Tuesday, November 5, 2024
The Student Newspaper of Greenhills School
Volume 25, Issue I
Screens in forums become source of information Guiding minds around AI ASHU BHARATH ‘28 community. Lifestyles Staff “The eighth grade one [screen], I kind of like to have Every single student has asked a question like, “Wait, some fun with,” said Eighth Grade Team Leader Kate Vane. we have a special schedule today?” or “What time is lunch?” “Sometimes we like to troll the eighth graders. It started off as Then you’d go looking around your forum on those black poles us rick-rolling them, and then there are a few other times where for the scattered papers dangling off of them. You’d try to find the we dropped in some 90s pop hits. It started as announcements but specific paper with the information you needed, and realize when like it’s kind of like taking shape and moving in different direcyou couldn’t, that it was probably one of the crumpled papers tions. I had some advises, wanted a funny picture of them, put up that fell on the floor. After that you’d give up and resign to being there, so I made a ‘Vane Advisory Shenanigans’ sign one day. It’s clueless for the rest of the day. just a nice space to have things.” Turning on at 8:00 a.m. and off at 3:30 p.m., the TVs These TVs allow students to have a central area to look in the forums are now being used for announcements and other to for information. information. This allows students “I feel like it’s nice, to have a convenient and central the eighth graders now almost area for any general information rely on the TV a little bit,” said they need, and for teachers to have Vane. “They’re coming to us a space to put announcements that more with suggestions. They they need to be shared. like the things they feel they “When people wanted to have a voice in adding, like the make announcements or publicize sports scores and the advisory something, they would make a flishenanigans.” er and then post it in the forum,” Students find this said the Upper School Dean Janelle new system helpful and conveSterling. “We decided to use the nient as well. screens for that instead.” “I like it, I find it In the past the screens hahelpful, [because] you can see ven’t been used very much, only when different clubs and acturning on, if needed, for grade tivities meet and the schedule, meetings or certain classes. This among other things,” said Monyear, with the help of the technoloica Kovacs ‘28. gy team, the screens have been set There are many up to be used more frequently, and benefits to using the screens in Photo by Ashu Bharath ‘28 all the forums have them. There’s the forums for this purpose, ala program called Yodek which the ENTERING A DIGITAL ERA Eighth Grade Team Leader Kate Vane though there could be a bit of works on getting her slide deck ready to upload on the screens for the TVs have had for a while. room for improvement. There next day, she said, “If students weren’t listening [during grade meet“Last year, the tech team ing] or they didn’t catch all the information, they can look up on the is the occasional technical difcame to me and said, ‘Hey, these screen. They’re hearing it and seeing it, which is never a bad thing.” ficulty, and it’s hard to keep the screens actually we could be putschedules updated for each day, ting to use,’” said Sterling. “And I said, ‘Well, teach me, and I’m making it easy to fall behind. happy to learn how.’ It was really their idea that I think has been “Learning the technology was a little tricky for me and working.” still sometimes so there’s been some tech issues,” said Sterling. So far, there have been many merits of using the screens “Just having the daily schedule up, I’ll fall behind a little bit, and this year. Sterling speaks about the advantages of this new sysyou guys [students] will come in and see yesterday’s schedule or tem. something which could be a little bit confusing.” “I think the forums are cleaner,” said Sterling. “I think a Sterling is certain that this will be continued in the fulot of the paper that was up would fall down and then just kind of ture. make a mess in the forums and our facilities team would have to “What I really like about it is that it gives everybody a come through and clean things up every day, and then kids would central place to look,” said Sterling. “I think more people can see just print and print and print more stuff to get it back up.” the information this way, even as they’re just walking back and Now, the screens are even starting to build on a sense of forth to like lunches or different classes.”
Digging into learning
Alumni family donates mineral collection to school
MEGAN PENG ‘25 Design Editor With both their sons, Hunter ‘01 and Graham ‘04, Susan and Max Patton decided to donate their collection of minerals to the school to share their accumulation of unique specimens in hope of inspiring students to take interest in the subject as well. Throughout the years, they’ve collected numerous amounts of minerals that range greatly from geographical locations, age, and appearance. “It’s a large, museum-grade mineral specimen that’s being donated to the school,” said Science Teacher Cathy Renaud. “I think we’ll have some middle-school clubs and upper-school electives centered around the minerals because we don’t have a geology class in the upper-school, so we might offer something club-level or one-semester long geology classes.” Since Susan Patton was a child, she’d had a great interest in minerals, and that interest was further fueled by her growing desire to learn more about them. “When I was four or five years old, I was hiking with my dad and mom in New Hampshire, and I saw a sparkly rock,” said Susan Patton. “It was a big twelve or fifteen pound piece of Mica, and it just mesmerized me. In Michigan, we have copper, Agate, and Petoskey stones, and a lot of fossils, so it was a really satisfying place to be curious about things like rocks. And then, I got a couple specimen kids when I was a kid where they give you samples of many different
kinds, maybe about 20, of minerals where you order them and they’ll come with books, which was a pretty common thing back in the day. The fancier rocks, which are the ones the school is getting, are pretty exotic, interesting, and from far-away places.” The minerals that will be displayed differ greatly in terms of location, with minerals from the South Pacific and leading all the way to the North Pacific. “We have rocks and minerals from every continent and they each have their own geographic idiosyncrasies, like how they form, such as minerals from the South Pacific, the West Coast, the Hawaiian Pacific Islands, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam—all volcanic. So we’ve got different compounds, shapes, colors—it’s just all very sparkly,” Patton said. As a Michigander, Patton’s favorite mineral is copper due to how commonly it’s found in the state. “I’m really fond of copper because it’s very commonly found here,” exclaimed Patton. It’s definitely necessary in energy with its ties to electricity. We’ve also got three pieces of bismuth, and bismuth is so interesting because of the way it transforms itself. You can change its chemical shape from this blob-like tahoe into a crystalline structure.” Some of the Patton family’s fossils and minerals have already been donated to museums such as the Museum of Natural History located here, in Ann Arbor. The donation to Greenhills was inspired by Cranbrook School’s mineral collection, which is used to teach the earth, science, chemistry, physics, and history programs. “We’re trying to steward our resources as they get older, and make sure that the nice things we have go to a place where they will be used and appreciated,” said Patton. “Both of our kids went here, and we just love his school and hope that Greenhills kids will enjoy it.” The donation may not only foster students’ interests in geology, but also help
teachers in creating a more interactive learning experience. “When we found out that there would be a mineral and rock donation, we were really excited because one of things we look forward to as teachers is making sure that we can connect these abstract chemistry concepts to real-life,” said chemistry teacher Reeti Katoch-Rouse. “Having something that’s so tangible is going to really help in this [chemistry] classroom because, when we think about rocks, we think about what it’s invoking— the color, shape—and we can consider the different atoms within it. Take a diamond, for example, and we can think about how it’s made of carbon, which is arranged in a very specific way. By seeing something that’s very crystalline, the students will be able to connect the two [concepts] very well.” The mineral collection is expected to be displayed next to the chemistry classroom, where both teachers and students can have easy learning access. There will be three collections—one will be displayed in a locked display case, and the others are teaching or student collections. The Pattons will donate a microscope that displays images for rocks and minerals on a large TV screen that allows students to observe the minerals in closer detail. “I think it’s a great honor to be able to take something that people valued and make sure it gets a good home,” said Renaud.
Graphics by Megan Peng ‘25
MIRA JAYARAMAN ‘26 School Editor In the past few years, one specific innovation has sparked both excitement and concern in classrooms: artificial intelligence (AI). As AI tools like ChatGPT become increasingly accessible, educators grapple with guiding their proper use in schools. In response to these developments, the school has created a new set of AI guidelines as a thoughtful approach to using AI as a helpful tool while maintaining the integrity of academic work. Director of Teaching and Learning Jenna Goldenberg was especially interested in the rapid development of AI. “AI is new,” said Goldenberg. “Every school and industry across the country are gaining new knowledge of it and how it’s evolving.” Goldenberg had seen that students have been using AI more now than ever before and realized that the school needed to adapt to that. “Last year, if you look in the handbook, there’s a very general, broad policy about AI,” said Goldenberg. “Students were interpreting different messages about AI across classrooms, even in the same classroom.” Goldenberg took it into her own hands to take the most efficient approach to making these new guidelines. “We created an AI Task Force consisting of one person from each department,” said Goldenberg. “We underwent training through an organization called Atlas, where we got to learn from other teachers and students throughout the nation.” Goldenberg and the task force ensured that the new guidelines were clear by featuring a chart outlining how students should approach using AI. One of the most pressing concerns surrounding AI is academic integrity. AI tools, particularly language models like ChatGPT, can easily produce polished essays and research papers, raising fears about plagiarism and the erosion of critical thinking skills. English teacher Danielle Conti, another member of the task force, exGraphics courtesy of Greenhills pressed her concern about students relying on AI to do their work for them. “AI can be a wonderful tool, but it can also rob students of the opportunity to struggle through their own ideas and learn how to articulate them,” said Conti. “Writing is about finding your voice, and AI doesn’t have your voice. For this reason, Conti has adopted a cautious approach to AI in her classes, particularly in assignments where originality is key. “When students are writing personal essays, I want that to come from their brilliant brains, not ChatGPT,” said Conti. “I don’t want my students outsourcing their thoughts to a machine.” At the same time, Conti recognizes the potential of AI to enhance student learning. “It’s about using AI as a tool, not a crutch,” said Conti. “We’re going to explore how AI can help students improve their writing by offering suggestions, but it should never take over the process.” To ensure students use AI responsibly, the school has recognized the best AI tool for classrooms to be Magic School AI, an educational platform that offers more guardrails than ChatGPT. “What’s nice about it [Magic School AI] is that our younger students can use it safely,” said Goldenberg. Maeve Hammond ‘27 has dealt with her peers using AI and appreciates the new guidelines as well.” “I don’t use AI personally, but a lot of my classmates do,” said Hammond. “Before there were guidelines, it was really confusing because some teachers were totally okay with AI, and others weren’t.” As the school year progresses, both students and faculty expect the AI guidelines to evolve in response to new developments in the technology. This isn’t the end of the conversation—it’s just the beginning.