In Our Schools

STEM Committee 2015-2016  Accomplishments

  •  Science National Honor Society Established at both NHHS and VHS
  •  Math Science Articulation Plan
  •  Attend and participate in staff development activities that introduce the cross curricular overlap between math and science (and other STEAM subjects in the future)
  •  Review the math practices documents and identify areas where the science and math overlap.
  •  Meet with Math Department at provided in-service to develop joint lessons for topics
  •  Joint Observations with Math/Science Department for interrater reliability
  •  Joint Grant Approved by NHEF and VHEF to train Science Departments in Inquiry Based Instructional Model to support this aspect of the Next Generation Science Standards
  •  Vertical Curriculum Writing Project Grades 6-12.
  •  All Sending Districts and Both High Schools have participated in this project. Regional Units of Instruction for Science grades 6-8 have been created based on the NJ Model Curriculum and Next Generation Science Standards.
  • Added Online Chemical Inventory
  • Increased the number of and focus of the articulation meetings with sending districts to help strengthen and align math programs in all districts.
  • New computer course for the upcoming school year in both schools – AP Computer Science Principles.
  • Both schools encouraged the entire student body to participate in One Hour of Code in December.
  • Math Awareness month celebrated at both schools.  Guest speaker from Muhlenberg College came to North to discuss the theme The Future of Prediction through statistical analysis of baseball stats.
  •  More teachers are being educated to teach computer classes – two are earning computer science certification through CSTA.
  • Teachers attended the Ignite STEM Conference at Columbia University in April to gain ideas in encouraging more interest in programming.
  • Outcomes from this conference is a proposal to hold a Maker Fair in our district that would be held on a Saturday and open to the sending district students as well as to our own students.
  • Include Makey Makey kits in our Intro to Programming classes to encourage more interest.
  • Hold a district-wide hackathon.
  • Voorhees Tech Ed/Music lab was updated with a new projector, new computers and was used for all Tech Ed and Music Tech classes. The Music department also used the lab for ear training for Band, Choir, and Music Theory classes.
  • Plans to include STEAM connections in lesson plans for the Art, Music, and Practical Arts classes.