Horseheads Middle School
Science
The Horseheads Middle School Science program is dedicated to fostering an environment of creative learning and an appreciation of the sciences through a variety of teaching styles, laboratories, computer technology, and real life applications. We strive not only to prepare our students for high achievement on New York State exams, but also to provide students with the skills they'll need for success in the sciences they will take in high school.
Students take common assessments at each grade level, assuring that all students are responsible for the same content. Instruction includes hands-on laboratories or activities, small lectures, cooperative learning groups, projects, and more so that students are engaged and active in their learning.
An exciting part of our program revolves around the use of the Full Option Science Systems (FOSS). FOSS is a research-based science curriculum for grades K–8 developed at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California at Berkeley. FOSS is also an ongoing research project dedicated to improving the learning and teaching of science. The FOSS program materials are designed to meet the challenge of providing meaningful science education for all students and to prepare them for life in the 21st century.
The Grade 7 course is designed to teach basic life science concepts and laboratory skills. Content includes cellular organization, human physiology, heredity and adaptations, classification of all living things and mechanisms they have for survival.
The Grade 8 course is split into two major topics of physical science: basic chemistry and physics. Specific topics include the periodic table and atomic structure, Newton's laws of motion, forces, and properties of matter.
| Teachers: | Clara Bates, Melinda Bennett, Craig Harkness, Jason Hartman, Kelly Patelunas, Brian Williams |