Tiny feet take on Field Day! The Lower School’s PreK 3 and PreK 4 classes recently visited Leggett Field for their first-ever Field Day, facilitated by Ms. Michelle Carstens-Potts P’37,’40, Health & Wellness Chair, who organized activities that she said, “centered on skills they’ve been learning throughout the year, such as hopping, running, and balance.” During the parachute activity, they learned cooperative skills, she added, and practiced using manipulatives during the bean bag toss, which included fun components like rubber chickens and squeaky pigs. Meanwhile, the Kindergarten classes participated in their own Field Day on Graham Field, where they did relays, navigated through an obstacle course, and engaged in teamwork. Cheers to our youngest Bulldogs for giving it their all!

As part of year-end festivities for D-E students moving up to the next division, 5th and 8th graders recently gathered with their class for cool treats and a picnic, respectively. The Class of 2033 enjoyed an outing on Graham Field, where the Scream Truck was waiting to fulfill their custom ice cream orders. In addition, the Class of 2030 walked to Solomon Field yesterday afternoon for a picnic lunch and to play ball and mingle for one of the final times with their entire grade. Here’s to summer on the horizon and to our students making big moves next year!

Full STEM ahead! Ten of our Middle School students recently represented D-E at the Bergen SciChallenge, standing out in a highly competitive field of more than 175 student presenters across the state. After placing an impressive first in Mathematics and Computer Science for his project on whether increasing the complexity of an AI model improves the diagnostic accuracy of malaria detection, Jacob L. ’30 is advancing to the next stage of the competition, which is to apply to the national Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. In addition, Adison K. ’31, Ethan Z. ’31, and Aadya J. ’31 placed second in Environmental Science for their project about which LED light color can most efficiently grow microgreens. To showcase students’ hard work, Ms. Larionoff, Innovation Coordinator, facilitated a mini STEM Symposium in the Makerspace on campus, where they could present their research to the greater D-E community. Jacob said he had conducted a similar science project in the summer about rainfall and was fascinated by the idea of researching a topic that would be “much more beneficial to society,” as malaria is a potentially deadly disease. Ken E. ’30 said he was interested in finding a solution to the wasteful overflow of milk that can occur when coffee shops make lattes, so he developed a prototype device that dispenses the correct amount of milk. He said, “This not only helps reduce a coffee shop’s carbon footprint, but also saves them money.” “It takes immense initiative and curiosity to propose an original project, critical thinking and perseverance to navigate the inevitable experimental roadblocks, and genuine risk-taking to engineer creative solutions to real-world problems,” remarked Ms. Larionoff. Congratulations to our middle schoolers who have exemplified innovation in action!