Mrs. Mistretta met with a class of twenty-six new educators to share the STEM “5E Lesson Plan.” The structure of this type of lesson plan is anchored in the instruction at IHA. This provides our students with the opportunity to “blur the lines” between subject areas to conduct an analysis of scientific data and to draw conclusions concerning natural phenomenon.

For example, the computer applications class at IHA is in the midst of completing their data collection and analysis of the question, “Is there a correlation between the irreversible melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, rising sea level trends, and the devastating water damage incurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012?” The students collected and analyzed sea level data maintained on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website to track changes in ocean levels and draw conclusions concerning flooding during major weather events. The computer applications class will be coding their findings into individual webpages using Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

The attached photo is Mrs. Mistretta with Dr. Phyllis Bivins-Hudson, the professor of the class, which was held at Hackensack High School. This professional development session was held as a capstone project for Mrs. Mistretta’s certificate in STEM Leadership from the NASA Endeavor STEM Program.