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MINI-TERM
Fun activities students did during mini-term
Winter Wednesday

Upper school students enjoy their Wednesday afternoons by doing fun activities
Special Science Section
The science behind why puffy jackets work in the winter



MINI-TERM
Fun activities students did during mini-term
Winter Wednesday
Upper school students enjoy their Wednesday afternoons by doing fun activities
The science behind why puffy jackets work in the winter
As the fallen leaves were buried under thick layers of snow, we waved farewell to past memories and welcomed a mini-term full of exciting activities and a winter term of many snow days and fun events. Winter, as much as the general public falsely assumes because of the cold weather that usually accompanies it, is not sedentary at all at Bement. Snow was in itself an allure: building snowmen, snowball fights, and skiing, together with this year’s miniterm theme “dancing and singing,” students had no trouble keeping their bodies warm. The chilling wind was just the perfect excuse for having s’mores over the fire outdoors.
But winter wasn’t just the sweetness of marshmallows, it was also the spicy Chinese and Korean dishes for Lunar New Year, and the firstever Bement-made sushi wrapped around salty seaweed. Along that same note of trying something new, a shoutout to Bement magazine members who founded the Creative writing club and congratulations to all the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards winners! Last but not least, I want to thank everyone on the team for your dedication, creativity, and hard work; this edition would not have been possible without your contributions. Now, let's flip the page and begin a new chapter.
THIS YEAR’S MINI-TERM THEME WAS “MUSIC AND DANCE." TO BEGIN THE STRING OF FUN AND EXCITING ACTIVITIES PLANNED, STUDENTS AND STAFF JOINED IN THE BARN EARLY IN THE MORNING FILLED WITH ANTICIPATION FOR THE MINI-TERM KICK-OFF. THE MEETING STARTED OFF WITH MR. SCHLOAT INTRODUCING THE THEME. AS THE STUDENTS THOUGHT HIS ANNOUNCEMENT WAS COMING TO A CLOSE, MS. MACCALLUM STEPPED ONSTAGE AND INTRODUCED A SURPRISE PERFORMANCE BY THE FACULTY AND STAFF TO THE SONG “PERMISSION TO DANCE” BY BTS. FACULTY PERFORMANCES FOLLOWED. MR. MASSEY DELIVERED A GUITAR SOLO, CONTINUED BY A CLARINET AND BASS CLARINET DUET FROM MR. COHEN AND MS. MAHONEY, A PERFORMANCE BY MR. BEVAN AND MS. KEDDY, THEN A VIOLIN SOLO PERFORMED BY MS. WETHERBY. FINALLY MS. MACCALLUM AND MS. AHERN STEPPED ONSTAGE AND PERFORMED SEVERAL SONGS. THE FIRST DAY OF MINI-TERM WAS FILLED WITH MUSIC, SURPRISES, AND PERFORMANCES. IT PERFECTLY COMMENCED THE BEGINNING OF AN UNFORGETTABLE TERM.
-IRIS Z. '24
a period of time working with the performers and learning how to create music with sticks and hands. As one of the performers sat down to play a catchy rhythym, the other led the students dancing in one group. At the end of the week, many students signed their names on the thank you cards for the BBD group.
-Cleo X. '23
Do you remember the first song you heard? Well for this mini-term collaborative, think back to when you heard your first song, was it on your phone? On TV? And how you were feeling when it started playing? Did you feel like dancing or sleeping? Happy or sad? In this project, express your emotions on paper. The teachers gave us each our school headshots, a printed torso and body parts, then with the body parts we put together a position that reflects how we felt hearing our first song. They provide us with a selection of devices that we may have heard our first song from, and we glued them on the paper with the title of our song. Then we wrote the name of our song on the music staff and finally your art is complete!
Do you want to dance like a pro? In this collaborative founded by Ms. Ahern and Ms. O’Sullivan, you get to dance around like a pro with your buddies! We learned three dances in total: the Macarena, Cotton Eye Joe, and the Electric Slide. As the music gets faster and faster, how much of the dance moves will you remember? This collaborative incorporates dances from different decades and certainly gives the students a clear image of how dances looked like in the late 20th century. Let’s gather in the orchestra room and start dancing like a pro!
Want to dance with spice and style to all various tunes like Latin jazz to get your feet moving? During Bement’s mini-term, Mr. Cohen and Ms. Mahoney collaborated to teach students how to do salsa dance! In this collaborative, we danced using four beats with instruments found in the band room. With energy and groove, the partner dance involves moves and turns, to a slow yet energetic melody. The fun dance entails a step forward and a step back in an upbeat motion. This fun collaborative was by far a favorite amongst students and was very enjoyable!
Have you ever imagined what dancing was like in George Washington’s time? Accompanied by Ms. Wetherby’s classical viola playing, the students learned the technique of pointing toes and raising their elbows while cantering in the barn with their partners. Based on the basic steps, the dancing slowly progressed to more complicated movements, including “peeling the banana,” and the “donut” dance. After each round of dancing, Ms. Wetherby would announce the best dancers and we would applaud them for their beautiful performances and fine posture. In the end, it was apparent that it was not easy to dance like a U.S. president.
-Cleo X. '23
Have you ever heard of a qilaut or a xeremia? Do you know the sound a teponaztli makes? In this collaborative, we watched video clips of more than seventy different instruments from around the world. Then came the challenge, which was to identify ten instruments entirely by sound! Groups used their best listening skills to compete against the other groups for the most correct identifications.
Who wants to make up a dance for a picture book? In the collaborative Book Bop, we got to choose a book from a wide variety of picture books. The teachers, Ms. W. and Ms. MacCallum, split us into groups of 4-6 and we chose one to two pages and our groups made a dance that told the story of the two pages. After making our dance and practicing for a bit we performed it to the whole group, and everyone had a fun time making their dances.
-Larina Z. '24
Acapella is a type of group singing where you recreate a whole song without instrumentals, just voices. This proves a challenge, as every part has to be in tune and in time.
Hosted by Ms. Cho and Mr. Galvagni, students worked on an acapella version of Bellyache by Billie Eilish. The first session focused on figuring out your voice rangesoprano, alto, tenor, or bass!
The rest of the time they delved into learning their parts, whether it was beatboxing, lead vocals, or inner harmony. Ms. Cho shared her expertise as a former member of the Smith College Vibes, the acapella group from her college. Mr. Galvagni shared "shape singing" which is a way of reading music, and was our only bass. In the end, we were able to sing Bellyache acapella style, and we all took away some new singing knowledge!
-Nora B. '25, Alice C. '25
"Collaborative Playlist Fabrication" is an elective offered to students during the "Music and Dance" mini-term. It is created by two upper school science teachers, Mr. Mazzone and Mr. Bevan. This elective creates fun and interactive ways for students and teachers to work together to create playlists. Students and teachers came up with three playlists. One is called the “Pump Up” playlist, which is meant to energize and motivate students. The second one is the “Chill” playlist. It is meant to help students relax and unwind, and for the last playlist students came up with an idea of making a playlist called “The School Struggle.” This playlist is meant to help students focus when students are working on their homework. Each student submitted four songs for each playlist, then each student listened to the songs that other students chose, and eliminated one song for each playlist. After that, all students voted on eight songs that they would like to eliminate for each playlist. This allows a diverse selection of songs for students to listen to. Finally, we came up with three enjoyable playlists for all students to listen to. -Neo
At Bement, there is a tradition. Every mini-term, there is an elective called the musical, where students write their own script, music and perform at the end. This election is led by Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Massey and Ms. Temby.
This year, our play was about a group of people coming together with different professions. We all boarded the same plane but an accident happened. The pilot falls asleep! Who can save us? Who is capable of steering an airplane? There is one person who we were ignoring. He is quiet and sits in the corner but he is a valuable person. He is the person that will eventually help us out of this mess.
-Flora X. '23This year to go with the theme of "Music and Dance," Mr. Belcher hosted the shuffle dance elective in his room. The group was prompted to learn how to shuffle dance and make a routine before the Mini-term showcases where they would have to perform. They first started learning the Running Man dance move by watching a YouTube tutorial on Mr. Belcher's TV. The first week was a struggle, so they moved on from the Running Man and started the Polly Pocket move. Again, they watched a tutorial on how to do it. The Polly Pocket was a much more successful dance move for the Shuffle Dance Team to finish. When they performed, Eamon and Carter starred in a salsa duet gone wrong that turned into a shuffle dance party to the song "Monster." The performance was a hit and we hope it inspired people to shuffle dance.
Mr. Belcher was inspired to do a Shuffle Dance elective because his YouTube recommendations were all shuffle dance videos.
-Eamon S. '25This mini-term's theme, "Music and Dance," prompted the creation of a wide range of educational and fun activities, including upper school English teacher Ms. Carter's elective, "The Aesthetics of Playlist Making." In this elective, students discussed the basics behind the foundation of a both audibly and aesthetically pleasing musical playlist. In groups, students worked together to create their own playlists according to certain themes and prompts and shared their results with the rest of the group. Their final project was to create an 24 hour long aesthetically pleasing playlist.
In this elective, students were encouraged to let their favorite music inspire them artistically. Students could create work based on song lyrics, the mood of music, rhythm, or album covers. Many students chose to work in watercolor or acrylic paint, but some used collage, pencil, or ink to make their masterpieces. The final gallery included artwork inspired by BTS, Joni Mitchell, AC/DC, Sia, and Imagine Dragons, among many others!
presentation about their Washington D.C. trip this fall, talking about Dr. King’s message and legacy. To finish the day, the students performed the chorus they created during their workshop sessions of “We Shall Overcome.”
Indoor track is a very interesting sport here at Bement. You do more than running around in circles. Every day is different. One day you could be hiking on the Pocumtuck Ridge at the top of the Eaglebrook Hill or you could be sledding down at the old Deerfield Academy ski lift. Mr. Belcher and his small group of students are always going on an adventure. Every day indoor track tries to run at least one mile at the Deerfield Academy indoor track. Indoor track also tries to get outside at least one day a week and go on a run or hike Indoor track focuses on conditioning for the upcoming seasons and having fun.
What do you think of when someone says “yoga”? You probably think of people relaxing and having a good time. Only one part of that is true. Yoga takes place at the dance studio at Deerfield Academy. When the yogi arrive, we start the day by running up and down stairs. We started by running up and down 10 sets of stairs, and every day we ran up and down two more sets of stairs than the previous day. After running up and down stairs, we go inside and meditate to slow down our heart rate. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, we would then go through a few poses and routines to warm up our muscles. After that, we would get into a few harder poses and do some core exercises. 15 minutes before the end of class, we will have a bit of time to brainstorm and execute some cool partner yoga poses. On Fridays after stairs, we would do lots of conditioning for 1.5 hours. Then we will spend 15 minutes on partner yoga. Yoga is really fun way to get really good balance, to get really strong, and to get really flexible.
This year, as usual, the squash team uses Deerfield Academy’s squash courts and in addition to Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Galvagni being our coaches, we also have Amherst College coaches coming in to help. They are very helpful and very professional. We train every day except Wednesday, and everybody works very hard during practices. With the coaches’ help, we learned and practiced a variety of shots like drop shot, volley, boast… We also got a lot of opportunities to play against other schools like Eaglebrook, Williston and Deerfield. Mr. Bartlett always finds games that can challenge us, and we always support each other and cheer on each other.
Staying in cold air with a single race suit on as you traverse a mountain initially seems daunting. Still, Alpine Skiing brings joy that can’t be found anywhere else. Unlike other sports, the ski team must travel all the way to Berkshire East to practice, which gives ample time to get to know one another in the ski vans. On most days we have a course set up to get us ready for each Wednesday race. The team competes in a league called MISL, racing against high schools and middle schools, which brings a wide variety of competition. One of the weeks, however, ten to eleven members of the team compete in the NEPSACS, facing off against prep schools all over New England. Due to us racing against the same schools every week, we are given the luxury of meet other racers from different schools, building connections with students outside of Bement.
Bement’s swimming and diving team has been very strong this year even with half the team being sixth graders. Coach Kelly, who was a former coach, rejoined the Bement swim team and was the assistant coach. Unfortunately, this year there weren’t any divers in the team so it was just a swim team. The team worked hard to improve on every stroke and learned how to be stronger swimmers. The team competed against a variety of different schools such as Eaglebrook, Deerfield Academy, Eagle Hill, and NMH. The team captains Tianni ‘23 and Larina ‘24 say that “Despite the loss of every meet, Bement had an exceptionally strong team this year even with swimmers from younger grades.” The swim team ended with a great season and they can’t wait for next year!
Basketball has always been a popular sport at Bement. This year, we are very excited to have a lot of old players rejoining the team along with new players who are also very passionate about basketball. As usual, we work on drills focusing on both personal skills and teamwork techniques. This season, we have had some challenging games. However, every team member showed a lot of resilience and great sportsmanship. We are very lucky to have Coach Plager to continue working with the group and Coach Calcaterra, who was able to help out a lot during both practice and games. Everyone has shown great improvement throughout the season, we have learned a lot about how to work with each other on the court, and our younger players have developed more confidence in playing this sport gradually as the season proceeds.
-Josephine X. '24Every year, Bement holds events for the Lunar New Year Celebration! This year, Students of Asian Heritage helped organize a series of fun activities led by Ms. Cho. Although a lot of the traditions for international students might be diminished due to the pandemic, the Students of Asian Heritage arranged nostalgic events reminding everyone of what students usually would do with their families back in their hometown. On New Year’s Eve, students interested in participating in the celebration gathered on campus for the event. The celebration started in Kittredge Building, where students were divided into two groups. A group of students made paper lanterns while the other students learned how to dance a K-pop dance, “Hype Boy” by NewJeans. After the “warm-up” activities, students moved to the barn for some student performances. The performance started with some New Year Wishes from three ninth graders; Jaelyn, Jamie, and Tianni. Then, Cleo ‘23 and Flora ‘23 presented the audience a beautiful duet of flute and cello of the piece “Childhood.” Afterwards, Iris ‘24 and Josephine ‘24 joined the group and performed the traditional Chinese song “Jasmine Flower.” We are very glad to have our alumni, Allen '23, joining us as he played some of his selected pieces on the piano.
Me” and led ances ended on presenting the 1st hat most students
TherewereavarietyofAsiancuisines,fromtraditionalChinesespringrollstothe famousKoreandishtteok-bokki.Studentsenjoyedthefoodalotastheychatted amongthemselveswithfriendsandfamilies.Everybodyreceivedredenvelopes fromMr.Schloatasthedinnercametoanend.Afterthedinner,boardingstudents gatheredandgotasurprisefromtheirfamilieswholiveacrosstheglobe.Families recordedvideosoftheirNewYearWishesfortheirchildrenwhileboardingstudents sattogethertospendtimewatchingthevideos.
Ofcourse,howcanyoucelebrateChineseNewYearwithoutdumplings?Several boardingstudentsvolunteeredtostaybehindforthefinalactivity,dumpling making.Studentsentertainedthemselvesbytryingtomakedifferentshapesof dumplingsandthoughtherewereonlyafewstudents,theyfilledthedininghall withjoyalongwithMs.ChoandMs.Wu.Thedayofcelebrationendedwithawalk withsomefriendsinthehopeoffulfillingourchildhoodexcitementofatraditional NewYear.
*SpecialthankstoMs.Cho,Ms.Wu,Ms.Liu,Mr.Shields,Mr.Schloatandallthe facultymembersandfamilieswhomadethishappen.
-JosephineX.'24
This January, the Bement Orchestra received an invitation to a performance at the grand Basketball Hall of Fame for the Lunar New Year Celebration in Western Massachusetts. On January 22, the student orchestra, led by Ms. Wetherby headed down to Springfield for their performance. The piece they had been preparing for this event was an arrangement of the traditional Chinese piece “Jasmine Flower” for the string orchestra. The performance started at 5:30, and the Bement Orchestra was the first on the list.
The orchestra performance was followed by a cello and flute duet of “Butterfly Lovers” by Cleo ‘23 and Flora ‘23. The orchestra’s performance demonstrated all the effort and dedication the students have worked on throughout the term. The duet was phenomenal, too, as the two ninth graders played the beautiful duet they had been preparing on their own. Following the performances was a Hulusi trio by Yulin ‘26, his sister Yuki, and their teacher. It was impressive to see the students representing The Bement School to a bigger audience. The students all had a good time at the Basketball Hall of Fame sharing their insights about the New Year with each other and the outside world.
-Josephine X. '24This term, the ninth grade English classes were asked to create monologues. It was different for both classes, Mr. Schloat's class was to compose a monologue inspired by a song that they love. And Ms. Keddy’s class was to write in the perspective of their instruments/object. We spent a month working on memorizing and performing in drama with Mrs. Ahern. This was a very special performance, because this is the first time in the three years since the global pandemic that ninth graders were to perform a monologue. It was a long standing tradition and as Mrs. Ahern said, “This was a tradition long before I was here.” We were all nervous at first, since some of us still had to work on memorization and becoming comfortable with being the only one on stage. We had to be careful of the speed at which we were talking, otherwise our words would not have been heard. Thinking about where to move and when was the right time to move was hard. The last few days before our performance was full of excitement and were highly strung. On the day of the performance, we got up and each of us did it with no problems at all. Some of us may have missed some lines but nobody noticed! We were relieved and happy that people enjoyed it. Good luck to the future ninth graders!
-Tianni Z. '23Do you know how to trot on a horse? How about grooming one? This winter, Horseback riders with varying experience levels drove up to R.E.R Ponies in Hatfield. Heather, the owner of R.E.R ponies, directed riders in how to lead, groom, and be around horses in the first week.
After that, you could typically find riders grooming, rotating around at interactive stations, and of course, horseback riding! They practiced walking at first (which is scarier than it looks!) and then moved up to a trot (also scary, but fun!). Steering and jumping position is demonstrated during each ride.
During these seven weeks, riders really got to know each horse and their personality, as well as which one is most suitable for them! “I like spending time with the horses and riding them is extremely fun,” says Grace C. ‘25. “If you don’t already ride, you definitely should. It’s a great experience.” Eleanor C. ‘25 adds.
-Nora B. '25H O R S E B A C K R I D I N G
"I like spending time with the horses, and riding them is extremely fun"
Every Wednesday in the winter term, upper school students have the opportunity to go up to Berkshire East to enjoy an afternoon of skiing after lunch. Berkshire East is a ski resort up at Charlemont; it is relatively close to Bement and it is also where the ski team goes for practice and races. Everyone is always excited about Wednesdays because we are lucky to have this privilege as a community on a school day to spend time with our peers and teachers up at the ski mountain. Every student who signed up for skiing is assigned to ski groups. Those groups are arranged based on the student’s level of skiing. Students get a chance to hang out with friends and, more importantly, bond with others who they might not be that close to. This year’s end of the term trip is an all-day trip to Mt. Snow in Vermont.
-Josephine X. '24Mount Snow
"I get to go on adventures and try new things outside of school and its really special."
Instead of taking classes and doing homework during Wednesday afternoons, students can choose different activities to do. This year, in addition to skiing, snowboarding, horseback riding and circus, we have added rock climbing. Rock climbing might sound like a scary activity because climbers go very high and only rely on a thin rope. However, it actually is a lot of fun. We travel down to the Northampton Athletic Club with Ms. Ahern and Mr. Mazzone every Wednesday afternoon and climb for hours. No matter what level you are, there will be a variety of routes that you can choose from. It is a lot of fun to challenge yourself and some students even learned how to belay other climbers.
-Flora X. '23
As usual, Bement students participated in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards hosted by Tuft University and won several gold and silver keys in various genre of arts. Below is a list of all the winners and the name of their artwork.
-Cleo X. '23
Iris Z. '24: Gold Key ( Flash Fiction ) for The Land of a Thousand Hills
Angelina Z. '24: Gold Key (Personal Essay & Memoir) for A Long Way Home
Honorable Mention (Critical Essay) for Are Lockdowns worth it?
Honorable Mention (Poetry) for Hey COVID
Cleo X. '23: Silver Key (Personal Essay & Memoir) for Amid Air and Between Clouds
Bella H. '24:
Honorable Mention (Flash Fiction) for That Day
Josephine X. '24: Silver Key (Dramatic Script) for Twilight Tears
VISUAL ARTS RECIPIENT
Emily C. '25: Silver Key ( Drawing & Illustration) for Bond
Honorable Mention (Drawing & Illustration) for Little Big Monsters
individual voice and it is important to execute and share our ideas and stories. In Bement's new studentled club, we celebrate students who have a passion for creative writing. This club strives to build a strong writing community at Bement and endeavors to attract students who are interested in expressing their voices through writing. Students are encouraged to sign up on Bement's Look Ahead, or are welcomed to come talk to the club’s advisor, Ms. Carter. The club meets once a week after school from 4:30 to 5:30. So far, students have been working on poetry and flash fiction, and are preparing to share their WIPs (work in progress) to receive fellow peer feedback. Creative Writing Club is always open for those who are interested to improve, share, or begin a process of creating their own works of writing.
-Iris Z. '24One of the less pleasant aspects that usually accompanies winter is perhaps the chilling coldness, which was often followed by the necessity of wearing thick clothes. Recall: how many gentle chidings from Ms. Keddy or a more serious admonition from Mr. Belcher have been about the importance of wearing jackets? You would probably say too many! But allow a stage for science to speak its reason and your answer would probably change into: never too many!
A question naturally follows the prior situation where a human being is simply trying to stay warm: how do we preserve heat? Well, in order to answer this question, let me first explain what “heat” is. According to thermodynamics, the study of different forms of energy and their relationship, “heat” is the transfer of thermal energy that is due to a difference in temperature. So in order for a transfer of energy to occur from your body into the lonely big world, you need to be warmer than the environment, or, as how the universe likes to operate —- the other way around. But then how does heat get transferred exactly?
There are three ways:
1). Conduction
2). Convection
3). Radiation
And the reason why jackets can keep us warm has mostly to do with the first way of heat transfer. First thing first, conduction mostly happens through molecular collisions. As some of you may already know, the higher the temperature, the faster the movements of the molecules. As the molecules bump into each other as they mindlessly meander in the air, a motion almost like the domino effect spreads out and the originally slower molecules would now have gained more speed while the faster ones would slow down due to the collisions. A poorly conjured analogy is offered: imagine a roomful of kindergarteners.
Given their energetic nature, they humorously bump shoulders and fist with each other, sometimes mischievously stepping on the feet of others. While outside the room are the solemn ninth graders, with their advantage of age and a mystified air of maturity they are cool and composed. Let’s then assume the kindergarteners are released. Now they not only just messed with their peers, but the bolder ones began to approach the ninth graders. Slowly but surely, this jolly and active energy is being spread even to the older students and everyone began to interact with each other physically. The rate of how fast is this energy/heat is being spread out is captured by this formula:
H is the heat flow rate, k is a constant that is determined by the kind of material in which the activity happens, also called “thermal conductivity,” dT is the change in temperature and dx the thickness.
A noteworthy fact is that the thermal conductivity of air is remarkably small, making the flow of heat rather difficult (see chart).
Before you read on, I recommend you to grab your puffy jacket and try to squeeze it. The jacket would get smaller … then after you remove the force it would expand right back again, right? The air pockets are doing most of the restoring work. Your jacket does not keep your warm by being thick and dense to prevent cold air from going in through the fabric, but instead it traps air inside to reduce the heat flow rate.
The next time you are heading to DA for sports or sprinting to the dining hall only to find you have to wait in the freezing weather for some time, remember to grab your jacket, remember that the thermal conductivity of air is less than one, remember that all jackets exist for a reason and most importantly, remember that PHYSICS keeps you warm!
-Cleo X. '23
WINTERTERM-2023
THE BEMENT SCHOOL STUDENT MAGAZINE
EDITOR IN CHIEF
MAIN PUBLISHER
MAIN GRAPHIC DESIGNER
GRAPHIC EDITORS EDITORS
CLEO '23
FLORA '23
FLORA '23, JAMIE '23, MELANIE '25
NORA '25, ALICE '25
JOSEPHINE '24, JESSICA '24, IRIS '24,
MELANIE '25, NEO ´25
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
LARINA '24, VICKY '25, NORA '25, ALICE '25
PHOTOGRAPHER
JOSEPHINE '24, LARINA '24, MADDIE '24, EAMON '25, ISAAC '26