Daily Life in the Upper School

If you’ve walked by Robin Hori’s science classroom during periods 2 or 7 this semester, chances are you’ve caught a glimpse of students in the middle of a project build.

From water towers to bridges to trebuchets, students in grades 10 through 12 have been putting science and math to the test this year in the Upper School’s first ever, and student-requested, engineering class. Titled Integrated Engineering I and II (Engineering I and II beginning in 2024–2025), this lab-based course deeply emphasizes the engineering design cycle while exploring a variety of engineering fields: civil, mining, and chemical engineering in the fall, and mechanical, electrical, and materials engineering in the spring.

The Upper School engineering class is a lab-based course that emphasizes the engineering design cycle while exploring a variety of fields: civil, mining, and chemical engineering (fall), and mechanical, electrical, and materials engineering (spring).

“For years, we’ve been getting feedback from students that they want an engineering class,” said Upper School Principal Ingrid Gustavson. By designing a fresh approach to the Upper School’s earliest science courses (taken in 9th and 10th grades), Ingrid and her team made room for more subjects that students are interested in, including engineering. Longtime physics teacher Robin Hori was also game to take on this new opportunity—though he wasn’t prepared for the overwhelming reaction from the student body.

“It’s been more successful than I expected,” laughed Robin, whose fall class was filled with students who wanted to continue the course into spring semester—in addition to an entirely separate group of students who wanted to join the spring class. (Upper School students can take engineering during either fall or spring semester, or they can enroll in both semesters consecutively.) The Upper School had to add a second spring class to meet demand.

“The kids were so excited about it that we were approved to open up another section,” said Ingrid, “and Robin took on the class to give everybody that experience.”

It’s clear that this experience is meaningful to these students, many of whom were excited to share their gratitude, particularly about the hands-on nature of the class. As junior Spencer Brady put it, “Engineering is something you do; it's not something you just learn in theory,” and it was important to Robin to structure the class so students fully experience that doing of science in ways that stretch their brains and build their confidence.

“A lot of students have never built anything before and they’re really impressed they can actually build something that works,” said Robin. “Kids are really making an effort to understand why something works. And I’m trying to give them a sense that they can build things out of almost anything, and as long as they follow the science, they know it’ll work.”

To nurture these skills, Robin has structured the class around projects that support each field of engineering, such as building bridges during the study of civil engineering or building trebuchets during the study of mechanical engineering. Students are placed in small groups to promote real-world collaboration and given plenty of room to lead their own learning. Though Robin decides on assignments and parameters—for example, the first-semester bridge-building final required students’ projects to span 100 centimeters and support a moving load—he gives students plenty of freedom, acting as a coach and guide while they problem solve.

There’s lots of freedom in the class to explore.—Andrew Johnson, class of 2024

“He provides materials and concepts, then it’s up to the students to decide what path they want to take—and they can push outside guidelines,” explained senior Andrew Johnson. “There’s lots of freedom in the class to explore.”

For senior Kelton Ferriter, there’s also very low pressure. “It's kind of a perfect, stress-free, good way to get into engineering and explore various areas,” he said. “There’s so much creative freedom.” And this low-pressure approach is beneficial when it comes to practicing the engineering design cycle, from conducting research to creating a prototype to building a final project—and moving back and forth along that path through trial and error.

“These are big concepts, but being able to put them into a physical project and to really see how that works, and to watch where failures happen and when, it’s just a different dimension for learning,” said Kelton.

It’s also helping students become more comfortable with mistakes. “This semester, kids are more patient with failures because they know failure in engineering helps them become more successful,” said Robin. As a result, he continued, “final products are getting a lot better in terms of design, and students are better at explaining the mechanics of how and why a machine works or doesn’t work.”

To help his students become better at learning from mistakes, Robin requires them to keep professional engineering notebooks in which they record projects, including notes, observations, steps, designs, and corrections. All work is done in ink and students are trained to never tear out pages so that they can refer back to what they’ve done. For Spencer, an aspiring engineer and member of the school’s Monochromats robotics team, this is a key takeaway from the class. As a young builder, Spencer said he’s always been told to write down what he’s working on, but he never quite knew how until this year. “I really like how the class has taught me how exactly you write everything down and what you put in an engineering journal,” he shared.

“It’s nice to be able to go back and see where we made a mistake,” added Kelton, who’s acted as project manager for his group at times, a role that’s also helped him better understand how many ways there are to tackle a problem. “Everyone has a different idea and way to approach it, no matter what the project is,” he said. “The class is so open and creative.”

These are big concepts, but being able to put them into a physical project and to really see how that works, and to watch where failures happen and when, it’s just a different dimension for learning.—Kelton Ferriter, class of 2024

And the class isn’t just for one type of student. Every person brings to the table their individual talents and ideas, strengthening each project and even helping the students better understand where they may want to go next in their education and careers. Senior Rosie Schaefer, for one, said that the engineering class, which she’s taking after a summer 2023 internship with biomechanics professor Dr. Brittany Coats at the Utah Head Trauma Lab, has helped her better identify her career path.

“I realized I want to go into biomechanics—to help people with engineering,” she said. “I really enjoy research and I think that’s what I ultimately want to end up doing.” And, continued Rosie, in-class opportunities to share her evaluations of her group’s projects have helped her identify a talent of conveying science. “Where I’ve excelled is in the explanation of how things work: putting into words why what we’re doing makes sense,” she said.

Whatever their individual takeaways, though, many of the students agree that the class isn’t just for aspiring engineers. It’s for anyone who wants to learn more about the field, to build like a kid again, and to discover more about themselves. And because there are no prerequisites for the class, it makes what can often be thought of as a rarefied subject more accessible, opening doors to students who may not have tried it out otherwise. It’s just one example of how the team is putting Rowland Hall’s vision into action.

“As we evolve new courses, we’re offering new opportunities for students to go really deep,” said Ingrid. “And we’re offering life-changing and skill-building opportunities that are accessible to everyone.”

STEM

In preparation for this year’s dance concert, Integrated, middle and upper school students researched topics related to technology, AI, and how we as humans relate to these machines in our everyday lives. Students thought critically about their personal experiences with tech and created pieces inspired by their findings and curiosities. Their works explore how we can utilize AI as a resource moving forward, while also giving space to the many moral and existential questions that come along with developing non-human intelligence. Two Upper School students, Hayley Trockman and Mattie Sulivan, reflected on their own processes and interviewed peers to give the audience an inside look into the complex questions underlying this year’s concert.

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Reflecting on Process: Dance Students’ Voices on Integrated

By Hayley Trockman, Class of 2024, and Mattie Sullivan, Class of 2025

During the summer workshop our dance teachers, Sophia Cutrubus ’18 and Grace Riter ’18, presented us with the question: how can we express our thoughts about the advancement of technology through dance? At first, we were unaware of just how many different paths we could take to explore this growing industry. But as we dove deeper, we discovered that this topic left us with endless questions and conversations to have. Both our Intermediate and Advanced Dance Ensembles classes endeavored to answer these questions with open minds and a willingness to delve into our movement explorations.

How can we express our thoughts about the advancement of technology through dance?

Junior Mattie Sullivan decided to ruminate on their individual relationship to transforming technologies, using their piece to uncover a duality that often comes with spending huge amounts of time online.

“When I was presented with the theme of this year's dance concert I felt excited, overwhelmed, and honestly scared,” said Mattie. “Walking into dance class this year, I was full of ideas but really struggling to articulate them. Even a couple of days ago I was reminded of our initial question: can you really express all of these feelings through dance? But in the few weeks leading up to the concert, I feel confident that our relationships with AI and technology have and will continue to be voiced.”

They continued, “The Internet has been my primary form of communication with those I care about and my main source of entertainment. On the flip side, I have observed the detrimental effects an Internet addiction can have on a person. For my piece, I focused on both of these aspects of Internet usage. By manipulating the energy qualities of my movement I was able to portray both loneliness and connection. In our creative processes, we dove into the complexities of using the Internet and AI, and through movement we have been able to tell our unique stories.”

In Mattie’s work with the Iron Lions robotics team captain, junior Evan Weinstein, they discussed how technology has a different kind of intelligence than humans do. Evan highlighted that we don’t need to fear AI; rather, we should focus on how we set boundaries around its use.

He said, “AI is incredibly important because as we learn to harness the power of computing, technological strides become more accessible. When we don’t need to worry about spending time regulating budgets and doing mundane tasks, the future workforce will be able to put our collective energy towards doing new things while AI can maintain what we already know. Additionally, AI will be able to pick up on patterns that humans can’t. This level of pattern recognition can also help us predict and regulate our response to relevant social and environmental issues.”

While neural networks and AI are incredible tools, they are just that—tools. We can learn to use them as innovators and problem solvers, but at the end of the day they can only perform as well as we teach them.

Evan also pointed out, “While neural networks and AI are incredible tools, they are just that—tools. We can learn to use them as innovators and problem solvers, but at the end of the day they can only perform as well as we teach them. AI is an advancement that we need to understand and accept. I urge the support of AI and hope that we can help learn within our communities to set our generation up for success.”

Senior Hayley Trockman gave a look into what her process looked like as she learned about how AI-generated images are created.

“I believe in integrating technology into our lives with human intelligence guiding its role,” said Hayley. “I began the process of choreographing a piece that specifically looked into the ways that AI-produced images are created from our insecurities and unrealistic beauty standards. However, after speaking with Rowland Hall staff member Ashley Atwood, her advice of ‘accepting the new and upcoming’ resonated with me. I realized that we can’t put all of the blame on technology—because we are actually the ones feeding it the ideal body image through our engagement with social media. Whether it be likes and positive reactions, or critical comments, AI recognizes this trend in data and takes that information to generate its own images. My piece is a commentary on that process. The use of mirrors as props represents how AI-generated images become both reflections and distortions of our own insecurities.”

Senior Lauren Bates pivoted the conversation in a new direction, with her inspiration coming from the increase in the use of AI to help process grief.

“My initial idea dealt with how AI does not feel or process grief the same way that we do,” said Lauren. “However, as I did more research, I found a number of articles talking about ‘Grief Tech.’ I learned that there is already technology that allows people to feed information from their loved ones who have passed into AI chatbots. Subsequently, the software can recreate their personality and identity. This has brought up a lot of ethical and psychological concerns, along with questions about if this is a healthy way to process grief. I was initially inspired to create this piece after listening to Kendrick Lamar’s ‘United In Grief’ and applying its meaning to dance. For me, dance has always been a way to express ideas that are too difficult to express with words.”

I hope that our audience will resonate with both our fear and love of technology, and spend a minute thinking about their own relationships, both on and off the screens.

As we have reflected on the past months of choreographing, researching, and critically evaluating our relationship with tech and AI, we hope that the concert encourages our audience to turn inward and think about how they relate to technology in their own lives. As Mattie Sullivan said, “I hope that our audience will resonate with both our fear and love of technology, and spend a minute thinking about their own relationships, both on and off the screens.”  We want this moment in time to allow viewers to take pause and evaluate where we are and how we want to move forward.

Student Voices

How can Utahns lead out on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals? That was the question posed to students by the Utah chapter of the United Nations Association for their 2023 essay contest, held in honor of the 75th United Nations Day. And it was a question that appealed to junior Spencer Brady, who late last year took first place in the competition.

Spencer’s essay journey kicked off in October, when he was thinking about an upcoming AP US History assignment. Designed to build on Beyond the Classroom, when juniors traveled with fourth graders to the Great Salt Lake, the assignment asked students to explore a contemporary issue they feel strongly about, conduct historical research on the topic, and write an essay that explains and situates the issue in a longer historical lens. And though students could adhere to Dr. Nate Kogan’s essay parameters and submit their work directly to him, they were also allowed to submit their topics to essay contests of their choice instead, if desired.

When Spencer read the United Nations Association-Utah essay prompt, he saw an opportunity to connect ongoing conversations about the future of the Great Salt Lake with two of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs: SDG 11 (make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable) and SDG 14 (conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development). Through that lens, he began studying declining saline lakes and learned that one, Mono Lake, had been successfully restored thanks to community involvement. Spencer thought the same approach could benefit Great Salt Lake.

“The community has to be involved. You can’t put a problem like this to government and just expect it to magic it away,” Spencer explained. “We’ve all got to help.”

Spencer wrote a clear, well-researched, and artfully crafted essay [that] captured an optimistic and forward-looking outlook on the future of the lake and grounded that positive perspective in a strong comparative study of Owens and Mono Lake, respectively. He fused compelling argumentation with a strong call to community action that clearly resonated with the judging panel.—Dr. Nate Kogan ’00, Upper School history teacher

By the end of October, Spencer had put together a thoughtful 463-word essay covering the history of two other terminal saline lakes and sharing how Utahns can learn from these stories to come together and lead on water-related SDGs to save our own lake. On November 21, he learned he had won first place, including a $500 prize, for this work. “We appreciated your connection between the SDGs and Utah’s Great Salt Lake,” wrote judge Peter Corroon about the committee’s choice to declare Spencer’s essay the winner.

Spencer, who called the experience fun and exciting, said this research helped him feel optimistic about Utahns’ ability to protect Great Salt Lake, and he hopes those who read his essay will take away an understanding of the importance of coming together in pursuit of this goal. Thanks to his choice to share his essay more widely, it’s much more likely that Spencer’s words will indeed inspire others to play a role in saving the lake—an outcome that illustrates why Dr. Kogan likes to offer students the chance to share their writing outside of school.

“I think our students and their perspectives deserve to be heard by a wider audience,” said Dr. Kogan. “They have outstanding insights and sophisticated understandings of both historical and contemporary dilemmas. I have the good fortune of hearing these in the classroom on a daily basis, but I'm always thrilled when our students put themselves out there and share their strong voices and well-researched perspectives in the editorial pages of the Salt Lake Tribune or other publications or contests.”

Furthermore, said Dr. Kogan, sharing their work more broadly is a great way to build students’ confidence in their writing skills and individual voices.

“I think writing for an authentic audience is crucial and the feedback one receives from people beyond the classroom gives vital insight into how strong our students’ writing is when read by outside evaluators,” he said. “I think it's so valuable for them to get this type of authentic feedback from experts outside of our school community and, in many cases, gain the validation that their work is exceptional on both local and national levels.”

Congratulations, Spencer, on your deserved recognition.

With Spencer’s permission, we’ve shared his award-winning essay below.

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Evaporating Opportunities: Water Management and the Great Salt Lake

By Spencer Brady, Class of 2025

As an international organization, the United Nations is committed to making the world a better place. Among the UN’s goals are the desire for water conservation to promote water availability, the management of marine resources, and the management of terrestrial ecosystems. In Utah, one of the main environmental issues confronting us today is the impending disappearance of the Great Salt Lake, the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere. Lately, the water level in the lake has been declining due to excessive water use, reaching successive all-time lows.¹ The issue of the consequences of disappearing lakes, however, has caused problems around the world for years and lends lessons Utahns can use as we attempt to lead the world in the conservation of our aquatic resources. An early example of human-caused lake evaporation is the fate of Owens Lake in California. This lake was almost completely dry a mere fourteen years after water began to be diverted from its tributaries. The typical use of Owens Lake when discussing lake disappearance is as an example of the enormous financial burden of maintaining a dry lake. Alyse Bertenthal, an Associate Professor of Law who studies the production and uses of evidence in science and law, explains that Owens Lake also demonstrates the regulatory challenges of managing lakes. Bertenthal states that purely legislative solutions for lake conservation are largely ineffective due to the difficulty of determining the optimal and thus regulated state of the lake.² Another lake in California seems to hold the solution to these regulatory difficulties. Mono Lake was at risk of drying up in the 1970s, but community activism led to the lake being successfully protected.³ Randal Orton, a former California resource conservation manager, states that one of the driving factors behind this success was the recognition that Mono Lake is a resource that belongs to the community.⁴ The successful management of the lake depended on cooperation and communication between the community and government officials.⁵ The continual increase in Salt Lake City’s population and the accompanying increase in demand for water indicates that the drying lake is a problem that will have to be reckoned with. As our legislators grapple with laws that attempt to maintain the Great Salt Lake the past seems to indicate that there is another way. By looking to the community for advice and assistance we can create the lake that everyone wants through everyone’s cooperation. The conservation of the Great Salt Lake does not merely fulfill one of the United Nations’ goals, it bridges the gap between them. To truly lead out on these sustainable development goals, it is not enough for Utah to simply try to fulfill them individually. We must look beyond these boundaries and into the future of a better world.

¹ Nate Seltenrich, “A Terminal Case? Shrinking Inland Seas Expose Salty Particulates and More,” Environmental Health Perspectives 131, no. 6 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP12835.
² Alyse Bertenthal, “Scaling the Baseline: Technicalities and Environmental Regulation in Owens Valley, California,” Law and Policy 43, no. 1 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12162.
³ Seltenrich, “A Terminal.”
⁴ Randal David Orton, “INVENTING THE PUBLIC TRUST DOCTRINE: California Water Law and the Mono Lake Controversy,” California Legal History 16 (January 2021): passim.
⁵ Orton, passim.

Student Voices

This year, the Rowland Hall community honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy with Weavers and Dreamers: Leading the Beloved Community, a time to imagine a beloved community where everyone can be themselves in multifaceted ways alongside local Black storytellers, artists, and musicians.

This year’s event kicked off on Thursday, January 11, with a tribute to Reverend France A. Davis, a longstanding Rowland Hall board member, community trailblazer, and civil rights activist. Rev. Davis’ tribute was followed by a performance by alum Micah Willis ’14 and his band and a storytelling program presented by Charlotte Starks and Ashley Finley, members of the Nubian Storytellers of Utah Leadership (NSOUL).

On Friday, January 12, middle and upper school faculty and staff gathered for a professional learning opportunity, and then a special daylong program was held for students in grades 6–12. Students engaged in conversations about building a beloved community; participated in activities featuring musicians, poetry, and storytelling; and reflected on the connection between our imaginations and questions of belonging and inclusion, as well as storytelling as a crucial leadership skill that can help us imagine different and better futures. Alum Micah Willis and NSOUL storytellers also joined this gathering.

On Monday, January 15, Rowland Hall students and their families honored the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday by coming together for a day of community engagement. Volunteers planted wildflower seeds and built greenhouse benches with the Jordan River Nature Center in the morning, and then community members were invited to join an afternoon march, organized by the University of Utah’s MLK Week Committee, from East High School to the University of Utah.

The celebration continued on Tuesday, January 16, when Charlotte Starks of NSOUL gathered with Beginning School students to read a story and speak about Dr. King. The Lower School then came together for a Changemaker Chapel, where students heard from two guest speakers, Micah Willis and Charlotte Starks, and engaged in the division’s annual tradition of creating an artifact and marching around the quad to demonstrate how they can see themselves as future changemakers. This gathering allows our younger students to express what they need to feel belonging and how they might imagine a world where everyone feels included and valued.
 
We invite you to enjoy the linked Weavers and Dreamers photo gallery.

Community