Families and community members filled Carlmont’s campus for Open House, where classrooms were transformed to showcase student learning.
The event, held on Feb. 5, allowed students to explore course options for the following year while giving parents the chance to speak with teachers about curriculum and student performance.
While Open House is an annual tradition, each teacher approaches the event differently, using a range of methods to engage visitors and showcase what learning looks like in their classrooms.
“Some of them have presentations. Others are just happy to chat and answer whatever questions you have,” said Richa Kapoor, a parent of a student at Carlmont.
Some teachers use student-led presentations to give families a direct look at student work. On Open House night, Biotechnology Institute (BTI) English teacher Susan Gold had students present long-term interdisciplinary projects developed over several months.
In the BTI program, English II students researched real-world applications of biotechnology, while English III students designed advertising campaigns for environmentally friendly cleaning products they developed in their biotechnology lab classes.
Gold said student presentations make Open House more authentic for both students and families.
“It shifts the experience from presenting for a grade to sharing something meaningful,” Gold said.
According to Gold, watching students explain their own work demonstrates learning more clearly than traditional materials.
“A syllabus tells you what students are supposed to learn, but watching them present shows you what they can actually do,” Gold said.
Open House allows families to see the project-based learning aspect in action, which is very different from reading about it on the BTI website. Students help parents understand what they’ve researched and what learning looks like in practice.
“When visitors engage with students, it helps them understand the rigor and hands-on nature of the BTI program,” Gold said.
Other teachers use creative activities to spark interest and make learning more engaging for visitors. Physics teacher Gregory Fung has incorporated creative Open House projects into his classes for more than a decade.
These projects included having students decorate cakes with physics concepts and creating physics-themed music videos.
“I want to be instructive while also generating enthusiasm for physics,” Fung said.
According to Fung, excitement plays a key role in helping students stay interested in challenging material. It also piques prospective students’ interest in the class itself.
“When you do things that get people interested and excited, I think that’s a good hook into wanting to be interested in the subject,” Fung said.
Fung said these projects also help students engage more deeply with the content.
“It’s fun to do things that are creative and more than just traditional curriculum,” Fung said.
These interactive approaches were common across multiple classrooms during Open House.
In room D27, history teacher Patricia Braunstein had AP World History students create interactive games and activities for parents and children to participate in. According to Luca Papa, a sophomore in the class, the goal was to educate guests about a topic in world history in a fun and interactive way.
For Papa’s activity, he and his group had participants create candles to demonstrate the domestication of fire.
“We wanted to make a candle to show people how techniques have evolved throughout time,” Papa said.
Through the teachers’ different approaches, Open House gives families a clearer understanding of how learning happens at Carlmont. From student-led presentations to creative and hands-on activities, the event shows how classrooms are designed to help students apply what they learn.
“I think it’s a really important part of what we do to explain and show the community who we are,” Fung said.
