Our Wildwood, Volume 54

Diving Deep Through REAP Established in 2017 and funded through the Landis Green Innovation Fund, Wildwood’s Research Exploration and Advancement Program (REAP) has enabled Wildwood faculty to spend a summer diving deep into their areas of scholarship, with the goal of bringing their findings back to Wildwood. Through REAP, upper school Spanish teacher Roxana Lopez traveled to Spain to explore new ways of supporting language learning. She attended the International Conference on Applied Linguistics to Language Teaching at Universidad de Nebrija in Madrid to deepen her understanding of how students acquire and connect with a second language. Roxana is especially interested in how emotion plays a role in learning—how feeling connected to what you read, write, hear, and see can build empathy, strengthen communication, and help students understand different cultures and perspectives. “As I was exploring the emotional and aesthetic dimensions of multimodal language learning, I got the chance to live it firsthand,” Roxana said. “Walking through Madrid and Valencia, I was surrounded by art, music, and literature during inspiring visits to museums, performances, and one of my favorites, the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciènces in Valencia.”

Electric Wolves Earn Control Award at FIRST Tech Challenge Interleague Tournament Wildwood School’s robotics team, the Electric Wolves, competed at a highly competitive interleague tournament hosted at Diamond Bar High School, facing teams from across two Los Angeles–area leagues and some of the strongest programs in the Southern California region. The team was honored with the Control Award, a prestigious recognition within the FIRST Tech Challenge that celebrates excellence in software development, sensor integration, and intelligent robot control. The award recognizes teams that use innovative programming and technology to enhance robot performance during gameplay, including autonomous operation, intelligent mechanical systems, and the effective use of sensors to solve complex challenges consistently in real match conditions.

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OWW SPRING 2026

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