HUNTERDON CENTRAL REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

Staff Development
Several members of the Science Department attended the New Jersey Science Teachers’ Convention. The
teachers were able to implement many of the ideas and strategies learned into the curriculum.
Linda Strauss continues as an outside consultant to ETS, with additional writing assignments for the revised
College Board AP Bio Exam. Item writing is a challenging but valuable tool to learn about upcoming changes
in the curriculum for the fall of 2012. Many teachers continue to work on their graduate programs. Many of
these programs are being completed through on-line venues. Many of the staff continued to take ETTC
offerings and out-of-District workshops in astronomy, discipline, and genetics.
The Boy Scouts at St Magdelen's Church in Flemington invited Dr. Dan Allen to give a talk to the scouts in
May 2011. He performed a 30 minute lecture/demo on 'the chemistry of explosions' -- with a few hydrogen
balloon explosions and the methanol rocket. In between booms, they had really good discussions about gases,
types of energy and conservation of energy, and then ended it with a discussion about energy in food. “The kids
were really into it and had great questions/answers, and the pack leaders were very appreciative.”
Jessica Doyle, Stefanie Bord, and Karen Batista will be attending the Leaders Take Flight workshop through the
Central Jersey GAMTTEP collaborative at the end of June. The purpose of this workshop will be to promote
the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in women. Furthermore, this aviation
workshop will not only work to develop the teacher as leader, but will also serve as a metaphor to develop the
individual in all facets of personal and professional life.
Dr. Kenneth Micai presented workshops on Designing Assessments and Using Excel to Analyze Data.
All of our teachers also participated in the mini-courses offered throughout the year.
Mr. Walt Schulwitz participated in an ETTC course on Digital Photography which he incorporated into his
classes seamlessly. He, along with eight other teachers, also participated in our Portfolio classes this year and
demonstrated true reflective practices through the production of a professional portfolio.
Mr. Michael Vitale participated in the following ETTC courses:
• Free Web Technology and Workshop 1: Weblogs, Backchannel Chats, RS
• Feeds, and Social Bookmarking
• Spanish 101 - Connecting with our Latino students and parents
• Moodle Workshop: Assessing Student Learning Using Online Tools
• Problem Based Learning
• Finding and Evaluating Electronic Information
History of Winter Conference: Lou Gatto and Thomas Mistele were selected from a national pool of applicants
to attend the NASA History of Winter Cryosphere Science Training Camp (study of snow and ice as indicators
of climate change). This program serves to enhance our curriculum units on weather/climate and climate
change.
This was a week of experiments and discussions led by NASA researchers on all of the scientific information
that can be derived from ice and snow. Presentations and hands-on sessions included:
- Winter Ecology
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