Schools

Elementary Science Kits Approved By School Committee

Kits would provide hands-on science learning in Melrose elementary schools.

The Melrose School Committee voted last week to use $15,000 made available by the Melrose Board of Aldermen to purchase one FOSS (Full Option Science System) science kit for each of the five Melrose elementary schools, at a cost of $3,000 per kit.

The aldermen voted in June to to the city's fiscal 2011 budget, which includes that $15,000 for science kits. The School Committee voted last month to accept the $15,000 allocation, but had yet to discuss — until Tuesday night — the district administrative team's recommendation to use that money to purchase the science kits.

Each FOSS science kit has 3-6 units focused on various subjects, resulting in 4-6 weeks of hands-on science study using the kits, and the FOSS curriculum — created at the University of California-Berkley — has the majority of materials teachers would need to implement the kits in their classrooms available for free on the FOSS website, including multimedia that could be used in instruction.

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At last Tuesday's School Committee meeting, allocating the $15,000 for the science kits was included in the monthly budget report.

School Committee member Carrie Kourkoumelis said that the committee should've had prior public discussions about the administrative team's recommendation to purchase the science kits, saying that she would have suggseted using the $15,000 to hire a consultant to specifically target grants to pay for a full science curriculum. She added that the district's curriculum director, Pat Muxie, said it would be several years before Melrose can consider a full science curriculum.

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Kourkoumelis also read from a letter by Gary Garber, a physics teacher at BU Academy and a Melrose parent, who wrote that the FOSS science kits are "great for kids, very hands-on and inquiry-based.' However, Garber cautioned that the kits have "a lot of consumables," teacher prep-time and are not a standalone curriculum, lacking any observational sciences such as zoology or astronomy. To that end, Garber recommended that a review of the Melrose science curriculum by the National Science Teachers Association could be done for the same cost of the kits.

"So I'm very concerned that we're jumping into purchasing these science kits," Kourkoumelis said. "I've been asking for weeks, wait, months to have a discussion ... but we never got a legitimate discussion in the chamber of this matter. I'm not in favor of jumping into this purchase. It's certainly a worthy thing to consider, but we never discussed this and, once again, it's the budget process, which is not your fault necessarily, but a process that needs to be mediated and changed."

Committee member J.D. LaRock said he was "strongly in favor" of purchasing the science kits, but noted that Garber's letter raised some valid concerns.

"I've heard directly from constiuents that science education is an area where, in some schools at least, people have expressed a desire for improvement," LaRock said. "On my usual drumbeat of MCAS and what we're doing to prepare students for that ... from a big picture perspective, the use of $15,000 to purchase these kits — although there are many other legitimate uses —  seems like a good one. I'm glad the aldermen set this process in motion and the allocation — as long as we do the appropriate follow up referenced in that letter — this can be a big positive over time."

Speaking to the administrative team's recommendation and Garber's letter, Superintendent Joe Casey said that he has spoken to other districts using the FOSS science kits effectively, noting that the district is "not putting all our eggs in one barrel" in acknowledging that the kits do not constitute a complete curriculum.

"We feel it's something we can move forward with today," Casey said. "We have professional development beginning right away with teachers."

Committee member Christine Casatelli said she appreciated Garber's insights and added "I wish we all had the opportunity to see the letter" prior to the meeting. Kourkoumelis responded that the letter "just arrived.

"With all due respect, I've been asking to have Mr. Garber to come before the School Committee for a couple of months and I've been told 'no,'" Kourkoumelis said.

"I have not spoken to the gentleman," Casatelli replied. "I would have loved to have spoken to him myself."

The committee voted 6-1, with Kourkoumelis the sole 'no' vote, to accept the monthly budget report and approve the purchase of the science kits.


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