Save the Date!

STEM ACADEMY Morristown High School

Morristown STEM Academy Visits Stevens Institute

The MHS STEM Academy Class of 2018 spent the day at Stevens Institute of Technology this summer. The field experience exposed students to STEM laboratories, professors, and students working in research areas such as material science, nanoscience, engineering, robotics, and green technology.

STEM Workshop

July 22 - 24

iSTEM Workshop August 12 - 14

Teacher workshop on integrated

STEM with TCNJ

Opening Day

September 4th

Opening day of school for students

2014-15!

S U M M E R 2 0 1 4

Summertime! The summer months are in full swing as is MHS! The building is buzzing with renovations, preparations, and of course STEM! Incoming STEM Academy students were on campus for a three day workshop, science and technology teachers are working on design challenges with the iSTEM department from TCNJ, engineering teachers are going through Project Lead The Way Training, our research science teacher is presenting classes at the College of St. Elizabeth, a new nanoscience course is being written, and teachers are developing engineering lessons of study in programs at Rutgers and Stevens Tech. Summer is a time for preparation and our faculty is doing just that; looking to bring new strategies of STEM education to our students. Read on and see what we’ve been up to!

Brian S. Young STEM Academy Director Morristown High School

STEM Workshop for incoming freshmen STEM Academy students

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“TEACHERS IN ACTION” MHS STEM educators spend the summer developing professional skills and careers

gaining valuable experience to bring into the classroom in 2015!

NJ iSTEM: Engineering by Design

The process of “engineering by design” and integrating design challenges into STEM classrooms has been the focus of the Science and Tech Ed departments here at MHS. In collaboration with the TCNJ iSTEM department MHS teachers have enlisted in a two-year developmental process to create meaningful design challenges to enrich curricular concepts. With the guidance of Chris Anderson and Alek Sadiwnyk the teachers are collaborating across disciplines to develop a groundbreaking approach to teaching engineering in the classroom. The teams have been using design briefs as templates while incorporating the newly adopted Next Generation Science Standards. This summer MHS teachers spent two

weeks in professional training toward implementing PLTW courses in Engineering & Design. Mr. Joeseph Componile and Bernadette Mehrtens worked on the Principles of Engineering course curriculum for PLTW at Rowan University while Deborah Spencer was sent to Florida for PLTW training in Aerospace Science & Engineering. Engineering teacher, Mariel Kolker has also been collaborating with Stevens Institute to draft a Nanoscience Engineering course that will be offered to students starting in 2014-15. These four teachers, along with Tech Ed teachers Jack Rizzo and Lauren Shohen, have developed an engineering program that includes courses rich in theory, application, and technical design.

Project Lead The Way

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MHS Summer STEM Workshop

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complete human skeleton. Students were exposed to design-based activities, collaborative learning and task management, as well as exposure to collegiate programs, research, and laboratories. Here are some of their responses:

“I liked the way everything was self-paced and there was no pressure and no reason to worry about a grade” ~ Michael Moran

“What I found most interesting was how much I learned from actually doing the activity rather then being taught” ~ Pat Meringolo

“I liked how we had the opportunity to experiment, and fail with the materials we were given rather than reading it from a textbook” ~ Jeremy Lawlor

“I liked how quickly we got started doing things as opposed to sitting and listening to a teacher talk” ~ Mairen Flanagan

“Instead of taking 20 classes to do one project we learned some information in a few minutes and then went right to work” ~ Yusty Sanchez

What is an Arduino Board? Arduino is a tool for making computers that can sense and control more of the physical world than a desktop computer is capable of. It is an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller board, and a development environment for writing computer software that controls responses initiated by the device.

MHS Summer STEM WorkshopMHS Summer STEM Workshop

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On July 22nd, 23rd, and 24th the Morristown High School STEM Academy hosted its annual workshop for incoming academy students. Approximately 40 incoming freshmen spent three days participating in design challenges, scientific investigations, and field experiences. The workshop days were designed and run by MHS staff and administrators exposing students to STEM activities, collaborative learning, and design based pedagogy. Some of the highlights of the workshop included a field experience to the campus of Stevens Institute of Technology, a two-day design challenge incorporating arduino boards and circuit alarms, engineering catapults and projectile launchers, developing research science podcasts, along with an anatomical challenge that culminated in assembling a

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MHS Student Wins Morris County Psychology Award for Research Work

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enhanced visual and auditory integration. Alanna’s research began in 2012 and has continued throughout the past two years. Other research topics from the Class of 2013-14 include:

Evaluation of Agrose Gel Electrophoresis as a Molecular Typing Method for the Identification of S. epidermidis, A Model Organism for MRSA (Julia Flores)

Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting Snow Pants: Turning Body Heat Into Usable Energy (George Bozzi)

The UV Absorbency of Chlorophyll Compared to Oxybenzone, Avobenzone, Homosalate, and Octocrylene (Rachael Kaufman)

The Auditory Stimuli Impact on Teenage Girl’s Dream Cognition in REM Sleep (Gillian Covillo)

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Alanna Levine, a Research Science and Academy student here at MHS, is the winner of the 2014 Morris County Psychological Association Award. The award and association centers around behavioral science and promoting research in young, aspiring students. Alanna was one of two winners from student entries spanning across Morris County, NJ. The student research work was evaluated and judged by a panel of licensed psychologists in the field of behavior science. Alanna’s research was entitled; “THE IMPACT OF AUDITORY, VISUAL, AND AUDTORY-VISUAL STIMULI ON THE SHORT-TERM MEMORY OF HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS”. This research

investigation sought to discover whether visual or auditory senses have a greater impact on memory. Results of this study have the potential to inform the educational community of different learning modalities, revolving around

Front row, Daniella DiGuglielmo, Caitlin Grady, Alison Swanbeck, Dana Rafferty and Sara Cummings; back row, teachers Erin Colfax, Erin Feltmann, Joseph Geddes, MCPA president Marc Gironda, teachers Jennifer Brown, Amanda Rosen and Scott Gambale.

Morristown High School STEM Academy Applications

Released in September! The Morristown High School STEM Academy applications will be released this fall for any student interested in applying to the

academy for the 2015-16 school year. The application process begins in

October and will be finalized in January. Each year a class of

approximately 50 students are accepted into the academy and begin an educational journey rich in STEM fields of study. Accepted students are

required to adopt a major track of study in one of five fields:

Biomedicine, Engineering, Architecture, Environmental Sustainability, or Computer Science. Weekly professional presentations, field

experiences, summer programs, research, and community service hours

make for a well-rounded experience for any student passionate about math, science, engineering, and technology. For more information visit

the Morristown High School website and follow the STEM Academy on

twitter @MHS_STEMacademy!

Upcoming Fall Newsletter 2014: Academy Course Menus, Teacher Profiles, NJ Science Convention

and much more!

Brian S. Young STEM Academy Director Morristown HS 50 Early St. Morristown, NJ 07960brian.young@morristownhighschool.org 973-292-2000 ext. 3102 Twitter: @MHS_STEMacademy