotic designs became reality in the ring.
Two teams, the Hutzbots and the Aleph Bots, cracked into the tournament’s top ten, while Gann’s all female-identifying team, the Bot Mitzvahs, battled hard and achieve a spot well within the top twenty. For the second year in a row, the MaccaBots laid claim to the prestigious Design Award, recognizing creativity and ingenuity in robotic construction.
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Gann's four robotic teams, the Maccabots, Hutz Bots, Aleph Bots, and the Bot Mitzvahs, kicked their robots into full gear as they faced off against nine teams from the Greater Boston area in the annual Gann Academy scrimmage. The scrimmage presented teams with a challenge similar to what they will see in the coming months, helping the groups prepare for the forthcoming Battle of Lexington in January.
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You are invited to attend the Gann Academy Red Curtain Drama Club's presentation of Sense and Sensibility.
Thursday, November 21, 7pmSaturday, November 23, 7:30pmPerformed in the
Bernice Krupp Blackbox Theatre at Gann Academy. Tickets are available at https://gann.brownpapertickets.com/.
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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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Gann's Moot Beit Din team brought home first place in a competition on Jewish law hosted by the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, North Carolina. The team of four students, Kira Becker ’19, Shira Hoffer ’20, Ilana Jacobs ’19 and Jesse Sivan ’20, coached by Jewish Studies teacher Rabbi Elli Cohn, was tasked with formulating a halakhic answer to a legal case. After successfully presenting and defending their argument before a panel of rabbinic and legal professionals, the team was awarded first place for their halakhic proficiency and depth of knowledge.
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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, 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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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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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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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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Last Sunday, Gann's three robotics teams took to the stage and made a major impact at the Robotics State Qualifier match in Andover. While the final results are not yet in, Gann has already secured two spots at the State Championship in March, and one Gann team even took home the Think Award for excellence in the engineering design process.
"It's amazing to watch a robot go from idea, to design, to reality," said Nathan Lesser, captain of Gann’s RABBI robotics team. "When you take it to competition, it feels so good to know that barely four months ago your robot was only a dream."
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In December, a delegation from Gann joined more than 6,000 independent school students and educators at the 30th annual People of Color Conference and the Student Diversity Leadership Conference hosted in Anaheim, California. The conference, run by the National Association of Independent Schools, focused on improving the interracial, interethnic, and intercultural climate at schools across the country.
"The conference was an outstanding experience," said sophomore Naomi Ravel, "You meet people and learn everything about them—from their name to how they were raised. The most meaningful part of the whole trip was knowing you're loved by everyone around you even if you [just met them]." Ravel described the content: "We learned about awareness, social justice, and human rights, and how to stand up for ourselves." Senior Alyssa Block said learning about others backgrounds and life experiences was "powerful and moving".
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Gann Academy's electricity will soon be exclusively powered by renewable energy. Thanks to three recent Gann graduates and a school administrator who took their environmental concerns seriously, the school will soon be joining a very exclusive club: the 5% of U.S. schools powered by renewable energy.
Weather permitting, solar panels will be installed on the roof of the student activities center once the city issues Gann a permit. The panels will provide the school with 25% of its energy. The other 75% will be sourced from wind farms.
"We are really happy to leave our mark on our community in a way that has such a tangible impact," said Nate Orbach, who, along with classmates from Student Council and the Environment Club, drove the sustainable energy agenda last year. "What makes Gann unique is how it empowers students to follow their passions and enact real change," explained Nate.
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Think of the class of 2017 next time you take a drink or fill up at the school's new water fountain and bottle filling station.
"The filling station represents our grade's unique passion for the environment and activism: we saw things that could be improved, and we acted on them," said last year’s Student Council President Stav Bejerano, who is spending the year in India as part of a service-based gap year sponsored by Princeton University, which he will attend next fall. "By making bottle refilling simple, and a more visible priority, this class gift will encourage community members to switch from using disposable water bottles to reusable ones."
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Early on Sunday, December 17th, hundreds of high school students from around Massachusetts streamed into Gann Academy’s Student Activity Center for a full-day robotics qualifier. Twenty-three student teams competed to qualify for the State Championship in March.
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Women in STEM is one of Gann's most active school groups with more than a third of Gann's women participating each year. “Most people don’t yet know what they want to be in life," says junior Maya Rubin. "Women in STEM offers a chance for us to meet interesting female role models.”
Earlier this month, Dr. Natalie Pomerantz, a research chemical engineer at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) spoke to the group about her work and provided a hands-on demonstration involving fire, water and chemically-treated fabrics.
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This year, Gann has three robotics teams with more than 25 students. To prepare the teams for competition, Gann hosted a preseason scrimmage in November that mimicked the challenges the students will face in the coming months.
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For many, the highlight of the recent All School Retreat was Grit ‘N Wit, a campus-wide obstacle course that tested both brains and brawn. “It was awesome,” enthused senior Noah Savitz. “The team-building was amazing and it provided a great start to the year.”
Welcoming new students, bonding as a community and beginning the school year with a bang are a few of the hoped for outcomes of the annual two-day event. Dean of Students Cindy Jacobs said that although some students were initially disappointed the retreat was on-campus for the first time, most agreed with Savitz that it was a great success.
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Set your DVRs to WGBH TV on Friday, April 28 at 8:30 pm. when Gann’s a cappella group, ShenaniGanns, competes to win the station’s third annual Sing That Thing! competition. Gann is one of 18 choral groups — six high schools, six colleges and six adult groups—that advanced to round one of the contest, based on audition videos. It’s the second year in a row ShenaniGanns has received this honor.
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Alex Bulanov isn’t old enough to drive, but he has represented Sudan in high-level talks at the UN about state-sponsored terrorism and Internet recruitment.
The Model UN, that is.
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