Be the Change Week at Bronx Letters

Every year, all Bronx Letters middle schoolers take part in a fun, dynamic program we call “Be the Change Week” involving research, field trips, hands-on making, and group presentations.

Students form small groups to explore their chosen topics, and then at week’s end, the school is abuzz as each group showcases and explains their findings to other students, faculty, staff, and visitors.

This year’s theme was highly topical: We took inspiration straight from the United Nations and their Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Each BTC group was created with these goals in mind, so that Bronx Letters students could play a part in bettering our world by the time we enter the next decade.

Topics included:

· Climate: conservation, protecting ecosystems, solar power and the impact of climate change on our local community

· Food: food security, healthy food access, nutrition, hydroponics, know what you eat!

· Humanity: healthy cities, empowering girls and physical/emotional self-care, educational equity

The students partook in relevant field trips, talking with growers at the Union Square farmers’ market, taking yoga classes, recording an original climate change rap at a professional studio and comparison grocery shopping at Whole Foods and their local store.

Touring the exhibitions and hearing the students explain their work was a joy! Kudos to the teachers for sparking the kids’ creativity and learning. Students used mosaic tiles to illustrate air pollution, built a mini-house out of plastic water bottles and made a toy car go with solar panels.

So proud of our BAL Ravens!