Allow us to introduce ourselves…
Today your child began an exciting science program in their classroom offered by Science from Scientists. SfS is a Boston-based, non-profit organization that strives to improve science and technology attitudes and aptitudes. We send real scientists into the classroom during school every other week to teach exciting, fun, and curriculum-relevant science lessons. We will be visiting your child’s classroom every other week throughout the school year. We will bring engaging, informative, and stimulating hands-on lessons with us to supplement the school’s science curriculum.
The Instructors that will be working with the 4th graders are Dr. Norah Warchola (Dr W) and Beth Zylinski (Mrs Z).
Dr. Warchola earned her Ph.D. from Stony Brook University where she studied butterflies and how they move through fragmented landscapes. While at Stony Brook she taught a variety of classes including behavioral ecology and field ecology. Her current research at Tufts University focuses on endangered butterflies and how habitat management affects their behavior and reproduction. When she’s not chasing butterflies, Norah loves doing outreach and telling the public some of the reasons butterflies are so neat. In her spare time she enjoys walking in the woods, arts and crafts, pickling any vegetable that comes her way and baking wedding cakes.
Beth has always been interested in math and science and was inspired to pursue an engineering degree by her high school physics teacher. She earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts and also a M.S. in Engineering Management. While working in the engineering field, she was a quality and reliability engineer focused on testing integrated circuits and electronic chips. She is currently the Director of Web Solutions and Social Media at Science from Scientists in addition to being an instructor with the program. Beth enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons, traveling, reading and watching football.
Please check the Classroom Post on our website regularly to read about the science activities that your child is participating in and to view photos from your child’s classroom.
Keep in Touch with Science From Scientists!
How to view your child’s Classroom Post:
1. Visit our website at: https://www.sciencefromscientists.org/for-families
2. Click on the link for See inside the classroom.
3. Select your school/grade from the list.
4. Enter the password: SFS2016. Submit the form then save a bookmark to skip these steps next time!
Observation: Using all your senses
Making observations is one of the first things that scientists do when conducting experiments. In order to make observations that are thorough, accurate, and specific, we need to acquire as much information as we can, using all the senses we can safely employ. Observations can come before writing a hypothesis and creating an experiment, which means it is part of the first step in the scientific method.
For the activity, students were given bags with mystery objects to observe. The students were allowed to use all senses except for sight and taste. The goal was to practice making good observations and descriptions. They did a great job and were able to determine what many of the objects were using listening, touch and small.
We look forward to our next visit and working with your students this year!
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