Adventuring

This past Wednesday, the school arranged a field trip to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco for students to enjoy and learn through their informative exhibits and shows! First, students were taken to the planetarium show, Habitat Earth, which educated the audience on the Earth's varying ecosystems and how they affect all of the living organisms inhabiting them. Students were then able to explore the museum, whether it was walking through the immersive aquarium, observing birds, butterflies, and other tropical species in the four-story rainforest dome, or experiencing San Francisco's two largest earthquakes in a simulation room. The Oxbow faculty also arranged for a special viewing of scientific field journals collected by the museum. Museum representatives Amelia and Yolanda explained the importance of keeping an accurate journal with sketches, measurements, and written notes, explaining that details are vital to the accuracy of research. Because all Oxbow students are required to keep a journal with documentation of our art and research processes, this viewing gave students new ideas on other ways to record our thoughts and observations. After boarding the bus to head back to Oxbow, students were surprised with a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge! A tradition at The Oxbow School, students walked across the bright red bridge, admiring the views of the San Francisco Bay and enjoying the chilly weather. Overall, the field trip was a great transition into the start of final projects that will be commencing in the next few weeks!

- Celia G

photos by Devon R and Celia G

Project X Sneak Peeks

Though the content of Project X is kept underwraps until the grand unveiling for each group of students, we can still share sneak peeks of everyone's work! This is one of my favorite posts to compose each semester - it's great to see just the essences of everyone's piece and how they hold their own to create an alternate show of distilled work. 

These masterful detail photos were taken by Brenna M and Yoon J.

 

Co-curricular highlights!

Though Oxbow is an arts school, we try to get our students out of the studios on excursions as often as possible. Our co-curricular program offers the perfect chance for just that. Read on for comments from Isabel K. and Sarah S. along with some great snapshots from three of our current co-curriculars: Extreme Hiking, Must Love Dogs, and Surf and Turf.

This week, OS33 began the third round of co-curricular activities. There are six groups doing different activities every Tuesday and Thursday. Every few weeks, the groups rotate so students have the opportunity to try out different activities throughout the semester. The options are: Walkabout with Pattiann, Bicycling with Patrick, Surf n' Turf (kayaking and gardening) with Alex and Chris, Extreme Hiking with Jennifer, Ultimate Frisbee with Mo, and Must Love Dogs (volunteering at the local animal shelter) with Megan. I am in the animal shelter group, where we work with dogs and rabbits. For the dogs, we walk them, train them, play with them, and give them company in their little kennels so they can get used to being around new people. When working with rabbits, we hold them for socialization and refill their food and water. The shelter always has amazing animals waiting to be adopted, including dogs, cats, bunnies, chickens, sheep, and even a cow! Every Tuesday and Thursday, we leave the shelter wanting to adopt a puppy!

- Isabel K.

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This week at Oxbow, the third and final round of co-curriculars began. Jennifer's Extreme Hiking crew is ready for a co-curricular session filled with trees, dirt, and views. They enjoyed two great hikes this week, both of which pushed the hikers to their full potential. On reaching the top of Westwood Hills' Perimeter Trail, Olivia said, "it just really makes you feel like an angel," noting she felt high above the clouds and loved looking down at the machinery of Napa.

Sarah S.