education

SFL’s Young Gloucester Scientist’s Club to host “The Whalemobile” at Gloucester City Hall on Friday, March 31st

~ Sawyer Free Library

It will be a whale of a time at Gloucester City Hall on Friday afternoon, March 31st, when the Sawyer Free Library hosts Whale Watch Naturalist Cindy McInnis and her life-sized inflatable whale from 3:30–5:30 pm, in Kyrouz Auditorium, as part of its Young Gloucester Scientist’s Club. 

Young Scientists will have the opportunity to step inside Nile, the 43-foot long and 30-foot wide inflatable humpback, and learn how whales are similar and different from humans in this interactive program. They will learn about Nile’s migratory path, how many calves she’s had, and how researchers came to this information. Artifacts such as baleen, teeth, and bones will be available for children to see and feel as a part of this interactive program.

The Whalemobile program is suitable for 2nd-8th graders, ages 7 and up. It is free and open to all to attend, although registration is required for each young scientist planning on stepping into the whale. Please register on the calendar page of the SFL website. People can sign up in half-hour intervals starting at 3:30 pm and ending at 5:30 pm on the calendar page of SawyerFreeLibrary.org.  The event will take place in Kyrouz Auditorium on the second floor of Gloucester City Hall located at 9 Dale Avenue.

The Young Gloucester Scientists Club is a monthly club for 4th through 8th graders, which takes a hands-on approach to learning, building community connections, and encouraging local youth to actively think like scientists by observing, questioning, and experimenting with the world around them. 

In addition to monthly field trips in the community, circulating Kits and library-produced Digital Content provide children with fun learning activities to do at home and in-person family programming that introduces them to Gloucester Community members with careers across a variety of STEM fields.

To learn more about the program or upcoming events, visit SawyerFreeLibrary.org.

Gloucester Education Foundation’s The Power of Play event is BACK! 3/26/23, 11am-2pm at The GHS Fieldhouse

~ gloucestereducationfoundation

When: Sunday, March 26, 2023 11am-2pm

Where: Gloucester High School Field House

32 Leslie O. Johnson Road, Gloucester

Who: Gloucester families, friends and children of all ages. 

Suggested donation $5/family at the door; no family will be turned away for lack of funds.

What: A day of hands-on, low-tech play for all ages, hosted by Gloucester Education Foundation and run by a powerhouse team of community and student volunteers!

The Power of Play centers around fun family activities, and is designed to be welcoming to a broad spectrum of ages, ability levels, and learning styles. This year’s event will also feature some special activities from regions around the world that are present in our Gloucester community.

It would take us all day to name all of the awesome activities at Power of Play, but here are a few: collaborative art projects, fort-building, oobleck-making, sand play, capoeira, an invisible ink scavenger hunt, games from around the world, an infant/toddler exploration zone, and LOTS more. 

The Power of Play is hosted by Gloucester Education Foundation and sponsored by Cape Ann Savings Bank, Sawyer Free Library, and Seashore Comfort Solutions.

Contact: Emily Siegel, emily@thinkthebest.org or 978-282-5550

Gloucester Education Foundation drives innovation, inspires creativity, expands student opportunities, and empowers educators to strengthen teaching and learning in the Gloucester Public Schools. Learn more at www.thinkthebest.org

SAT Strategy Session and Practice Test

~ Sawyer Free Library

SAT Strategy Session: Thursday, February 16 from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.

The Princeton Review will be presenting a Free, Virtual SAT Strategy Session open to all Gloucester community members on Thursday, February 16 from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. In this presentation, students are given some simple, basic strategies that will make sure scores improve on their next practice or official exam. 

To register click HERE.

SAT Practice Test: Saturday, February 18 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

The Princeton Review will presents a free, virtual SAT Practice Test on Saturday, February 18 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

Registrants will receive a link to an online classroom and further instructions upon registration to be able to take the test from the comfort of wherever you have internet! Be prepared with a calculator and scrap paper to work out the questions. A quiet space free of distraction is highly recommended.

Click HERE to get access to the test.

For those who need internet access or a laptop, visit the Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester to check out a WiFi Hotspot, Chromebook or the many other Digital Devices available to cardholders. Details available at sawyerfreelibrary.org

For questions about The Princeton Review Strategy Session and Practice Test, please contact Sawyer Free Library’s Community Librarian Meg O’Neill at moneill@sawyerfreelibrary.org.

Author Talk with Pulitzer Prize winning historian Nicole Eustace 

~ Sawyer Free Library

On Wednesday, December 14 from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m., the Sawyer Free Library is pleased to invite you to explore early-American history during an online afternoon conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning historian Nicole Eustace as she discusses her 2022 award winning book Covered With Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America. This is a virtual event, for link, register at sawyerfreelibrary.org.

On the eve of a major treaty conference between Iroquois leaders and European colonists in the distant summer of 1722, two white fur traders attacked an Indigenous hunter and left him for dead near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Though virtually forgotten today, this act of brutality set into motion a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations that challenged the definition of justice in early America.

In Covered with Night, Dr. Eustace reconstructs the crime and its aftermath, bringing us into the overlapping worlds of white colonists and Indigenous peoples in this formative period. As she shows, the murder of the Indigenous man set the entire mid-Atlantic on edge, with many believing war was imminent. Isolated killings often flared into colonial wars in North America, and colonists now anticipated a vengeful Indigenous uprising. Frantic efforts to resolve the case ignited a dramatic, far-reaching debate between Native American forms of justice—centered on community, forgiveness, and reparations—and an ideology of harsh reprisal, unique to the colonies and based on British law, which called for the killers’ swift execution. As Eustace powerfully contends, the colonial obsession with “civility” belied the reality that the Iroquois, far from being the barbarians of the white imagination, acted under a mantle of sophistication and humanity as they tried to make the land- and power-hungry colonials understand their ways. 

About the Author: Nicole Eustace is a professor of history at New York University. A historian of the early modern Atlantic and the early United States, she specializes in the history of emotion. She is author of Pulitzer-Prize winning Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America, as well as Passion Is the Gale: Emotion, Power, and the Coming of the American Revolution and of 1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism as well as coeditor of Warring for America: Cultural Contests in the Era of 1812.

This virtual event is Wednesday, December 14 from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. For the link, register at sawyerfreelibrary.org. If you have questions, please contact moneill@sawyerfreelibrary.org or 978-325-5562.

Calling All Young Inventors!

~ Hammond Castle Museum

Join us this Sunday for a fun, STEM program at Hammond Castle Museum, the home of one of the nation’s greatest inventors of his time!

Check-in will begin at 12:30 and the program will begin at 1pm.
*This program is geared to children in late elementary school and early middle school grades.

Inventing has changed a lot over the last century since our founder, John Hays Hammond Jr. began his illustrious career, but many of the fundamentals remain the same. Hammond Castle Museum is delighted to partner with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in presenting a new event: Inventors Day.

The event is inspired by one of Hammond’s inventions: “Seleno,” the world’s first robotic dog, which was controlled by a beam of light. During this two hour-long STEM program, competitors will group into teams with the goal to construct their own light-controlled robot. Each team will be given a robot kit to assemble as well as additional components and electronics to modify and improve upon the core design. The teams will then compete in a series of scored challenges using their robots. Each member of the winning team will receive an award and special recognition across Hammond Castle Museum’s social media platforms as well as its website. Winners also may enjoy all the bragging rights they could want as they may consider themselves a member of the Museum’s exclusive list of inventors.

Reservations & Chaperone tickets are $10 each and available at: www.hammondcastle.org.

Gloucester Education Foundation Summer Campaign

~ gloucestereducationfoundation

The GEF 2022 Summer Campaign is underway!

Our goal is to raise $60,000 this summer. With your support, GEF will catalyze new programs, sustain successful projects, and support students and teachers with creative ideas to make Gloucester Public Schools better and brighter!

Make a donation today!

Wondering what we’ve been up over the last school year?

Our FY22 Impact Report is out now!

Gloucester Students had a busy year! Check out highlights from live theater, elementary and middle school band, O’Maley Academy, GHS STEM and Vocational Programs… and so much more!

In case you missed it:

A Gloucester Public School and GEF-funded program was in the news!

On June 27, WGBH featured a story on climate change and how it is taught in Massachusetts public schools. Gloucester High’s AP Environmental Science class was prominently featured, including an interview with GHS teacher Amanda Pastel and students Cammi Cooper and Eliana Faria. GEF was proud to fund new labs for this class in 2022!

None of this would be possible without the generosity of our donors and their unwavering commitment to Gloucester students!

2022 Poetry Without Paper Award Ceremony Celebrating 20 years of Creativity

~ Sawyer Free Library

The Sawyer Free Library hosted the 2022 Poetry Without Paper Contest winners Thursday evening, June 9th.

Children’s Librarian Christy Rosso, PWP Winners Olivia Hogan Lopez, Kathleen Rowe Joyce, Jack Frishsen, Emma Wilt, Esme Sarrouf, Riley Cavanaugh, Aleena Brown and PWP Judge John Ronan

The award-winning students read their poetry to a standing-room-only crowd filled with friends and family and then recognized for their achievements. John Ronan, former Poet Laureate of Gloucester, and Christy Rosso, the Sawyer Free’s Children’s Librarian, presented the awards. Ronan, who serves as one of the contest judges and co-conceived the contest 20 years ago, stated, “I believe that there are probably future Nobel Poet Laureates among tonight’s winners. The caliber of creativity and writing this year was outstanding. We should be proud of all the students that participated.”

The Sawyer Free Library’s Poetry without Paper Contest has celebrated thousands of local students’ outstanding writing for the past 20 years while engaging the community’s youth in the art form and encouraging them to use poetry as a creative expression.  

Winners were chosen from each age group: high school, middle school, and elementary school. First-place winners in all categories received $150 Cape Ann gift certificates, second-place winners a $100 gift certificates, and third-place winners a $50 gift certificate with Honorable Mention awarded a poetry book. All winning poets receive a certificate and an invitation to appear on 1623 Studio’s production, The Writer’s Block with John Ronan.

The 2022 Winning Poets:

High School:      

First Place: “Tears of the Chrysanthemum” by Olivia Hogan-Lopez, GHS, 12th Grade

Middle School:    

First Place:   “Ascending like Icarus” by Emma Wilt, O’Maley, 8th Grade

Second Place:  “The Wrong Picture” by Esme Sarrouf, Homeschool, 8th Grad

Third Place:  “Cracked, but Never Broken” by Aleena Brown, O’Maley, 7th Grad

Honorable Mentions:  “The Owl” by Riley Cavanaugh, O’Maley, 7th Grade

“Where I’m From”, Emily Rattray, O’Maley, 7th Grade

Elementary School     

First Place:  “Magical Books”, Kathleen Rowe-Joyce, West Parish, 3rd Grade

Second Place: “Fifth Grade”, Gabriella McKearney, Plum Cove, 5th Grade

Third Place:  “Friends” by Elizabeth Olson, Beeman, 5th Grade

Honorable Mentions: “Lost” by Bianca Numerosi, Plum Cove, 4th Grade

“Gravity” by Jack Frithsen, West Parish, 2nd Grade

Gloucester Marine Railways with Viking Gustafson

~ Sawyer Free Library

On Thursday, June 9 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., learn more about Gloucester Marine Railways at the Sawyer Free Library.

Marine Railways Director Viking Gustafson will give a presentation on the marine railways in Gloucester in the Library’s Friends Room this Thursday evening.  She will then offer a tour of the railways on site in Rockport on Saturday, June 11, at 10:00 a.m.  

Both the presentation and the tour are free and open to the public. The Sawyer Free Library is located at 2 Dale Avenue. For more information visit, SawyerFreeLibrary.com or 978-325-5500.

Saunders House WPA Mural Restoration Presentation with Lisa Mehlin Saturday, 2/26, 2pm at Library

~ Sawyer Free Library

As reported by the Gloucester Daily Times, the Saunders House’s grand WPA are currently being restored by the Sawyer Free Library.

Come learn more about the historic murals and the restoration process from the project’s professional conservator Lisa Mehlin this Saturday, February 26 from 2 to 4pm on the Main Floor of the Sawyer Free Library.

Registration not required. For details, go to: sawyerfreelibrary.org or 978-325-5500.

GLOUCESTER MEETINGHOUSE MLK DAY ANNUAL CELEBRATION JANUARY 17TH!

~ chasnaz

The Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation will host it 6th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration, live on Zoom, on Monday, January 17th at 2:00pm. Please preregister at http://www.gloucestermeetinghouse.org

The Racial Climate in Gloucester, What Lies Ahead will be the focus of the 2-hour program, including including findings of a new community survey. The keynote speaker will be Brian Saltsman, Director of Student Diversity and Inclusion at Alfred University in upstate New York. He is a leading advocate of addressing community issues between dominant and marginalized racial, ethnic or economic sectors as allies, a process known as “allyship.”

The invited presenting organizations are:

  • The Gloucester Racial Justice Team, reporting on a survey that assessed how much people of color “feel like they have a sense of community and belong in the city, including how race and ethnicity play a role in their daily lives,” according to GRJT spokesperson Gail Seavey.
  • The North Shore Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) which most recently has focused on racism issues within Danvers High School athletic teams. A branch leader will discuss the North Shore branch’s activities across a region stretching from Lynn to New Hampshire.
  • The Diversity and Equity Committee of the Gloucester 400th Anniversary Celebration, which is researching narrative stories that accurately depict racial and ethnic relationships since European settlement began displacing the native, indigenous Pennacook-Abenaki peoples. This will include years of slave ownership and maritime commerce in the global slave trade.

A video of this program with be available on the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation’s YouTube channel afterwards. The Foundation is a nonsectarian, federally-recognized nonprofit, organized to promote the preservation and community programming of the historic 1806 Meetinghouse on Middle Street, home of the first Universalist Church in America. Tax-deductible donations are welcome and may be made on the website, or by check to “GMF” at 10 Church Street, Gloucester, MA 01930.