Proposed Brunswick science curriculum soon to be up for review by parents

BRUNSWICK — Parents of Brunswick Schools students have the opportunity to view a potential new science and health curriculum over the course of the next month. Staff members presented the proposed curriculum to the Brunswick Board of Education during its meeting Monday. Brunswick Schools Director of Innovation Pat Geschke said staff began reviewing curriculum options in December. "My job is to put high-quality materials in front of our teachers and then empower them to identify which one is going to be the difference maker for our students," he said. "While no curriculum is going to be perfect, I think our teachers did a great job of really digging through all the different options to determine their recommendations for you tonight." The science curriculum is for grades four through 12. Geschke said the teams determined what is and is not working with the current curriculum, reviewed the new options and voted on their top choice. For grades four and five, there was a unanimous decision to pick Savvas as the vendor. Memorial Elementary School fifth grade science teacher Janet Spiker said she liked that the text could be translated into different languages because there are more and more students who speak another language. "I feel like it also fosters that communication with families because a lot of times parents will want to support their children, but they don't understand the content, so they take a step back from that," she said. "The parents that speak Ukrainian can highlight the text and have the content told to them in their primary language." Virtual and hands-on labs are also a main aspect of the curriculum. Gifted Intervention Specialist Jennifer Clark said the labs can be done individually or as a whole class, and there are take-home labs for students engaged in the subject matter. All students in the same grade across the school district will be exposed to the same content. "The common assessments that align with the pacing guide allow consistent evaluation of our students' learning," Crestview Elementary School Principal Jamie Schulke said. "We can look at what's working, what's not working, what needs improved and then look at the curriculum and instructional practices on what we need to do better." Savvas is also recommended for middle school science. Gifted and Enrichment Coordinator Ellen Foster said there are career connections in the text, which tell students what kinds of jobs use the skills they are currently learning in class. Brunswick Middle School Eighth Grade Assistant Principal Christina Stanovcak said there are also performance assessments in which teachers can set a mastery level and determine which students are above and below that level. "(It will) help us to differentiate interventions that we need for the kids who aren't there yet," she said. "Then (it shows) how we can enrich the kids who are already there on that assessment." Meanwhile, the Savvas curriculum for chemistry and physics can send out support to students who are not meeting a specific standard, Brunswick High School Physics teacher Heather Klein said. Cengage was selected as the distributor for biology, world ecosystems and AP physics, while BFW was picked for AP biology and AP environmental science. Klein and Brunswick High School biology teacher Mike Sponseller said the textbooks for their respective subjects reflect what the students need to know when taking the AP test. "BFW actually took the exact College Board curriculum and aligned their entire textbook for it …" Sponseller said. "It's really a no-brainer as far as the time that they took to really go through what the College Board is going to be assessing our students on in May." G-W Essential's health curriculum for grades seven to nine was also a unanimous decision, Geschke said. The state does not give standards for health but requires general content to be taught such as nutrition, drug abuse and alcohol and tobacco use. "(Intervention Specialist) Hannah (Bartlome) said the G-W health curriculum incorporates a wide range of strategies and accessibility features to accommodate the needs of all students and their skill levels," he said. The public has until April 16 to review the curriculum at the board of education office at 3643 Center Road. Then, the board of education will vote on whether to approve the new curriculum during its April meeting. "We are so fortunate to have such dedicated teachers in our district," board President Mary Weinhauer said. "(You are) the backbone of our district, and the fact that you participated in this so passionately tells us all how interested you are in the success of not just your students but in the whole district." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.