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Smith is an enthusiastic partner with schools throughout
Northampton, sharing in the community’s efforts to provide an excellent education
for all children. Central to this partnership is Smith’s Department of Education
and Child Study through which Smith student interns serve in Northampton public school
classrooms and Northampton teachers engage in an array of professional development
opportunities.
Interns from the Smith College School for Social Work
also are active in the Florence Learning Center of Northampton High School and JFK
Middle School. These interns both work in the schools and attend school council and
committee meetings, where they share their perspectives on how particular issues
such as school climate, parent involvement, and teacher communication, impact the
development of educational plans and programs.
In addition, throughout the school year, local high
school students enroll in college courses on the Smith campus and children explore
Smith’s labs, gardens, and galleries. During the summer, students and teachers
come to campus for the Smith Northampton Summer School, the Summer Science and Engineering
Program and the Summer Institutes for Educators.
In the spring of 2006, President Carol T. Christ invited
members of the Northampton school community to a gathering that celebrated these
collaborative accomplishments and explored further opportunities for local educators
and students to learn in partnership with Smith College students, faculty and staff. This
event, which was hosted at the Smith Museum of Art and attended by over 100 Northampton
educators and students, also provided wonderful networking opportunities that further
connected local schools to the college’s resources.
In 2006, Smith President Carol T. Christ hosted a spring
tea to celebrate the connections between the college and Northampton's public schools.
Additional highlights of the Office of Educational Outreach’s
work with educators and students in Northampton over the past year include:
Partners in Health is an ongoing collaboration
with health educators and counselors at the JFK Middle School and Northampton High
School. Understanding that health and wellness are crucial to promoting social and
academic success for all students and to closing the achievement gap, it aims to
improve the overall welfare of students in the Northampton Public Schools. Participating
guidance counselors and health educators (open window to list below) meet at Smith
throughout the school year and engage in annual intensive summer workshops and retreats. One
result of their work has been the implementation of a Peer Educators Program to ease
the transition of eighth grade students to high school. Other activities have included
bringing the NiteSTAR Program, a nationally acclaimed theater company that uses drama
and peer education to help teenagers avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases
to Northampton for performances at NHS, and talks by health experts, such as Dr.
Richard Kreipe, a leading expert on adolescent eating disorders and their treatment,
who spoke to the community on, “What's School Got to Do with Them? Adolescents
with Eating Disorders.”
Partners in Health is sponsored by a grant to Smith
College from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a medical research organization.
Participants
Keri Camarigg, JFK Middle School, Physical Education
Sharon Carlson, JFK Middle School, Health and Physical Education
Christa Chiarello, JFK Middle School, Guidance
Yajaira Fuentes, Northampton High School, Guidance
Salem Derby, Northampton High School, Health and Physical Education
Lisann Giordano, Northampton High School, Guidance
Ellen Hirschberg, Northampton High School, Nurse
Leslie Jaffe M.D., Smith College, Health Services
Kathleen McKenna, JFK Middle School, Guidance
Maureen Moore, Northampton High School, Guidance
Northampton High School Peer Educators
Isabelina Rodriguez-Babcock, Northampton Public Schools, Superintendent
Gail Scordilis, Smith College, Educational Outreach
Beth Singer, Northampton High School, Principal
Leslie Wilson, JFK Middle School, Principal
Doug Winsor, Smith College, Educational Outreach
Byron Zamboanga, Smith College, Psychology
Smith connects it mission in the science and
engineering to the needs of the schools in Northampton through a wide array of outreach
activities. These include:
Summer Science and Engineering Program (SSEP)
for high school girls
This four-week intensive course in science and engineering attracts high school students
from around the world. In 2006, a total of 97 girls, including six scholarship recipients
from Northampton and western Massachusetts, attended the SSEP program.
Designed for Her
Engineering that Engages Girls in Learning: With a grant from the GE Foundation,
a project team of engineering faculty, teachers from JFK Middle School, and undergraduate
engineering and education majors are working on the development of a fiction book
containing engineering activities targeted at middle school to 9th grade girls -
the gender and age group at high risk for leaving the STEM pipeline - for national
dissemination.
The Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (PAS)
Ford PAS is an experience-based academic and personal development curriculum for
middle and high school students, that Smith introduces to teachers through ongoing
summer and academic-year professional development opportunities. Northampton High
School and JFK Middle School have received grants from Smith for Ford PAS
materials for use in their classrooms, while teachers from throughout the region
were offered training workshops in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Pro/DESKTOP.
JFK Day in the Lab
JFK Day in the Lab brought the Blue Dolphins team from JFK Middle School to campus
in the spring of 2006 for a day of hands-on science and engineering activities.
Approximately 100 eighth graders studied leaches in a biology lab using high-powered
microscopes; participated in engineering activities on fluids and solids and sounds
and circuits; and studied geometrical principals exhibited in sculptures at the
Smith Museum of Art.
Preparing Future Science Teachers
Preparing Future Science Teachers is a collaboration between the Smith College Picker
Engineering Program and the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School pre-engineering
program that began in the fall of 2006. It links Smith students enrolled in a course
taught by Professor Glenn Ellis on the teaching of science and engineering with
faculty and students at the high school. The Smith College students gain insights
and first-hand experience as teaching assistants in an engineering classroom. They
also serve as mentors and role models to support the high school students’ transition
to science and engineering in college and beyond..
Ryan Road Science Nights
On four separate evenings throughout the school year, a cadre of enthusiastic Smith
science and engineering majors bring the excitement and fun of science to more
than half the students and families at the Ryan Road School. Through unusual activities,
such as looking at Newton’s Laws using linguini and lasagna and making
ice cream with liquid nitrogen, this program offers science enrichment to students
and teachers.
For more information contact Gail
Scordilis, Director and Doug Winsor,
Partnership and Outreach Coordinator, Smith College Office of Educational Outreach.
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