Experimenting with a head start on science

November 13, 2011|By Michelle Cerulli, Globe Correspondent

Freshman Matt Noyst poses a question for teacher Paul Duplessis during… (Mark Wilson for The Boston…)

It took some convincing for Marlborough High School freshman Danya Gaudet to warm up to the idea of enrolling in a new early-college program known as STEM - for science, technology, engineering, and math.

But her mother encouraged her to try it.

“In the fall of last year, STEM was just an idea,’’ said Veronica Gaudet, Danya’s mother and the district’s human resources director.

“By springtime it had come to fruition. By the time they rolled it out to students, eighth-graders had already made their schedules, but I thought it would be a good program for her.’’

Kicked off in Grade 6 at Whitcomb Middle School and Grade 9 at Marlborough High this fall, STEM’s core is engineering, but its teachers work to integrate the program’s pillars of project-based learning and problem-solving for real world applications across all subjects.

Students frequently work in groups and are encouraged to think outside the box. A ninth-grade STEM class might involve students using computer software to design a 3-D object as part of a project on transportation. Or it might include a classroom visit from a professional working at Intel Massachusetts or Raytheon, or an internship experience with another industry partner.

So far for Danya, it’s working out. Her favorite part of the program is seeing the connections being made among her different subjects.

“I really like how we’re talking about the same thing’’ in different classes, with the current topic transportation safety, said Danya, who hopes to be a zoologist.

“History started with the Scientific Revolution. In English, we’re learning how to write different essays so we can do our reports on transportation. In science, we’re talking about motion, and we’re learning about graphing in math. I’m starting to understand how things are linked.’’

The district is the first of six in the state to implement the STEM early-college program. Marlborough will add class levels each year until grades 6 through 12 are included. It will also allow juniors and seniors to take up to 16 college credits at Framingham State University, a longtime partner of the Marlborough district.

Another district partner is a national nonprofit organization, Jobs for the Future, which developed the early-college model for underserved youth. Marlborough is one of about 250 schools in the country using the model; roughly 80 of these are STEM schools.