NEWBURYPORT — A 43-foot humpback whale will be parked inside the Newburyport High School cafeteria on Friday. But the laws of physics haven’t gone topsy-turvy, nor has the space been converted into an aquarium. Rather, the whale is inflatable and it’s all part of the district’s first-ever Inspired Learning Day.
“We want to help students and teachers remember that learning can be inspirational and engaging,” Lisa Furlong, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning said.
Topsfield-based educational company The Whalemobile will be bringing the giant inflatable to class.
Whalemobile chief navigator and founder Cinde McInnis started her business about 13 years ago and has been bringing Nile, her blow-up humpback whale to schools and libraries ever since.
“She can take about a class at a time inside her to look at her internal organs,” she said.
Nile, according to McInnis isn’t only for little kids. High school-aged students, seem to forget just how cool they are once inside the large inflatable mammal.
“The kids think this is crazy, when they first see it,” she said. “But, when they get inside, you can see this child-like joy come out.”
Since January, Furlong said district administrators have been working with teachers to provide more lessons based on what their students say gets them interested in learning.
“Through a series of workshops, we asked students what makes learning inspirational for them,” she said. “Then we did the same with our teachers.”
Hearing things like history and the environment, Furlong, along with district literacy coordinator Thomas Abrams took the information they gleaned and challenged their teachers to create a day that would cater to those interests.
“The focus is really on the teachers experimenting with their planning,” Furlong said. “That way, the lessons they’re developing are inspiring.”
Teachers in all of the district’s four schools have been spending the past few weeks preparing for the first Inspired Learning Day. It will see them offering unique lessons on everything from sustainability to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
On Friday morning, everything will be put into place, when high school biology teachers Kaylee Hawked and Jill Moran welcome Nile the whale to the city.
History teacher Meghan Marlar is also teaming up with math teacher Megan Horst to offer a high school class dedicated to cracking the JFK assassination case.
Abrams said students in that course are expected to break historic codes that will reveal information about a mystery as well as construct a viable argument with the information they uncover.
“Those are two teachers teaching cross discipline,” he said. “We really love that.”
Francis T. Bresnahan Elementary School third-graders have been tasked with researching a notable Massachusetts figure in history. They will produce a slide, detailing what they learned about the person, then dress up as them in what is being called a living wax museum.
Second-graders at the school are also working with eco bricks recycled from large balloons. Abrams said that will teach them about sustainability as well as recycling. The project includes students writing letters to local public servants, asking them to avoid single-use plastics.
A number of projects will also be going on at the Edward G. Molin Upper Elementary School, where students will be designing houses and learning about the triangular trade (the exchange of goods, raw materials as well as slaves between Africa, Europe along with the Americas) from the early colonies through the American Revolutionary War.
Rupert A. Nock Middle School eighth-graders are writing collaborative poems that Abrams said incorporate mathematical functions.
He added the upcoming Inspired Learning Day has energized his teachers.
“All throughout the planning for this, the teachers were asking if they can do it. We kept telling them they can and we would help them pull it off,” Abrams said.
Furlong said the district is excited to embark upon its first go-round with the project.
“Post COVID-19, it’s fun to see our educators getting back to curriculum development and being excited about planning lessons that connect well with students,” she said. “From a teaching and learning perspective, I think it’s going to be an important day for us.”
Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Newburyport for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.