While the business of preparing Cazenovia High School students for June Regents and final examinations drives faculty in the high school science department, an additional exam is being developed by the state to administer to eighth grade students. This June will be the first time it will be pilot tested. Cazenovia has been signed up to take part in the pilot testing program but there has been no word from the state as yet.

The exam, which will be piloted by the State Education Department this coming June and will be officially on-line in June 2001, is called the Intermediate Level Science Pupil Evaluation Test (ILSPET). The intended purpose of the test is to assess the intermediate grade level (grades 5-8) science skills of students to that point. It will be administered during Regents week, according to Eric Jerabek, science department leader at Cazenovia High School.

The science curriculum for fifth and sixth graders focuses on general science skills while seventh graders study life science. At the eighth grade level students spend half the year studying principles of chemistry and the other half of the year studying physics concepts.

"We are working hard to align all the curriculums in a way to give students the amount and type of exposure they need for each content area," Mr. Jerabek said. "To align curriculum between teachers and buildings is a challenging task and takes commitment. We are currently working hard in several areas to be ready for ILSPET ahead of schedule."

Members of the faculty from both buildings recently attended a conference to learn more about the exam and what the format of the test will be. At this point it appears the exam will have an objective question component as well as a lab practical.

Mr. Jerabek said he was extremely pleased with student performance last June on the Regents examinations. "Every Regents class we tested had at least 90 percent of the students scoring passing grade," he said. "In both biology and earth science one hundred percent of the students in ninth and tenth grade were tested. Those are results the community should be proud of."

As schools move into another year of adjusting to the new state education department standards, Mr. Jerabek said the challenge of integrating those standards into daily lesson plans continues. "We are continuing to work on curriculum alignment," he said. "We need to take the new standards and incorporate them in our lessons."

Environmental Science Students Gain Hands On Knowledge

Students in Stacia Nourse's Environmental Science classes have been busy this year with a variety of activities which have supplemented their classroom learning.

One of the most interesting has been the participation in the Project Watershed Project , a joint effort of area schools which studies the properties of various waters in the area. Cazenovia students have adopted the Chittenango Creek from the outlet of Cazenovia Lake to the Sewage Treatment Plant on Route 13. The project is done biannually with environmental science students conducting the fall testing of water properties and Advanced Placement Biology students conducting the spring testing.

The purpose of the project is to involve students in the protection of their adopted stream by checking water quality, looking for signs of trouble, and taking action to solve pollution problems," Mrs. Nourse said. "Project Watershed provides students a unique opportunity to learn about rivers and streams through hands-on experience. By leaving the traditional classroom and venturing outdoors students can begin to appreciate the fact that the science they learn in school has exciting real world applications. They also learn that their actions do make a difference and their help is vital in ensuring our rivers and streams are protected."

The project has a web site where results from the student's tests on the Chittenango Creek can be studied. The site's address is http://www.esf./esp/prjh20sh/index.htm.

Earth Science Students Dig for Diamonds

On October 1 Regents Earth Science students at Cazenovia traveled to the Herkimer Diamond Mines to experience hands-on identification of minerals and rocks. Students had the opportunity to collect Herkimer Diamonds (which are quartz crystals) and tour the museum which contained displays of different minerals and rocks.

Mrs. Nourse said as a result of the visit to the diamond mine, students were better able to identify local minerals and they also gained knowledge about how minerals are used in many industries. Students explored fossils and the role they play in identification.

In another earth science project, students in Mrs. Nourse's class joined students from Claudia Johnson and Karl Seckner's classes in a project which explored glacier formation. Mr. Seckner said the purpose of the project was to help students make connections between glacier formations and their impact on local areas.

"This is one of the many activities that are student centered with the overall goal that students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles and theories pertaining to the physical setting and the environment in which they live," said Mr. Seckner

The State of Physics in Cazenovia

Physics: the study of the relationship between matter and energy. "That's what we study," said high school physics teacher and science department chairman Eric Jerabek. "Most people have unpleasant feelings when asked to relive their own personal memories and experiences in that class. However, the class of old is not the same as today's high tech version of matter and energy."

It is challenging to present topics in physics in such a way that students can observe relationships in a manner which means something to them. In addition to the content of physics, each class must include a set of lab experiences that offer diverse opportunities for students to observe, synthesize, and analyze information in order to determine outcome.

All Regents and honors science classes have become truly dynamic. All of the classroom experiences must, in some way, equate and confirm the observations and experiences that students have in the real world. When this happens, the rate and degree of learning increases. Our goal in Cazenovia is to have at least 90 percent of our students pass the New York State Regents Exam.

Teaching styles need to become as dynamic as the changes being made in assessment and accountability. In the case of physics, it becomes a matter of keeping up with technology. Each year the tools available to use in the lab become more and more advanced. Analog to digital computers have made all kinds of physical quantities measurable by computer, and measured at an incredible rate with incredible precision. For example, students study the changes in energy which occur within a roller coaster. Those changes are calculated using data collected by a photogate measuring the exact speed at which the ball passes by a given point in a given time to within 1/1000 of a second. Then the data is put into a graphing program which plots multiple data sets on a single axis and allows students to ask questions that were not even dreamed of prior to such technology. We use technology to advance the world of learning in the science classroom. It is a fast paced game which requires a fast paced effort in order to keep up.