On Centre

Advanced science courses inspire students and faculty to work across disciplines and look well beyond Centre Street.

Story by Grace Tatter

Since the fall of 2010, Upper School science classes have been held in the gleaming, glass Pritzker Science Center, whose architecture makes the Science Department’s ethos clear. 

“We learn by doing,” says Julie Seplaki, a teacher in the department since 2011, and its former chair. “The building was designed so that when you walk into Pritzker Science Center, you see students doing science.” 

The types of science you might see students doing range from testing their own DNA to gene editing yeast with CRISPR to investigating oxidative stress and inflammatory responses in tetrahymena cells—research powered by their own inquiry and grounded in transdisciplinary courses including Disease Biophysics, a course Seplaki developed and teaches, and Molecular Genetics, which is taught by Michael Edgar, who designed the course and led the department for 13 years. 

Seplaki was drawn to Milton as an instructor because of its “learning by doing” philosophy, and because she knew that it was a place where the richness and depth of the sciences is recognized. Rather than chopping science up into separate disciplines—chemistry, physics, and biology—and divorcing scientific concepts from important context, courses like Disease Biophysics recognize the intersectional and transdisciplinary nature of real-world scientific problems. The course deliberately draws from engineering and visual arts curricula to expand and enrich students’ skill sets and habits of mind. 

Milton has another advantage: its proximity to cutting-edge scientific research at universities like MIT and Harvard. “I’ve been able to engage in conversations with practitioners in medicine, education, and research, which has fueled more questions in my mind and has really helped to inform the kinds of curriculum and pedagogy that my students experience in the classroom,” says Seplaki. She leveraged the laboratories at Milton’s doorstep to create the Disease Biophysics curriculum. Several years ago, she was listening to an NPR interview with Kit Parker, the Tarr Family Professor of Bioengineering and principal investigator of the Disease Biophysics Group at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Parker described his fascinating research involving the use of light to control intracellular pH. “That conversation got me very excited, because he was modeling a quite abstract process that our students explore in the classroom but often struggle to see as tangible.” 

Seplaki reached out to Parker to learn more about his group’s research and was eventually invited to spend a year conducting research in their lab. The experience allowed Seplaki to collaborate with scientists from all over the world, and to identify the skills scientists need to contribute meaningfully to research. Often, even college students are not exposed to curriculum in ways that highlight the intersections of scientific disciplines in research, Seplaki says. “We need to be planting the seed much, much earlier.” Now, speakers from Parker’s lab make regular appearances in Seplaki’s class, and her students visit the lab and its unique embedded art studio at Harvard to discuss and witness their research in real time. 

Edgar and Seplaki also help students connect with scientists from the broader Milton Academy community. Edgar recalls how a Milton parent invited molecular genetics students to tour the lab where he was researching RNAi, or RNA interference, the process in which cells silence gene expression. Last year, that parent won a Nobel Prize. And Seplaki is in regular contact with Curtis Cetrulo ’88, a pioneering surgeon based in Los Angeles whose work demonstrates the life-saving applications of what Seplaki’s students learn in class. 

Sometimes, both Seplaki and Edgar extend their net even wider, to the scientific community at large. Both stay abreast of the latest developments by reading academic journals, and they regularly reach out to scientists doing work that intersects with their course curricula.  

“What I’ve found about the scientific community is that when you reach out to people and explain that you’re a high school teacher and you want some advice or some guidance, 90 percent of the time, researchers will be super helpful,” says Edgar. 

Seplaki and Edgar agree that the most important factor in the scientific courses they’re able to teach at Milton isn’t the facilities or the location: it’s the students. 

“The reason I’m able to do this course is because of the kinds of students we have at Milton Academy,” Seplaki says. “In many ways they’re fearless. They come in with a very open mind and lots of questions, and they’re not afraid to share and augment their ideas with their classmates. Those are the kinds of students that you can push boundaries with.” 

Those fearless students enter Seplaki and Edgar’s labs with a range of skill sets and passions. Typically, students lean toward the humanities but are drawn to these advanced science courses because of the way the subjects clearly intersect with daily life. While the courses are launching pads to advanced degrees and careers in STEM for some students, Edgar and Seplaki believe they have something to offer students regardless of their professional paths. Students leave Seplaki’s class not only with a solid foundation in disease biophysics, but also in how to communicate complicated ideas. To solve the most challenging real-world problems, her students will not only need to understand high-level topics, they’ll need to be able to share their ideas about them. “Whether they go into science or not, I want them to be clear and compelling communicators,” she says. 

Additionally, the type of research students conduct in Edgar’s and Seplaki’s courses is becoming more central to medical treatment. For example, DNA sequencing is changing both how diseases are diagnosed and treated, allowing for more specific diagnoses and targeted therapies. “Even if students don’t do the sequencing or don’t go into science, if they have experienced that and know a little bit about it, it makes them better at evaluating that information as a person or a patient,” Edgar says. “They’re going to be in a doctor’s office with their family members one day talking about medications and the side effects of those medications. It’s important to be able to ask questions and to understand mechanisms of medicinal therapies,” Seplaki adds. 

The science in both genetics and disease biophysics is advancing rapidly, which means that the courses at Milton are different every year. “It’s going to be an ever-evolving curriculum, which is, to be honest with you, what makes it appealing to me,” Seplaki says. “I am constantly learning new things.” 

Grace Tatter is a journalist and writer living in Brooklyn. She produces podcasts for WBUR and Boston’s NPR, and her work has appeared on NPR and in Harvard’s Ed. magazine.

In the Lower School, Milton’s youngest musicians gain confidence and find their own rhythm.

Story by Marisa Donelan

As its screaming crowd of superfans cheered and held signs, the Undecided took its biggest stage yet. The rock band was opening Milton’s first-ever “Quadchella” music festival to kick off this academic year, on a ticket with several other student and professional performers. 

The Undecided brought the house down with a set of classic-rock covers and originals. And they had just started fifth grade. 

The band is the happy outcome of a Lower School music program, led by teacher Beth Sorrentino, that seamlessly mixes pedagogy and performance and encourages students to deeply mine their interests. During Sorrentino’s first year at Milton, she heard Tommy—the Undecided’s guitarist, who was then in third grade—play, and let him use the music room to practice during any spare moment. 

“He and other friends would show up at my door at recess because they wanted the chance to play, and they kept coming back,” says Sorrentino. “It turned into a pretty big jam session with anywhere from four to 12 kids playing music. Langston picked up the drums, and Calvin joined in on vocals. The three of them have stayed working together and writing their own material, as well as playing covers. At this point, I’m just sitting back and watching them blossom as a group.” 

Playing in the festival was an opportunity for the young musicians to connect with the community-building experience of performance—the etiquette involved in sharing a stage and equipment, working with a sound crew, and being responsible for important parts of the audience experience. 

The band’s evolution is emblematic of Sorrentino’s approach: exposing students to all the different possibilities music instruction and performance hold and encouraging them to explore. For the Grade 5 concert last spring, Sorrentino and the students wrote, designed sets for, and performed an entirely original musical—a time-traveling adventure through their memories in the Lower School. 

“It was an opportunity to try something they might not have realized they could do,” Sorrentino says of the musical. “Even if they didn’t want to be on stage singing, they could play a valuable role in working on lighting, or refining the script and keeping everyone organized. They all felt empowered to do whatever they could to make the production happen.” 

“I want to center the kids and their interests and experiences,” she says. “Infusing as much original, creative thought into a project means that I have to listen to and amplify their voices—by doing that, we can explore all the possible angles of what the students are capable of doing, and we build on those projects together.” 

Milton views co-curricular and special activities as necessary complements to academic courses and an important component of the program for students of all ages. Participation in offerings outside the academic classroom—art, athletics, robotics, culture clubs, and community engagement—benefits students of all ages. 

A century of research has shown that these benefits are broad in their scope: Activities promote curiosity and confidence as well as leadership, time-management, language, and math skills. Participating in community events, like concerts, fosters stronger relationships among students and their peers, as well as with the larger community, including parents and friends. 

Preparing for and delivering a musical performance gives students a tangible outcome that results from their musical learning, motivating them to improve their skills and to feel successful, concluded a 2021 study in the Journal of Research in Music Education.

“Music connects our entire community,” says Head of School Alixe Callen ’88. “When our youngest students take the stage and feel the support of all their older peers, when they get that applause, they know they’re an important part of Milton. It takes a lot of courage to perform in front of a thousand other students, and these moments build their confidence and validate their hard work.” 

Recently, the school has become more intentional about planning time for clubs, activities, and community events during the school day, giving students the flexibility to explore their interests and passions—and to see them as vehicles for belonging. Students in all grades perform throughout the year, lead discussions and assemblies on topics of special interest, and have moments to see themselves as difference-makers, whether they’re in kindergarten or their senior year, says Callen. 

“We give students the opportunities to take creative risks in an environment that is eager to celebrate,” Callen says. “Even when things don’t go perfectly, the support they receive from our community encourages them to make adjustments and try again. It motivates them to be bold.” 

When Sorrentino introduces a song to students, she balances a pedagogical approach—pointing out rhythms and chord progressions, and asking students to identify individual instruments and parts—with performance tips, adjusting the dynamics of volume and harmony, and coaching singers on their diction. 

By listening intently and dissecting the different parts of a piece of music, students develop their academic understanding of the work while building an appreciation of the art form. “I ask them to consider ‘What’s the buy-in for us as listeners? What sparks our imagination and makes us want to hear more? Or what do we not like?’” 

During a class in September, she plays “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around” by the Police. She asks students to notice the bassline, the mixing on the vocal track, and the lyrics. While they listen, Langston jumps on the drum kit and mirrors Stewart Copeland’s beat. Printed lyrics in hand, the other students sing along, learning the melodies for the verses and chorus within a matter of minutes. Different parts resonate for different students: One student wonders how the song would sound with the addition of a keyboard, while another—studying the 1980 lyrics—asks, “What’s a VCR?” 

“Some of our kids are really interested in recording and audio and tech, so it’s great to introduce them to music from before the days of digital recording. Other kids just want to know how Sting got his hair like that,” Sorrentino says. “And if they don’t connect to the song, maybe we won’t do it again. But one student said to me—and this feels like a success—‘This is a low-key vibe and I really like it.’” 

In 2023, Sorrentino and JoAnn Brown, the Lower School’s dean of teaching and learning, started a small but enthusiastic glee ensemble with fifth-graders, which has now expanded as an opt-in group for fourth-grade students. 

About 40 students pack into the music room to practice singing the Beatles’ “Blackbird” in harmony. Those who play instruments may have an opportunity to accompany the vocals, Sorrentino tells them. But as they learn the song, their first objective is to operate as a cohesive team: listening carefully to one another, watching the cues as she directs them, and properly enunciating the words. Once it’s time for them to perform, they’ll have mastered the skills to give them confidence. Brown, a talented singer, lends her voice to a flourish in the chorus. The students are impressed and pause to applaud. 

“I want them to understand that it’s OK to be a little nervous before performing, because that means they care,” Sorrentino says. “Music is such a centerpiece at Milton and every division has its own way of shining a light on it. Our youngest students have shown me time and time again that if they have the tools and the opportunities, what they can create is unbelievable. It’s just miraculous.”