Oak Hill Middle School math/science teacher — and NewtonSTEM board member — Norma Sullivan is retiring this month from the Newton Public Schools, after a career of inspiring many, many students.  She has taught in Newton since 1987, first in fifth grade at Memorial-Spaulding Elementary and since then in sixth grade at Oak Hill.

“I firmly believe that you get the [STEM] hook for kids when they’re in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grade.  That’s the age when I can maybe change their thinking.  I look at it as three pillars — Science, Math, and Technology — that support Engineering, and you have to know the pillars to understand Engineering.  If the kids can learn these things for a reason and they know it’s meaningful, then they’ll buy into it more than learning these skills in isolation.”

Inspired by her participation in a LIFT2 externship, Ms. Sullivan has brought STEM professionals into her classroom (via Science From Scientists and DIGITS and school parents) and brought her students on field trips to Natick Labs, iRobot, and other organizations to raise awareness and pique interest around STEM-related fields.

Each year, Ms. Sullivan’s sixth graders create a huge, hallway-long poster describing over 100 STEM-related careers that they have identified, highlighting the name of each career, what is involved, what type of person would enjoy it, and what subjects to study in high school to prepare for it.

She was also a founding faculty advisor for the Oak Hill First Lego League robotics club, the MegaOHMS.

She will be missed in Newton Public Schools, and we hope she’ll continue to remain deeply involved in NewtonSTEM.