Benjamin Gormley, Science Teacher

Middle School: Inquiry-Driven Exploration

At the middle school level, NGSS-aligned, project-based curriculum empowers students to explore foundational scientific concepts through highly personalized and student-driven investigations. Driven by the NGSS Next Generation Science Standards, units are framed around compelling local phenomena—such as local ecosystem disruptions or regional weather patterns—allowing students to choose specific pathways or investigation topics that align with their personal interests and cultural backgrounds. To ensure equity and access, the curriculum features robust Multi-Language Learner (MLL) supports, including interactive visual word walls, graphic organizers, and sentence frames for scientific argument structures (e.g., "I claim that... because..."). Formative assessments are heavily modified to accommodate varying readiness levels, offering tiered learning tasks, multimodal ways to demonstrate understanding (such as oral presentations or physical models), and structured strategic grouping. This balance of voice, choice, and systematic scaffolding ensures that middle schoolers build core scientific literacy while developing the autonomy needed for advanced scientific thinking.

High School: Analytical Design and Socio-Scientific Application

In high school, the curriculum shifts toward complex, cross-cutting concepts and real-world engineering design challenges that mirror authentic professional science. High school students engage in personalized, project-based learning (PBL) where they investigate socio-scientific issues—such as climate change mitigation or chemical optimization in textile engineering—and design, test, and iterate their own solutions. The curriculum deeply integrates advanced NGSS performance expectations (like HS-PS1-3 and HS-ETS1-2) by requiring students to connect microscopic molecular behaviors to macroscopic physical results. For MLL students, technical language acquisition is supported through dual-language glossaries, structured peer-collaboration protocols, and multimedia resources that break down complex terminology like thermodynamics or micelle mechanics. Graphic or physical modeling tasks are modified to offer scaffolded entry points, allowing students with developing English proficiency to demonstrate deep conceptual mastery and predictive scientific reasoning without being limited by language barrier