Paramus Educators Working to Enhance Science Curriculum

Four Paramus educators have been selected to play an important role in helping to enhance science education.

The Paramus school district has been selected as one of five districts in the state, and the only one from Bergen County, to take part in the Wipro Science Fellowship program.

John Nolan, biology and environmental science teacher at Paramus High School, Kristen Tarabocchia, PHS chemistry teacher, and East Brook Middle School science teachers Mary Hall and Alison Mahfouz were all selected to take part in this program, working with other educators to enhance science curriculum.

"It's utilizing the expertise, energy and enthusiasm of the people in your district to help other teachers of science improve their craft," said Dr. Michael Pilacik, assistant to the principal at the high school, regarding the focus of the program.

The teachers will work among other science educators from four other selected districts -Orange, Kearney, Clifton and Montclair.

Over the course of the next year the group of fellows will meet monthly at Montclair University putting in a total of 250 hours of work towards developing ideas to bring out excellence in students in the area of science, explained Nolan.

For the first half of the program they will work together with a focus on developing ideas with the whole K-12 perspective in mind. For the second half they will focus on how to develop outstanding thinkers in all the sciences across the grade levels such as the 3 to 4 years of high school, Nolan said.

The applciation process this program was considered a rigorous one as the teachers had to complete four long essays as well as submitting their background information. The goal of the program is to have teachers be leaders as in teaching others for the purpose of developing programs to bring out excellence in students.

Out of all the applicants, Nolan received the highest score and Mahfouz had the second highest score, according to Pilacik.

Nolan said it was quite an honor. He gives credit to the district itself for applying to take part in this program.

"This is another example of Paramus as a district really reaching for excellence in the sciences among other things," said Nolan.

Wipro is an international company based in India with offices in the U.S. including one in New Jersey. The company is a huge supporter of education and works to give back to education especially in the states where its offices are located, such as New Jersey, explained Nolan.