By Alicia Brooks-Waltman
Thirty-six Hopewell Valley Regional School District 4th graders are taking part in an innovative new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math magnet program that emphasizes a hands-on, scientific approach to learning.
The program, offered for the first time this year, enrolls students in two classroom sections at Bear Tavern Elementary School. The students come from all four of the district’s elementary schools, and four of the students come from the neighboring school districts of Ewing and Trenton as part of the state’s Interdistrict Public School Choice program. The state pays the Hopewell Valley tuition for each out-of-district student.
Last spring, Hopewell Valley got more than 50 applicants for the new program. All took a test and were given a hands-on, engineering or scientific task to perform as part of their evaluation to determine if their skills made them a good match for the magnet, said Bear Tavern principal Bruce Arcurio.
“We want kids who are different kinds of learners, who are tinkerers,” Arcurio said. “We looked for kids with an aptitude for this type of learning.”
Arcurio said special education students with learning differences are included in the STEM magnet.
The program teaches science and all of the fourth-grade curriculum subjects through a problem solving, inquiry-based, learning lens, Arcurio said. For example, while doing the current scientific unit on water and weather, they may read books about water during reading class and do water-related problems in math. Other scientific units the classes will cover this year are Energy, Human Body Systems, and Forces.
One recent day in class, the magnet students built homemade water filters using plastic bottles, gravel, cotton balls, cheese cloth, coffee filters and other materials. Each group designed and redesigned their filters, gathered materials, figured out how much their filters cost, built them, then tested them for speed and cleaning ability.
On another class day, the group visited the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, where they are building a new environmental education center that is packed with green building features. Donning hard hats, holding clipboards, and looking every inch like a pack of junior engineers, the group toured the sight and learned about solar panels, green roofs, geothermal heating and cooling, rain gardens, and other aspects of green building technology. They also took part in a lesson on the water cycle.
“So far, the students are thrilled and excited,” said Arcurio, who said feedback from parents in the program has been overwhelmingly positive.
The current fourth graders will continue in the magnet program in 5th grade, as well, and then go into the standard curriculum in middle school and high school in Hopewell Valley.
Parents and students interested in applying for the program next year should contact Superintendent Tom Smith’s office at magnetprograms@hvrsd.org. Information can be found on the district website under Magnet Programs at hvrsd.org/choice/Pages/default.aspx.
