Winners MA 2006

Marilyn Del Donno
The Cambridge School of Weston
Weston, Massachusetts

Inspired by Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, Marilyn Del Donno helped create the integrated Studies Program at The Cambridge School of Weston. In the "Dimensions of Time" course she co-teaches with an art teacher, students study relativity, research biological clocks and create their own calendars. Recently awarded a six-thousand dollar grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Del Donno helped design and launch the school’s current Renewable Energy Curriculum. "Our philosophy emphasizes process and addresses real world problems," says Del Donno, whose students have been collecting data on Cape Cod beach erosion for fifteen years. In 2002, she and two of her students represented the United States at the World Youth Parliament For Water in Quebec.

 
 

Stacey Smiar
Fayerweather Street School
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Growing up on nine acres of woods surrounded by river and swamp sparked Smiar’s curiosity about the natural world. Watching her father build half of their house—while she was living in it—was her first exposure to physics. At Fayerweather School, Smiar’s thematic curriculum receives accolades from colleagues and middle-schoolers alike. A National Public Radio story on her school’s integrated approach featured Smiar teaching the physics of tsunamis. In 2004 Smiar won a Toyota Tapestry Award for her curriculum “From Plimoth to the Petri Dish: A Study of Colonies.” MIT graduate students assist her with lab supervision once per week. “It was my ninth grade Earth Science teacher who convinced me that science in school could be as fun and accessible as it was outside the school,” says Smiar, who is known for her engaging labs that feature everything from dry ice to microbes.