ATOMS builds relationships while teaching science

By JEN COWART
Posted 2/13/19

Students and staff raced around the gymnasium at Rhode Elementary School – the former in the role of the “prey,” the latter playing the “predators.”

They played a game called …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

ATOMS builds relationships while teaching science

Posted

Students and staff raced around the gymnasium at Rhode Elementary School – the former in the role of the “prey,” the latter playing the “predators.”

They played a game called “Meerkat,” with students – both high school and elementary age – working together to develop signals for “safety” or “danger” as they moved across the imaginary savannah. As the “predators” moved from group to group, shrieks of laughter could be heard.

“This is the most fun I’ve ever had in my life,” one blindfolded high school student could be heard saying to another.

This was the scene Feb. 8 during one of three activities held as part of a visit from Cranston High School West students.

The high schoolers – sophomores, juniors and seniors – visit Rhodes periodically to help teach science using innovative activities and mentoring partnership. They are part of the ATOMS, or Accelerated Teaching of Modern Science, program, which is now in its third year.

Rhodes teacher Susan Weber and Cranston West teacher Jo-Ann Mangiarelli teamed up to create the partnership after connecting while attending a professional development day in the summer of 2016. The program also included Weber’s then-teaching partner in the fourth grade, Stephanie Pearson. Weber has since moved to the fifth-grade and has a new teaching partner there. Pearson has remained connected to the program as well.

The program started with just under two-dozen students. Over the past two years, however, it has grown to the point where Mangiarelli needs two busses in order to transport her students, as well as an additional staff member, teacher Chris Martineaux, to come along in order to help facilitate the various activities.

In the time since the high school students’ last visit to Rhodes, preparation has been taking place at both schools for the next visit. The students at Cranston West have met regularly to help prepare activities for their younger peers. The Rhodes fourth-grade students have readied their classroom and studied up on their energy knowledge, while the fifth-graders have focused on their knowledge of biomes, food chains and survival.

On Friday, the students from Cranston West were housed in two locations. Some were upstairs with the fourth grade, working with Pearson’s students on a variety of station rotation experiments focused on various types of energy and types of reactions. Downstairs in the gymnasium, both Weber and Jim Gemma’s fifth-grade classes combined and were sorted into groups for two activities taking place after an initial icebreaker activity.

“The coolest part of this whole thing is the relationships that develop between the kids,” Weber said. “It’s an unexpected benefit that we discovered the first year we started the program.”

Mangiarelli agreed.

“It’s truly the best part,” she said. “The science is great, but the relationships are the best part. It’s very heartwarming.”

According to the two teachers, the younger students write to the older students between visits.

“I’ve had some of my students who have sent me photos of their corkboards in their college dorm rooms, and they’ve taken those letters to college with them,” Mangiarelli said.

In fact, the teachers recently learned that an ATOMS alumna wrote her college application essay about her experience in the program – and that it earned her a scholarship.

As the elementary students and their high school counterparts worked together, scientific discussions could be heard among all the laughter.

Caitlyn Dilello, a Cranston sophomore, helped her fourth-grade partner, Isabel Sigler, work through the experiment at their station as they discussed exothermic energy and oxidation.

“The fourth-grade students are very knowledgable,” Mangiarelli said. “They know their vocabulary, they understand it, and our kids add to what they know. It’s great fun for our kids to share what they know with the younger kids. We always debrief on the bus ride back, and they’re always amazed by what the students know. It’s impressive.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here