NYSSBA Recognizes Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School
In only its second year of existence, Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School is making a name for itself. The New York State School Boards Association’s Be the Change for Kids Innovation Award program has formally recognized the Huntington School District’s efforts toward creating an innovative and productive educational environment.
Sponsored by the Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, the Be the Change for Kids initiative “highlights successful programs that are making a difference; programs that set the stage for our children’s future successes in college, career, community and as citizens,” according to NYSSBA.
“The Jack Abrams STEM Magnet program was designed specifically to serve as an inclusive means of enhancing student curiosity, creativity critical thinking and civic responsibility,” Huntington Superintendent James W. Polansky said. “Like all other district schools and programs, this program and its staff welcome and respect all students and their families as members of the Huntington community of learners. It has been designed to prepare students for life-long learning by developing their confidence and abilities as independent thinkers and problem-solvers. The school is committed to the use of innovative, inquiry-based, student centered, interdisciplinary methods that foster creativity as expressed through multiple intelligences and multiculturalism.”
Key foundational aspects of the school’s philosophy include:
• Students, staff, families and the community deserve respect;
• Students can reach their full potential by maintaining consistently high academic expectations and by building their sense of responsibility for learning and caring for each other;
• Students should recognize that many problems have multiple solutions;
• Learning is an active process;
• Learning is most effective when it is real, purposeful, and useful to the student;
• Curricula should guide students in mastering key concepts, ideas and skills that are essential and connected to the methodologies of the disciplines;
• Curricula should be rooted in discovery, manipulation of ideas, and integration of the various subjects;
• Schools should prepare students for the future by teaching them how to successfully address present-day issues.
“An overarching goal of the Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School is to facilitate a process through which students will become scientifically, technologically and mathematically literate,” Mr. Polansky said. “Students use scientific, technological, and mathematical principles in real life applications such as design engineering and service projects that contribute to the learning environment and district community. They continue to use what they know to create new ideas and learning products. The school routinely celebrates and embraces diversity, as students to work as team members in both a respectful and collaborative manner.”
Led by Principal Rae Montesano, Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School opened in September 2013, enrolling about 150 students spread across grades three, four and five. Enrollment in the building grew to about 280 youngsters for the 2014/15 school year, which saw the program expand to encompass several sixth grade sections as well.
“We are committed to the STEM magnet school serving as the ‘STEM hub’ for the district in an effort to facilitate replication of aspects of the program and its methodologies at other schools within the district and in neighboring districts,” Mr. Polansky said. “Teachers in the program have engaged in many hours of professional development in STEM curriculum content and inquiry-based instruction. We have begun the process of engaging those teachers in turn-keying learned approaches and methodologies to teachers in other buildings and disciplines.”
Mr. Polansky said the STEM school’s educational program is designed to prepare students for advance study, college and careers in the STEM disciplines. “Again, it features an inquiry based teaching and learning model with an innovative STEM curriculum,” the superintendent said. Every effort is made to provide valuable and meaningful field experiences, as well as to bring in practitioners who can support students’ understanding of real-life applications of learned concepts.”
Last year, a local electronics firm donated funding and mentors so that the school could initiate a robotics club. “Student members have been involved in planning, building and programming their devices to perform certain tasks,” Mr. Polansky said. “This has provided them with a foundation should they wish to participate on the FIRST Lego League team at the middle school or in the high school-level FIRST Robotics competition.”
A Huntington Foundation grant amounting to more than $10,000 has helped fund creation of a pond ecosystem in a courtyard at the school. “Student use of this area will be supplemented with field experiences to parts of Long Island that are considered critical components of the local estuarine environment,” Mr. Polansky said.
Students have taken ownership of their school and embraced the STEM curriculum.