STEM Program Blossoms: Robust Sign-Ups for 2012-13

Groton’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) program continued to develop over the course of the 2011-12 school year, engaging students and reinforcing the School’s commitment to the evolving curriculum.

In September 2011, after careful planning, the pilot STEM 1 course began. Mathematics teacher Jon Choate ’60 and science teacher Dave Prockop taught this double-credit course to an intrepid and enthusiastic group of Third Formers in two classrooms in the basement of the Schoolhouse. Veteran teachers Stephen Belsky (science) and Bill Maguire (math) and a host of other members of the science and mathematics departments supported Choate and Prockop and provided input into the nascent program.

The course was decidedly different from the conventional Groton offerings: during STEM classes, scientific, technological, and mathematical skills and content were deftly woven together, and students were expected to collaborate regularly in this interdisciplinary milieu. For example, in opening discussions about the scientific method and methods of measurement, students were asked to use their mathematical and technological skills to measure the area of the Groton Circle; they worked in groups and presented their methods and findings to the class. Later in the year, as students were exploring three-dimensional geometric shapes and, simultaneously, how molecules bond and form crystals, they were asked to connect the worlds of mathematics and science by identifying crystalline forms using geometric language.

Initial evidence suggests that Groton’s pilot STEM course was a resounding success: sign-ups are so robust for the 2012-13 year that the School will offer two sections of STEM 1. Moreover, most of this year’s STEM 1 students have elected to continue pioneering as members of the inaugural STEM 2 class this fall. A team of mathematics and science teachers is hard at work designing this second double-credit course, in which Algebra 2 and environmental chemistry will function as the mathematical and scientific backbones, respectively. STEM 2’s significant engineering component will use materials produced as part of an engineering curriculum recently developed at the Museum of Science in Boston.

Through the course of the past year, Groton also has made great strides in conceptualizing the new building that the STEM program will inhabit. In Fall 2011, Groton engaged with a STEM facility planning firm—Architects of Achievement—and developed a building vision, which, after a competitive bidding process, recently was handed to architectural firm Shepley Bulfinch. A group of faculty members, led by Bert Hall, is meeting regularly with the Shepley Bulfinch team, striving to have a conceptual design completed by the start of school and engineered plans completed by early November.

The nexus of program and facility is powerful: Groton’s STEM team is excited about the transformative possibilities of this emergent program and its potential to better prepare our students to lead, learn, and serve others in the 21st century. As the program evolves, Groton sees ever more clearly how important this new facility will be in allowing the program to serve student needs in a world where STEM literacy is critically important.

Groton is grateful to its community—faculty, staff, students, trustees, parents, and alumni—for the deep and abiding support demonstrated for this exciting and important project. If you’d like more information about the emergent program and imagined facility, please contact Craig Gemmell.

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