The science teacher: Memorial's Ben Senson goes the extra mile to challenge and engage his students

Maggie Rossiter Peterman:

With a meter stick in his hand, Ben Senson instructs his ninth-grade science students on how to calculate formulas for force using levers and fulcrums.

He sketches out an equation on the whiteboard, turns around, adjusts the meter stick on a spring scale and calls for a reading.

"Where do I put the weight for a third-class lever?" the Memorial High school [Map] teacher quizzes.

No one answers.

"Come on, man," Senson cajoles. "We have to pre-read our labs so we know what we're going to do. If you're running short of time, make sure you get the spring scale reading. Do the math later."

Grabbing their lab sheets and purple pens, the freshmen split into groups to complete the assignment for an Integrated Science Program.

"The equations are hard to remember," Shannon Behling, 14, tells a classroom visitor. "It gets confusing." But she sees the value of the assignment: "We may not use this stuff, but it gets your brain to think in a different way."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 17, 2008 6:58 AM
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