Avenues and St. Bernard’s Water Testing Project
Old Boy Somers Harvey ’19 is now at Avenues: The World School in Chelsea. He and his classmates are studying the quality of drinking water, and they invited St. Bernard’s fifth graders to collaborate on the project.
This ninth grade Avenues science class has been studying how to safely test tap water for lead and the effects of drinking contaminated water. Somers and his classmates asked the St. Bernard’s boys to collect water from their sinks at home. A few weeks later, on December 4, the Avenues team traveled up to St. Bernard’s to meet their counterparts and test the water together.
The group from Avenues met our boys in the 6th floor teaching theater and in Mr. Parsons’s science classroom. They broke up into small groups. The 9th graders gave our boys an overview of the testing system and explained the dangerous effects of lead in drinking water. After an initial bit of shyness on the part of our boys, the groups quickly became very collegial and there were smiles all around. Two of the 9th graders performed a rap about water testing, much to the amusement of our boys.
The group from Avenues met our boys in the 6th floor teaching theater and in Mr. Parsons’s science classroom. They broke up into small groups. The 9th graders gave our boys an overview of the testing system and explained the dangerous effects of lead in drinking water. After an initial bit of shyness on the part of our boys, the groups quickly became very collegial and there were smiles all around. Two of the 9th graders performed a rap about water testing, much to the amusement of our boys.
Avenues will analyze the results of this experiment and report back to our boys on their findings. Many thanks to Somers Harvey and Mr. Parsons for organizing this partnership in science.
