Exploring Hydroponics with Design Thinking

Our 7th graders recently completed a three-week Engineering Design Intersession (EDI).  Students interviewed school staff and peers to identify design challenges around campus and then chose which problem they could work in teams to solve. This Intersession took place in the BCS FabLab, so students had access to a variety of technology including 3D printers, laser cutters, design programs (i.e. TinkerCad) as well as power and hand tools.

BCS MakerSpace teacher Mick Coleman wanted to develop a hydroponics system that would allow him to grow plants in a space-efficient manner in his classroom.  Our 7th grade guest bloggers, Andy, Caleb, Naomi, and Noah, describe how they approached this challenge:

Please define the problem you were given and your proposed solution.

(Naomi) Our given prompt for our EDI 'Future Farm' project was that Mr. Coleman needs a hydroponics table, that water can flow through, for the MakerSpace on the BCS South campus. Using the Engineering Design Process, we first interviewed Mr. Coleman to gain his perspective and needs in order for our group to make a solution that would fit to his necessities. Mr. Coleman wanted to have a vertical table that he could hang lights on and one that he won't have to bend down, so our group created a prototype that suited what he wanted. Our solution was to create a taller vertical table with a frame and a top so lights could hang from them by a clip.

Can you describe the Ideating and Prototyping process?

(Caleb) The Ideating and Prototyping process took up a lot of our EDI time. We changed our design multiple times to fit Mr. Coleman’s requirements. This step in our EDI project made us more empathetic to Mr. Coleman’s desires for the hydroponics system. This was also the step where we encountered one of our major difficulties: cooperating. One of my teammates was very uncooperative because he/she disagreed with basically everything the rest of our group wanted. Eventually, this worked out, but the other three members in our group had to do most of the planning by themselves. I think the prototyping process was very useful in getting our ideas out; however, I would have liked more time to make a more detailed rapid prototype.

What did you learn during the testing phase?  How did that impact your final design?

(Noah) During the Testing phase of the project, we tried out our different ideas in the form of a physical model (prototype) as well as a SketchUp model. Afterwards, we would troubleshoot and redesign based on what we found out. Changes we made as a result included:

1. We had to change the design from being a layered cabinet to being completely PVC
2. We changed the PVC design to a wooden one in the shape of the PVC to be more aesthetically pleasing
3. We gutted out all of the wood to make a frame because it would be easier to build and cheaper on the budget
4. We had to put planks underneath our table to keep it from sagging
5. We changed our one-sided table idea to a two-sided table idea

All of these changes led to the final design of the 'Hydro Grow'.


What were the challenges you faced in your group and as a group?  How did you resolve them?

(Andy) During Intersession, one of the challenges we faced, especially in the beginning, was working together effectively. We resolved this challenge by figuring out our individual skills and created roles for everybody based on their individual skills.

What do you think was the most valuable thing you learned during the Engineering Design Intersession?

(Andy) I think the most valuable thing I learned in EDI was how to cooperate. One of the many challenges our group had, and certainly one of the biggest, was to work well together. After over five hours together every day during the first week of EDI, it was hard to cooperate.

(Naomi) I feel like the most valuable thing I learned during EDI was that ideating was a very important step in our group's process. When we met a problem, such as how we couldn’t get our project through the door, we would iterate on our design until we solved the issues.

The "HydroGrow" team presents about their design to visitors

The Hydroponics Team project is a wonderful example of how students at BCS are honing their 21st century skills: working through problems, using the design thinking process to collaborate, iterate, prototype, and evaluate in order to develop creative and innovative solutions.

Cultivating Creativity Through Choice

At Bullis Charter School, creativity and curiosity are considered vital 21st Century skills. To help students unlock and pursue their individual dreams and passions, we offer a rich array of co- and extra- curricular classes. These ‘choice’ activities allow students to explore their own talents and interests and help to develop the whole child. Co-curriculars are held once per week during the regular school day. Each child participates in two co-curricular activities per semester and every BCS teacher is required to develop and lead two of these activities. This year, students were offered an incredible array of co-curricular courses, including picture book writing, advanced Lego robotics, ceramics, public speaking in Mandarin, and web design. Extra-curriculars are also taught by BCS’s homeroom and specialist teachers and are available to every student, but they are optional, after school activities. Extra-curriculars include everything from sports, color guard, and dance lessons to math games, chess club, and fine art classes.

A brand new co-curricular offered to BCS first and second grade students this year is called “Engineering Design with Wood Blocks.” First grade teacher Mrs. Ly created this activity and begins the class each week by telling a story about a harmonious town in a far away land called Peace Town. Everyone in this town lives together in harmony and everyone helps each other out.  However, to integrate engineering design into this activity, the story always ends with a problem that the students need to solve for the people of Peace Town. This type of problem solving develops the students’ design thinking skills. It also helps them to build empathy since they need to emphasize with the people of Peace Town and to understand the problem before they can begin to devise solutions. For example, when challenged to create ways to let visitors into the town, the students created a musical buzzer that when rung, makes beautiful music. As the children explained, “the people of Peace Town are peaceful people and want to hear beautiful and peaceful sounds.”

In Mrs. Ly’s classroom there is a dedicated “Construction Zone” where students use wooden blocks to build their solution prototypes. Although they can choose to work collaboratively or alone, once one or two students begin to construct something other kids often join in, sharing their ideas and expertise. Some of the students ask if there are more blocks they can use or other materials they can add to their creations, but just like engineers in the real world, they are instructed to create their design using the supplies on hand. The students must talk through their ideas, collaborate with their partners or teams, and include lots of detail in their planning. Using this active learning model, these young students have built some amazing structures. Their creations remain unaffected inside the construction zone throughout the week and every Friday the students clean up the area and start all over again on a new structure. The students also write in

their journals about what they have built and why, and they can refer to pictures Ms. Ly has taken during their building session to help remind them of what they built. This encourages them to include lots details in their writing and reflections.

The students have developed a real passion for their design and building co-curricular and it is obvious that they are having a great time working with friends, collaborating, and problem solving. After the first session, students asked Mrs. Ly if they could stay after school and keep building. One student even asked if it would be possible to stay and build if his mom came in to supervise. Clearly, these young engineers are just getting started!

5th Grade PBL: An American Revolution Museum

BCS 5th graders recently completed a Project Based Learning unit (PBL) where they were tasked with designing a museum experience about the American Revolution. The PBL’s driving question was: “How can we, as artists, create a museum experience that connects our community with the people of the American Revolution?”

When designing the driving question, the fifth grade teachers purposefully included the word “people” to encourage the students to get into the mindset of the people of the American Revolution. By considering those who initiated and fought in the war, the students are better able to develop empathy for their experience and understand the society in which they lived.


Utilizing the design thinking process, the fifth graders interviewed students in other grades to hear different perspectives on what makes a fun and educational museum experience. Based on the feedback they received, each student brainstormed ideas on how to present the American Revolutionary War in a museum setting. Students then chose one idea to focus on and built a prototype of their idea. When finished, they presented their prototype to classmates and received feedback on their design.

Some students struggled with not knowing what their end product would look like. “Students often start the process with ‘is it OK if…,’” says fifth grade teacher Jessica Morgan. “I always respond to this inquiry with, ‘I don’t know, what do you think?’ I want the students to own their design process. I encourage them to refer to the driving question if they feel unsure about their ideas. In the end, there are no wrong choices or presentations. As long as the student answered the driving question, they have succeeded. The way in which each student does this will be different and that is part of what makes the end results so exciting.”

Specialist teachers worked closely with the students on this PBL, helping the students to integrate art, drama, and music into their exhibits. In art, students examined political messages from the time period and developed their own political cartoons to encourage or discourage someone from participating in the Revolution. In drama, students practiced speaking from different perspectives to understand how to portray a person from the Revolution. In music, they composed original pieces of music reflecting the musical style of the time period. 


The students were free to choose how they wanted to present their final displays as long as they were historically accurate and connected the museum audience to someone from the Revolution. Some students made paintings about the Revolution, some wrote memoirs using the perspective of someone from the time period, and others created scratch games or board games to explain specific events in the war. A few students even integrated their drama skills and produced a skit about the people of the Revolution.

The museum opening was a well-attended event bustling with parents, staff, and students. “The variety of displays the students created are impressive. It is amazing to see what fifth grade students are capable of accomplishing,” said fifth grade teacher Mr. Villaluz. “These exhibits are the culmination of everything the students have learned about project-based learning at Bullis and this incredible event is the result of what happens when you give students a say in their learning process.”

BCS Middle School 8th Grade “Design Challenge” Intersession

Imagine an environmentally sustainable school that includes a roof top garden where crops are harvested for school lunch, a grey water system to flush toilets, and solar panels that harness the sun’s energy for electricity. Picture buildings with expansive windows that invite in an abundance of natural light, moveable walls to create multi-purpose educational spaces, interactive furniture that encourages high energy students to focus, and ramps leading to every classroom to accommodate students and staff with disabilities.

You would expect this utopian learning environment to be the work of an experienced architectural design firm, but these are the innovative features Bullis Charter School eighth graders incorporated into their school designs during their recently completed “Design Challenge” Intersession. For three weeks,
students worked in small groups to develop comprehensive “School of the Future” designs. They were instructed to use green design elements, to incorporate educational philosophy, and to leverage community connections. Students interviewed various
experts in the fields of architecture, interior design, and education, and visited a zero-waste home in Palo Alto. Upon the completion of the Intersession, these same experts sat on a panel to hear the students’ presentations, look over their models, provide constructive feedback, and select the most innovative school design. The winning group will submit their digital designs, laser-cut models, presentations, and essays about their design to a competition called SchoolsNEXT, run by the Association for Learning Environments. Last year, the winning BCS team advanced all the way to the final round of this international competition.


"Eighth graders are at an age when they are forming strong opinions about how society should function," says eighth grade teacher Rebecca Witmer. "Creating the ideal school engages them because they enjoy critically examining school, breaking down institutions as they currently know them, and designing a place where they want to spend their time."


This year, the students were tasked with the special focus to create a campus that would meet the needs of underserved students, who make up one in five children in our larger community. The students mapped out areas of poverty in the Bay Area and studied struggling school districts. Students discovered that not everyone learns in the same way and that some students have different needs, whether physical or mental. Empathy-building is a critical element in the design thinking process, and conducting this research opened the students’ eyes to different learning styles as well as to the experiences of others.

The Design Challenge Intersession supports the development of 21st century skills, including critical thinking, creativity, time management and perseverance. Students are challenged to work collaboratively in groups and produce concrete results in a short time frame. When they
enter the classroom or the Fablab, they know what they need to do and on which aspect of their project they need to focus. The students conquered a variety of real world challenges, such as technical difficulties, and yet every group met the tight deadline. BCS eighth grader, Kat, learned something powerful about her own capabilities, “It really is possible to get this done in three weeks and it was amazing to see it all come together in the end.”

Bullis Charter Middle School Intersessions

Intersessions are one of the most unique tenets of the BCS middle school program. During these three-week sessions, students move beyond the classroom and engage in active learning in the real world. Students develop real life skills as they work through problems, helping them to become well-rounded students with the 21st century abilities needed to be successful in university and in the modern workplace.

For three weeks each trimester, the daily schedule is suspended while students engage in an extended inquiry process of an assigned focus area. Projects are organized around a driving question, requiring students to investigate, collaborate, design, and construct actual solutions to real-life problems. 21st century skills are more than academic, and hands-on Intersessions provide students the opportunity to practice and refine important ‘life’ skills such as empathy, creativity, rationality, determination, and resourcefulness.

The first seventh grade Intersession combines sewing, cooking, and woodworking. While not typical middle school content, these pursuits integrate math, design, problem solving, and fine motor skills.  “At BCS, we expose all, not just some, of our students to the arts, to making, to taking risks, and to trying things that they might not attempt to learn on their own,” explains Lisa Stone, a BCS seventh grade teacher.

In the second seventh grade Intersession, students tackle Engineering & Design in the school’s

FabLab, where they have access to a variety of technology and tools including 3D printers, laser cutters, design programs, power drills and more. As part of this intersession, students interview staff members and peers to learn more about real problems found in the school. They then choose which issue they want to work on and begin to devise solutions for this problem.  Solving a problem at this level encourages students to use their critical thinking skills and to continuously plan and reevaluate, as they tackle different issues that arise along way. For example, one group of students was tasked with how to transport rolling backpacks across wood chips. As a solution, the students designed and built a “backpack gondola.” These projects are what Intersessions are all about: finding solutions and working through problems, just as one does in real life.

For their third and final Intersession, seventh graders are asked to stage a 100% student-led performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In addition to learning Shakespearean history and dialogue while performing the play, the students serve as the directors, casting crew, and light and sound engineers. They also build upon their previous Intersessions by sewing the costumes and designing and constructing the sets. Teachers are on-hand as advisors only and are part of the audience when the students perform their production on a professional stage at the Bus Barn Theater in Los Altos.

“Intersessions reinforce the students’ full year studies”, explains Ms. Stone. “At BCS, we focus on the interconnectedness of subject matter and integration. Even though students aren't going to their "regular classes" during this time, they can see that there are components of math, writing, and science in constructing a device to solve a problem. Intersessions help students understand the interconnectedness between the subjects.”

In addition to reinforcing regular studies, Intersessions extend the learning of skills and concepts through authentic, real-world applications.  For example, seventh graders learn composition in weekly music classes and are then required to score The Midsummer Night’s Dream production during Intersession.  Eight graders learn coding as part of the core curriculum and then apply those skills when designing educational apps at Intersession.  Students are encouraged to consult with industry experts as they seek to refine and improve their outcomes, and these same experts often provide feedback at the end of a project.

Intersessions are a critical part of the BCS curriculum. They offer the middle school students the opportunity to gain exposure, interact with experts and audiences, and be accountable for their ideas and projects. 



BCS Founding Principal/Superintendent Wanny Hersey explains the thinking behind these authentic learning opportunities, “We believe that in creating connections, relevance and meaning are discovered, and the rate of retention improves dramatically. Our students are empowered to design and lead their own education, thereby developing adult leaders with the ability to thrive in an ever-changing world.”

Kindergarten Design Thinking Challenge: Help the Gingerbread Man Cross the River

In order to prepare BCS students for the 21st  century, Design Thinking is integrated into the core curriculum at every grade level. The Design Thinking process begins in kindergarten and even students at this young age are challenged to create solutions to real-world problems.

In December, kindergarten students were tasked with a fun holiday-themed Design Thinking challenge: Help the Gingerbread Man Cross the River.

Teachers provided students with supplies that included tinfoil, mini marshmallows, and toothpicks. Students were free to choose to work alone, with a partner, or in a group.

Most students first attempted to build a boat out of tin foil. When testing out their boats they observed whether or not the boat floated, and if the gingerbread man stayed dry. If the boat took on water the students had to decide whether to start over with a new design, or to fix the design they had already created. Some students added marshmallow floaters to their boats. They soon discovered that marshmallows, like the gingerbread man, melt in water. One innovative student suggested, “Maybe the foil can help to cover the marshmallow!”

Although in many cases the gingerbread man made it safely to the other side of the river, quite a few ended up crumbled into a wet, soggy mess. Sarah Flynn, a kindergarten teacher, said that both success and failure are important components of this lesson.

“Kindergarten students don't know how to fail,” she said. “They try an idea and if it works, great!  If not, they try another idea and they keep working at it until they finally achieve their goal. I love doing activities like this in kindergarten because the students begin to understand that making mistakes and getting the answer wrong is a part of learning.  As they continue through BCS and beyond, I want them to feel confident enough to take risks, to acknowledge failure, and to try again.”

In all, the challenge was a success and the students had a fantastic time designing, building, observing, and learning to accept both success and failure.

Sharing Best Practices at the CCSA Conference

In March, several representatives from BCS presented at the annual California Charter School Association Conference in Sacramento. 

Jessica Lura, BCS Director of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships, and Kristina Plattner, 6th grade teacher, presented a session entitled “Deeper Learning Through Project-Based Learning and S.T.E.A.M.”, sharing examples from the BCS program and how these innovative, rigorous units facilitate a deeper conceptual understanding of content for our students. 

Seventh grade humanities teacher, Lisa Stone, who was one of only 200 teachers from throughout the country selected by LearnZillion to write curricula for the new common core state standards, introduced this free high quality resource to other California educators. 

Wanny Hersey, Superintendent/Founding Principal and Emily Nelson, BCS Communications Director, presented a session entitled, “Making Your Data Come Alive”, sharing what data are collected at BCS, and how these can be desegregated/analyzed, used to improve instruction and student outcomes, and can paint a vivid picture of a school’s success. 

Mr. Malpica Wins Award for Innovation

BCS FabLab Director David Malpica was recently honored for his innovative teaching at the "Cares and Shares" awards ceremony hosted by the Los Altos Community Foundation and Los Altos Courtyard by Marriott, who are generously donating $1000 to our school!

Congratulations, Mr. Malpica!

Wanny's Words: Preparing Our Students for the 21st Century

By Wanny Hersey

Superintendent/Principal at Bullis Charter School

In the recent New York Times article “How To Get a Job at Google” Thomas Friedman explains that GPAs and test scores are no longer high on the list of criteria that innovative companies like Google look for when hiring employees.  Friedman interviewed Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google - and proud BCS parent! - Laszlo Bock for the article.

Laszlo explained the five attributes Google looks for in their employees company-wide, including the ability to process information on the fly and the ability to successfully collaborate with a team.  At BCS, our focus is to prepare all of our students to be successful, contributing citizens in the 21st century by providing them with the tools they will need in life - many of which were referenced in this piece.  In spite of being the highest performing school in Los Altos, I have always said that what we do at our school is not about test scores.  Friedman put it best when he wrote:

“And in an age when innovation is increasingly a group endeavor, it also cares about a lot of soft skills — leadership, humility, collaboration, adaptability and loving to learn and re-learn. This will be true no matter where you go to work.”

After reading the article, I asked Laszlo for his thoughts on how our programs help foster the skills needed to compete in the 21st century, based on his own family’s experience at our school.  Here is what he said:

"I've been impressed by the educational model at BCS.  The children at BCS benefit not just from a specific curriculum or technology lab but rather from a culture steeped in the idea that learning is a lifelong process of discovery as well as mastery.  I've seen them encouraged to take risks, learn from failure, and become leaders both in formal and informal ways. Collaboration and teamwork happen everyday here. These students are well positioned to become the leaders of tomorrow."

Students learn 21st century skills like collaboration and adaptability during their Engineering Design Intersession that is part of the core middle school curriculum at BCS

Wanny's Words: Eighth Graders’ International Architectural Design and Engineering Project

By Wanny Hersey

Superintendent/Principal at Bullis Charter School

Last week I had the pleasure of serving on the judging panel of our eighth grade students' 3-D school designs presentations for the international “School of the Future Design Competition” sponsored by the Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI)   These middle school students used the Design Thinking process and technologies at the FabLab@BCS, such as the laser cutter, to create environmentally responsive school models during their Architectural Design and Engineering intersession.

As you know, BCS is committed to educating the whole child using curricula that is project-based, integrated across academic areas but specifically in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math), all with a focus on developing 21st century skills. But what I thought was most interesting for community members to see was that the 8th grade students were challenged to envision an innovative use of the Blach site where the Bullis Center for Innovation is presently located and to create a model that not only takes into consideration the learning and physical environments but also addresses how their proposal connects learning to their community so that the there is a mutually beneficial partnership.

The students also presented their designs to the BCS Board of Directors on Monday.  Board members, as well as many members of our local community, had the opportunity to see the amazing projects first-hand and ask students questions about the process.  We also congratulated the winning group who will work with their teachers to prepare for the regional level of competition next month!

Take a look at some of the amazing 3-D models!

Second Grade Students Showcase Their Leatherback Sea Turtle Projects

Leatherback Sea Turtle conservation is an around-the-clock effort for the Leatherback Trust (LTL) located in Playa Grande, Costa Rica – where our sixth graders travel annually to learn about and participate in the research and conservation of this endangered animal.

Over 3,000 miles away, BCS second graders engaged in their own endeavor to help save the leatherbacks, beginning with a teacher-run field trip to Half Moon Bay in October to learn about the lifecycle of the leatherback sea turtles. 

Among the many activities that day was a relay race where students recreated the lifecycle stages of a leatherback sea turtle by first dragging their bodies across the beach with their front fins, then digging a hole in the sand, maneuvering to get the eggs into the hole from their backpack, and finally covering up the hole (all with fins on their hands the entire time!). 

This highly engaging field trip helped provide students with ample background knowledge before they started their Leather Back Sea Turtle Project Based Learning (PBL) and Design Thinking unit in which students worked in groups of three to explore the driving question “How can we, as citizens of the environment, design a way to protect the leatherback sea turtle?”

In order to best answer that question, students had to do research with books, articles, and videos where students learned how to take notes and highlight important information in a variety of expository texts.   For each stage of the life cycle, second graders worked together to identify specific threats that are currently dangerous for leatherback sea turtles:

Egg Stage: Extreme heat

Egg Stage: Egg poachers

Hatchling Stage: Predators

Juvenile Stage: Fishing nets

Coastal Feeding Stage: Plastic bags/trash in the ocean

Breeding/Migrating Stage: Oil spills

Nesting Stage: Habitat destruction

After identifying the threats, students began working with Mrs. Reed in the MakerSpace to begin the Design Thinking process.  The first step is to build empathy – which second grade teacher Ms. Greenstadt said came very quickly to her students.

“Seeing a lot of pictures and videos of leatherback sea turtles helped the students build empathy quickly, and they loved the idea of having the power to make a positive change in the world,” said Ms. Greenstadt.  “They realized that anyone could come up with a great idea that might help the turtles – even a second grader!”

Building on their empathy and knowledge of leatherbacks, students came up with solutions against specific threats facing the turtles, and were able to use materials like straws, cardboard, plastic, and paper to create a rapid prototype of their solution.

An early idea from a group included having a “hot sauce firing machine” to fire hot sauce into eyes of poachers.  Students rationalized that the hot sauce wouldn’t harm the poachers in a serious way, but it would be enough to prevent them from getting the eggs.

 

Another group designed a protective bubble for sea turtles to travel in that would protect them from getting caught in nets.  After receiving helpful feedback from the classmates, they changed their prototype from a plastic bubble to a comfortable towel raft, noting that the sea turtles may not like being in a bubble for very long.  The raft also included rubber spikes on the sides to further protect the turtles, but also not harming any other species in the process.  All students went on to design a 3-D sketch-up simulation to virtually test their prototypes. 

Students recently shared their PowerPoint and podcast presentations documenting all of the details of their projects with parents and visitors.  Below are a few examples of the tremendous work done by our second graders who are leading the way in global citizenship and innovation at BCS!

Wanny's Words: Visit from the Singapore Ministry of Education

By Wanny Hersey

   Superintendent/Principal at Bullis Charter School

BCS had the pleasure of hosting members from the Singapore Ministry of Education at BCI on Wednesday for a tour and discussion about our innovative programs.  It was a tremendous honor to have this 19-member delegation visit our school because they were interested to see the best practices in American education in action, especially our project-based learning and design-thinking curricula that are integral to our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) program.

 

Students explain how they are designing and prototyping a 3-D prosthetic hand in the FabLab@BCS

The fifth and eighth grade students at BCI were eager to share what they were working on with members of the group.  Fifth graders were engaged in designing and prototyping a prosthetic hand in the FabLab@BCS, as part of their fully integrated unit about the human body. While in the FabLab@BCS, the educators from Singapore were also able to use the zSpace module to experience how being able take apart and assemble a mechanic hand and arm in 3D will help deepen the students’ understanding of the workings of those parts of the body as well as assist them in their own prosthetic hand designs. In art, the visitors watched our students add muscle groups to their wire and clay replicas of the human body - the same muscle group they were learning how to exercise and tone in Physical Education class.

A member from the Singapore Ministry of Education marvels at the detail of a student's clay sculpture replicating the human muscular system

Eighth graders were nearing the end of their 3-week Architectural Engineering Design Intersession. Members of the delegation observed as students worked in groups to design an environmentally responsive school for the national CEFPI School of the Future Design Competition.  The delegation members were extremely impressed with the students’ 3-D models and were especially interested in listening to students who shared about how they utilized the design-thinking process to create their aspirational school sites.

 

A student shares her architecture designs with members of the delegation from Singapore

The visiting members from the Ministry of Education asked students questions in each class we visited. Our students articulately responded to the inquiries about what they were learning and also discussed the habits of mind, character traits, and skills they develop as a result of the educational program at Bullis. They made quite an impression on the officials from Singapore who were inspired by our students, our teachers, and the world-class educational program that we provide.

8th graders answer questions during the about BCS and design thinking

I felt so much pride in Bullis and hope that you do too. It’s not always easy being a member of the Bullis community. Parents, staff, and students all work together and all work hard to ensure every child at Bullis has access to an incredible program. In watching our visitors marvel at what our kids can do, I was reminded of how special Bullis really is for redefining what’s possible in public education worldwide.