By winning second place in the State TEAMS competition last spring, the Newton North HS Science Team earned the right to be one of two teams representing Massachusetts at the national TEAMS competition in Washington, DC at the end of June.  At that national event, eight NNHS students at the Grade 9/10 level competed in written, verbal, and problem-solving challenges focused on this year’s theme, Engineering Tomorrow’s Cities.  In nationwide ranking, the NNHS team placed 2nd overall, 1st in the written competition, and 3rd in problem-solving.  Congratulations to David Reiss-Mello (captain), Derek Baker, Bowen He, Amy Huang, Katherine Gao, Shuming (Andrew) Sun, Nicholas Zhang, and Lucy Zheng!

Newton North HS teacher — and Chief Innovation Officer and coordinator of Newton’s Innovation Lab and Greengineering program — Steve Chinosi has been named one of twenty-four MIT Inspirational Teachers of the Year, selected worldwide from nominations by current MIT students.  The award “recognizes outstanding secondary school teachers who inspire in their students a love of learning, encourage them to pursue excellence, and give them the skills and enthusiasm they need to make a positive difference in the world.”

Kevin Osborn — a key driver in helping local libraries develop programs in the Maker movement — saw a recent NewtonSTEM notice about MIT’s Edu DesignShop and decided to apply.  He was one of 100 selected (out of over 230) for this two-day workshop to “learn about ‘design thinking’ and use it to design for a systemic change in education.”  The wide-ranging participants — from a fourth grader to a 62-year-old policy maker — were grouped in interdisciplinary teams of four, and each team was challenged to identify and develop an idea for improving education.

At the workshop, Kevin was assigned to a team with a Bronx English teacher (Paul Allison), a Creative Tech director at a private school (Jonathon Schmid), and an MIT Sophomore (Victoria Dean).  Alternating among sessions of sketching, brainstorming, prototyping, and hands-on development, the team struggled to find common ground.   In the end, however, the team was excited to present its vision of Connecting Makers with Educators to develop projects that can span subjects and incite student creativity.  They got others excited, too:  Kevin’s team was one of four winning teams awarded $1000 to help develop its idea further.

The Newton South HS Math Team came in third place at the Massachusetts Association of Mathematics League state meet in April, qualifying the team to participate in the New England Association of Mathematics Leagues, where they finished in first place! Team participants for both meets were: Evan Zeng, David Cao, Andrew Shaughnessy, Jason Ma, Jae Lee, Margalit Glasgow, and Daniel Shaar.

Congratulations are in order!  Last Saturday, when 44 high schools from across Massachusetts competed in the Massachusetts Science Olympiad at Framingham State University, Newton North HS Science Team placed 2nd and Newton South HS Science Team placed 4th statewide.  Together the Newton teams won first-place medals in 7 of the 20 competitive events (NNHS 5 + NSHS 2).  Overall, NNHS won 13 medals and NSHS won 4.

The 20 competitive events are chosen each year to reflect current science in genetics, earth science, chemistry, anatomy, physics, geology, astronomy, mechanical engineering and technology.  The Olympiad emphasizes hands-on, group participation, inquiry/process skills, and content knowledge.  Students compete in groups of two or three and must cross-train to be prepared for the event schedule that is released later in the year.  Well-rounded, collaborative teams excel in events such as: Continue reading NNHS and NSHS Excel at Massachusetts Science Olympiad →