By Jenn Abelson
Malverne School District turned its classrooms into a laboratory for educators from various Nassau County school districts to learn and practice new teaching techniques in math, science and technology.
The program, co-sponsored by Nassau BOCES, is a collaborative initiative by Hofstra University, SUNY Stony Brook and the National Science Foundation to get students excited about learning science, math and technology at a younger age, according to Marie Archibee, supervisor of curriculum instruction and professional development at Nassau BOCES.
In early July, a dozen teachers received 60 hours of instruction on philosophy and integration techniques; specifically, how to provide hands-on, thought-provoking experiences to teach math, science and technology to students.
Last week, the teachers translated everything they learned during the previous two weeks into innovative enrichment activities for Malverne students.
Activities came in the form of "challenges," explained Barbara Allaire, a Downing Elementary School teacher who participated in the program. Allaire's students, who had completed the third and fourth grades, had two challenges: to make a kaleidoscope and a parachute.
Allaire taught lessons about prisms and geometry -- as well as air resistance and volume -- to furnish the students with the knowledge they needed to take on their challenges. The youngsters worked in small groups and chose from a variety of materials to construct the best kaleidoscopes and parachutes.
"It was really fun," said Shaniece Munlyn, who in June completed the third grade at Davis Elementary School. "My favorite part was when we launched the parachutes. It showed how good of an engineer you were. Mine stayed up for 2.8 seconds."
The older students, who completed fifth and sixth grades, confronted the challenge of designing and creating remote-operated vehicles that could travel to Mars and collect rocks.
According to Caryl Lorandini, a Malverne math teacher who took part in the program, the students learned about every facet needed to construct the vehicles, including pulley systems and electricity.
The young engineers applied their knowledge using mini-hacksaws, drills and other tools to make the space cars and tested them in a hallway obstacle course last Thursday.
"It was kind of tough, but fun and exciting at the same time," said Nadia Khan, who will enter seventh grade in September. "I'd do it again if I could."
As part of the project, students had to stay within a $100 budget. Although no real money was exchanged, students made a spreadsheet noting all costs, and could write extra essays to "make money" and buy additional goods, Lorandini said. BOCES funded the purchase of the materials through a $12,000 grant received for this and other summer programs.
All of the students, 16 total, attended school for three hours each morning for combined lesson and labs. Although the students had participated in enrichment programs during the year as well, the aim of the summer laboratory is to have teachers use the techniques during the year in all of their classes.
"This was an exciting professional development activity for teachers," said Sharon Simmons, Malverne district supervisor for curriculum and instruction. "We hope this will help to inspire them to find innovative ways to turn on students to the areas of science, math and technology."
According to BOCES supervisor Archibee, the Malverne summer laboratory experiment highlights a new, and much needed, paradigm of professional development: combining theory with application.
"If teachers just learn the theory without applying, we greatly diminish the chance of having them implement the techniques in the classroom," Archibee said.
Although the summer lab has finished, the teacher training hasn't. Educators will receive a book of the new laboratory techniques for the upcoming school year and additional training throughout the year.
"The summer lab was very productive. It gave me new ideas to take back to the schools and more effective ways of meeting New York State's mathematics standards," said Allaire, who has been teaching in Malverne for 13 years. "I gave up three weeks of my summer in hopes that this would be good. It was."
