The photo, video, and document collections below depict student work in a wide variety of NBL program applications.
Curricular plans and program outlines for this work can be found in the Curriculum link.
Middle School – DoRight Leadership Corps
Middle school student consultants performing audits, news interviews, political activism for climate change, and an mathematical exploration of how long society can expect to depend on oil as an energy source.
Sample Student Sustainability Audit Report
This is an example of a sustainability audit report delivered to the Thunder Ridge Ski Resort. The students make recommendations for how the facility could save nearly $500 per month by modifying their lighting systems.
Thunder Ridge Audit
Client Log
This log was maintained by middle school students to track their contact with clients in the community.
DoRight Client Log
On site sustainability efficiency audit of local restaurant, class instruction, newspaper interviews, civic action, and superintendent interview.
Student Speaking Engagements – National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington DC
This clip is of Madeleine Skaller speaking at the National Council For Science and Environment Climate Conference in Washington D.C. She talks of her experience in DoRight Leadership Corps and how the experience impacted her.
This clip is James Smith at the same conference delivering some insightful analogies and stories on the sentiment of his generation regarding the adult world management of the planetary resources and more…
Post DoRight work by student Eric Ficinus:
Eric became certified in sustainable housing design of “Earthships” and self-published an instructional booklet with an earthship model, the entire package designed for education in classrooms. This is a promo video featuring Eric talking about his Earthship Model Kit.
Student Made Promotional Videos
Interview with DoRight Clients from Bob’s Diner and Tom Tom’s Bagels in Brewster, New York
Mini Documentary Clip of DoRight audit of the Queens Botanical Gardens Administration Building.
DoRight Promo Movie, a compilation of student clips of classroom work with commentary from Scott Beall.
Grade 8 student Zach Handler conducts an interview with Brewster Schools superintendent Jane Sandbank on the value and educational philosophy of the DoRight Leadership Corps program.
Autonomous Learner Overnight Nature Retreat
Journaling, music, philosophy and meditation groups, challenge course, and more. Held annually for 6 years at Henry H. Wells Middle School, Brewster, New York.
The following videos are student made collages of their experience on two different Autonomous Learner retreats.
Grades 4-5: Sustainable Garden Program
In this application of DoRight intermediate school students studied biological sciences, sustainability principles, compared industrial food systems to natural systems and planted and maintained a seed to table organic garden.
Grades 4-5: Earth Action Team (EAT) – Sustainability curricular program
Schoolwide sustainability education program emphasizing community and civic action to effect change for sustainability problems.
Music and Mathematics – Functional Melodies
This gallery contains a sample of student work from grades H.H. Wells Middle School and photographs of the students working at Zhania Aubakirova’s College (K-12 independent school) in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
You can find more information on the music and math work in the Curriculum and Resources page as well as in case studies.
In summary, these projects engage students in creating original music from the form and structure of visual images using a polar coordinate interface, and treating a desired motif as a mathematical function. The original motif/function is modified using various math operations to create alternate functions, which serve as melodic variations for a musical composition.
Student work sample:
Music and Math – Functional Melodies SW
Fractal Geometry: The Koch Snowflake
Grade 5
A PDF sample of student work with a photo featuring a school gallery of the class projects.
Student work sample:
Fractal – Koch – SW
Physics and inventions – Middle School
This project highlights high level collaboration, the “engineer’s problem solving cycle,” conceptual understanding of Newton’s laws, laws of thermodynamics, torque, simple machines, creativity, and most of all, ownership of the belief that “physics is fun!”
The drama and joy–grade 6 students nearly create perfection in this clip. The machine actually worked in a following take that was not filmed…
Mathematics in the Development of Sustainable Energy Technology – Grades 8-9
Thermal Solar Power Engineering
Students develop the mathematics to design a parabolic solar collector. This technology is a rapidly advancing means to generate electricity through concentrating solar heat at the focus of a parabola to heat oil, and in turn generate steam for a generator. In these
The photograph above is from grade 8 STEM class at H.H. Wells Middle school. The projects below were done by 9th grade students at Homestead High School in Cupertino CA. in an integrated physics/geometry course.
The task was to develop, through experimentation, an ideal focal length to maximize efficiency in a parabolic solar collector. The kite project is included as another example of work in this integrated course, but is not directly related to the solar projects.
Establishing the need for alternative energy – The End of Oil calculation – Grade 8
This problem is framed for students as a critical thinking application to cut through propaganda regarding fossil fuel reserves, information that incentivises the development and implementation of renewable energy technologies.
Oil Consumption and Reserves Problem
Student Philosophy statements
Students traditionally write a reflective “philosophy statement” at the end of a series of IVL courses. Several examples are presented here.