St Juliana Falconieri School is a Catholic Christian Community with every program, activity, and attitude directed toward our goals: to help each student grow intellectually, morally, spiritually, socially, physically, emotionally, and aesthetically to the fullest of their human potential. Within our science program we are delighted to have been able to align our goals with the concepts and ideas presented within the Beckman@Science Program! Using the inquiry-based curriculum we strive to develop students’ understanding, appreciation, and life long respect for science.
Prior to the implementing the Beckman@Science Program, we relied on the traditional textbook based, passive learning curriculum that covered a large range of topics without much depth. It lacked the practical application of concepts and there was little practice of processing skills. The 2010-2011 school year will begin our tenth year in the Beckman Program. Each grade level now focuses on two to four areas of science in much more depth. Hands-on science incorporates all learning styles and is beneficial to those students who learn best in non-traditional ways. An important element of the Beckman@Science Program is the use of a science notebook as both a record of the work done by a student and as an important assessment tool of the concepts learned. Our students have not only improved in their writing skills, but have become better observers, critical thinkers, communicators, and collaborative workers. Science has become more “real” to them and they see it incorporates the other subjects of their school day: math,
technology, current events, literature, physical education, and art.
Financial support from the Beckman grant, the Rotary Club of Fullerton, and St. Juliana’s Parents’ Club fundraising has enabled us to purchase all the kits for our curriculum for the entire student body of over 300 children in grades K-8. We are one of two private schools who participated in the Fullerton School District Grant: Project TIES (Technology Infused Experimental Science) which allowed our students and faculty to utilize technology tools more extensively in our science program. We have also been able to purchase and furnish our science lab, support a science specialist on a full time basis, a science aide part-time and provide in-service opportunities for our faculty. Professional development of our faculty is an important component of our program and enables the faculty to continually prepare our students for the processes and challenges of inquiry science.
