Kick-off to the Scientist in Residence Program

This week at the school-wide morning meeting we met our first scientist in residence, Jamie Abaied. Jamie is a Jericho resident and a research scientist at the University of Vermont (see this link). Thanks to the hard work of Anita de Waard we will be hearing from a new scientist almost every week through February. Anita herself is a scientist and the parent of a student here at JES. Anita was the inspiration for the program, and we could not have gotten it off the ground without her help and determination, so many thanks. During Jamie's visit grade 3 and 4 students were introduced to a world of science many had not been exposed to in the past. As Jamie shared her work in studying child development, wide-eyed students were surprised to learn that not all science is done in labs with test tubes and chemicals. Jamie described the steps she goes through when exploring a research question. She shared videos of other scientists conducting research with infants and she had grade 4 do an activity to give them a feel for what kind of work she does. It was very exciting to have her in. We are looking forward to our next visit from Ashliegh Kollmer, a geologist from the University of Vermont.

Jamie Abaied being introduced at school-wide morning meeting

Jamie working with students in the Enrichment Room