News from St. John School:
From the doorway of our science lab you will see a neon glow, feel a hum in the air and hear the boom of explosions! No, we aren’t conducting radioactive experiments! This is the excitement of our students learning science with hands-on activities in our new science lab program.
We are excited, too.
This year, Joanne Giroux (Mrs. G) and Marcia Tucci-Murphy (Mrs. M) bring science alive in the lab each Thursday for excited, engaged and enthusiastic students in grades K2 through 5. According to Mrs. M, “Although the children are studying science with their classroom teacher, the focus of the new lab program is to give the students additional science lessons in Earth and Space Science, Life Science (Biology), Physical Science, and Technology and Engineering.” All lessons are based on national and state science standards. The focus in the lab is on:
* scientific inquiry
* scientific literacy
* reasoning skills
* hands-on activities.
“Students engage in inquiry, predicting, observing, reasoning, experimenting, critical thinking, reflecting and notebook writing with the goals of making science fun and improving student achievement,” says Mrs. G.
Mrs. G and Mrs M each hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees and Massachusetts state certification to teach grades K through 8. Both have taught many years in the public schools and have been affiliated with various science centers in the area, such as the Museum of Science and the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in developing and teaching science curriculum. They both coordinated and taught the Summer Enrichment Camp at St. John’s for the last two years. “We hope to instill a love of science in our students that will inspire future astronauts, astronomers, paleontologists, meteorologists, engineers, doctors, and scientists,” exclaims Mrs. M.
St. John School
* 9 Moon Street · Boston, MA 02113 · Tel. 617-227-3143 www.sjsne.com *
