This and that

Florida elementary school’s new science lab allows students to put away textbooks and learn hands-on.

[Seven Oaks Elementary] Principal B.J. Smith said the raucous activity in the lab – noisy but focused on the experiment – sends the message that the school is on the right track.

“Do you think they would be that excited if they were reading out of books?” Smith asked as she observed teacher Susan McKenna’s fourth-grade students use the lab for their energy and gravity experiments.

Science teacher Michael Varner is Escambia County’s Teacher of the Year.

“He is a legend,” said Tate Principal Rick Shackle. “We’ll find someone else to be the biology teacher. We’ll find someone else to teach dual-enrollment, but you can’t replace Mike Varner. You just can’t.”

St. Johns Difference Maker: Hilary Fisler, science teacher at Pacetti Bay Middle School

What do you love most about teaching science?

The students. They’re excited, they’re interested and they come to class with open minds. I don’t think there’s many professions where you get to work with people who are so willing to try new things and hear what’s out there. As we get older, I think we are more close-minded and my students just aren’t like that.

Kids learn lesson of galactic proportions.

“It’s one thing to just tell them that, but I remembered this experiment and how they could actually get a physical idea and see the distance between the planets for themselves,” Nevill said. “Hands on is what sticks. They may not remember the exact numbers 15 years from now, but they’re gonna remember the whole general concept of how far apart space really is.”