Westfield and Summit Teachers Exchange Ideas on New Science Standards

Teaching science to middle school students was the topic of conversation recently when teachers and administrators from the Westfield and Summit Public Schools met at in Westfield in a curriculum roundtable discussion. 

The group examined the Westfield spiral curriculum in science, which exposes students at Roosevelt and Edison Intermediate Schools to the four branches of science every year – Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Physics – and is built upon each of the following years. 

This approach reflects the recommendations of Project 2061 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science Teachers Association. 

The representatives from both school districts discussed the new standards as well as approaches toward increasing inquiry-based learning for the students and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) initiatives. 

Attending the session were (seated at left, front to back): John Ross, Science teacher at the Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School; Stephanie Kwiatkowski, Science teacher at Roosevelt; Kelly  de Rosa, Science teacher at Johnson; and Jeff Heaney, Assistant Principal at Johnson; and (seated at right, front to back); Dave Stoneback, Westfield Supervisor of Science K-12;  Jeff Robbins, Science teacher at Roosevelt; Karen Cotter and Erik Parks, Science teachers at Johnson; andMatt Block, principal of Johnson Middle School.