Science Education: Local educators continue to evolve STEM programs

Second graders at Meadow Pond Elementary School Meadow Pond conduct an experiment to explore erosion, one of the concepts in the science unit titled, “Changing Landforms.” KLSD PHOTO

By PAUL WIEMAN

This article is the first in a series in The Recorder exploring how local schools are addressing the teaching of science and its related fields — technology, engineering, and mathematics — collectively referred to as STEM. This independently-reported series is made possible by a grant from Regeneron.

Denise Connolly has been the West Patent Elementary School coordinator and a teacher for 30 years. Over that time, she has seen big changes in how educators approach the teaching of science.

According to Connolly, the goal today is to show the young students not just the content of science education, but what it is like to be a scientist, to think like a scientist, to ask questions and seek answers like a scientist. If successful with the younger students, the thinking goes, the benefits of this approach will multiply as these students age into the area high schools and beyond.

“For the past decade or so, we have been changing how science is taught at West Patent,” she said in an interview this week, and “we continue to work and evolve.”

New curricular approaches, a growing number of course offerings, and districtwide investments in new labs and other facilities all reflect how local educators are deepening their commitment to science education. Following is a brief survey of these initiatives and the thinking behind them at several elementary and high schools.

“In Katonah-Lewisboro,” said Julia Drake, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, “we are focusing on improving the education and experience for our youngest students. In grades K-5 our program blends science literacy, investigation, digital tools, and active learning.”

With more hands-on learning as students explore age-appropriate scientific phenomena, they will be better prepared to learn and understand the science taught in the higher grades, according to educators.

These points are echoed strongly at West Patent Elementary School where Connolly has been leading a STEM-driven science curriculum for over a decade, blending experiential learning, state required labs, outdoor education and more.

“It’s all about sensory learning, conceptual learning, and hands-on experience that lead to depth of understanding,” she said. Gone are the days of rote learning and memorization. Every student in third, fourth and fifth grades completes specific lab exercises, and, starting last year, all fifth-graders participate in a state-mandated exam.

“All of this works together so that our youngest students have the science literacy and the ability to make connections later on in their learning,” Connolly stressed.

At the high schools, one can already see the benefits of the work done in the elementary schools, local educators said. For example, at John Jay High School, one important curricular change is that all ninth graders will now take biology. The district has found the pre-advanced placement biology course, created by the College Board, an appropriate curriculum for its students, according to district officials. In the past, the ninth-grade science curriculum was divided into earth science and biology students, setting students on different paths through the science curriculum as they moved up in years.

“With this recent change, more students will now have access to the more advanced courses, and that is an important improvement for our students,” Drake said. Because students are better prepared at the lower levels by learning how to be scientists, all can take biology at John Jay High School and open pathways for even deeper and more advanced learning in the later years.

While the core curriculum of the upper high school grades has not undergone many deep changes in recent years, STEM education is surfacing in different ways at KLSD and BCSD. Few courses display STEM better than robotics. Students must start from scratch and use science, technology, engineering and math — and trial and error — to go from “stuff in a box” to a working robot that responds to commands.

At local schools, robotics started as a club, but soon worked its way into the elective curriculum and became a course. In this manner, schools are now supporting active learning in the subject by devoting space, money for materials, and personnel.

Fox Lane’s forensic students at the DNA Learning Center. BCSD PHOTO

In fact, robotics classes have experienced rapid growth over the last few years. The robotics students in several competing schools are handed a task to complete and a set of agreed upon guidelines, and the students must build the robot to complete the task and then match their machines against the robots built by students at other schools in robotic competitions.

Additionally, both KLSD and BCSD proudly point to their science research programs as examples of an apex science class for their students. In these courses, students are overseen by a teacher and pursue independent science experiments, often under the mentorship of working scientists, and they prepare and present their findings at various science competitions, such as National Regeneron Science Talent Search competition, which this week announced the three national winners.

Capital projects also demonstrate how local school districts are directing funding to keep pace with the importance of science learning. Five science labs are being renovated at John Jay, each with their own lab preparation areas, and two new science seminar rooms to house the growing programs of robotics and science research are being added.

At the Harvey School in Katonah, the core curriculum of biology, chemistry, and physics “remains stable,” observed Philip Lazzaro, head of the Upper School. “While there has not been a significant increase in the interest in computer science at the high school level,” he continued, “we have created a dynamic and flexible elective program that adjusts annually to student interests and needs and closely follows the ideas and energies behind STEM.”

For example, he said when a group of students expressed an interest in advanced placement computer science, although it was not part of Harvey’s regular offerings, the school approved introducing the course. In another instance, observing that a number of their recent alumni were studying engineering in college, the school developed a high school-level engineering class to respond to those interests.

Harvey is also a local leader in robotics, and has devoted significant resources to allow this program to grow and thrive on campus. In addition, Harvey has created spaces dedicated to STEM, such as spaces specifically for their robotics classes and a makers lab designed to help students invent, discover, and build.

In the future, KLSD’s Drake said she has plans to build on current course offerings. The district aims to partner John Jay High School with local universities, thereby gaining adding college-level courses and a robust computer science component to its curriculum. At WPES, Connolly dreams of carving out a time and space specifically for STEM education and building this into the schedule of the elementary students. In the next school year Harvey will hire two teaching interns, recent college graduates who will serve as STEM-focused teaching assistants and supporters of STEM programs.