North Babylon Science Teachers Use Cutting-Edge Teaching Methods
Under the leadership of Director of Science, Ms. Alison Offerman-Celentano, science teachers have been incorporating cutting-edge teaching methods into their classrooms. In fact, science teachers grades 7-12 were given professional development in both inquiry-based activities, led by teacher Brian Taylor, and POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning), led by Science Director Alison Offerman-Celentano. To those unfamiliar with POGIL, Ms. Offerman-Celentano explains: "POGIL gives a teacher the tools to create meaningful cooperative groups where there is both individual and group accountability. POGIL forces students to work together to solve a problem or complete a challenge with the teacher acting only as a facilitator."
Chemistry teachers at the high school have been incorporating inquiry-based and POGIL activities into their teaching practices for over a year and the other department members are now trying POGIL for the first time. Both 7th and 8th grade teachers have embraced inquiry-based activities and have been incorporating them since the beginning of the school year. In fact, middle school science teacher Kenneth Luna remarked on the process of performing a traditional egg density lab using the new method: "I liked that using an inquiry-based approach encouraged students to think. And I intentionally gave them some lab materials that weren't a help at all in making the egg float to simulate the challenges scientists face in the real world."