Overlord.
by Steven Anzovin

I'm probably not the only adult who remembers with less than affection the sights and sounds of high school chemistry class: the sour smell of hydrochloric acid, the rattle of boiling water in beakers perched over Bunsen burners, the endless hours of reading about moles, covalent bonds, and benzene rings.

One day my chem teacher gave us a break and showed us how to mix up a mild explosive--good for making rude bangs when painted on the soles of the class clown's shoes--but it didn't help us understand chemistry's relevance to us and why we should bother studying it.

I flunked chemistry, and so did about 20 percent of the class. That was considered the normal attrition rate; nobody thought there might be something wrong with the way we were taught.

Science teacher Vinnie Cusimano has a different idea of what high school science education should be, and PCs are a big part of it. Cusimano is a 25-year veteran of the New York City public school system. Five years ago, when the NYC Board of Education was seeking a way to reach students turned off by traditional methods of teaching science, Cusimano came up with a proposal to integrate computers with lab technology. (You might think this is an obvious idea, but as late as 1988, some 85 percent of eleventh graders had never used a computer in a science class--and neither had their teachers.) The goal was to stimulate students to do real problem solving rather than just memorize facts to pass a test.

Called Partnership in Technology for the Physical Sciences (offices are at Susan E. Wagner High, 1200 Manor Road, Room 456, Staten Island, New York 10314; 718-698-4200), the program won a National Science Foundation grant and receives assistance from IBM. Currently, it's being tested in five high schools throughout New York City, ranging from middle-class Susan E. Wagner High on Staten Island to Thomas Jefferson High in a high-minority, low-income neighborhood of Brooklyn. The students are mostly ninth graders, many of them below-average achievers.

One physical science classroom at Wagner is fully wired for science and computing. Along with the expected black-top lab tables are standard IBM compatibles and PS/2s networked to instructor Walter Styczynski's computer. Sensing probes are linked to the network so experimental data can be displayed right onscreen. The PCs run off-the-shelf software--a spreadsheet template, a graphing program, a word processor, and a database--and are involved in every aspect of the class.

Kids investigating the nature of heat energy, for example, can do an experiment, collect temperature data with the sensors, and then pump those numbers directly into a graphing program or spreadsheet. At that point they can ask what-if questions and perhaps go back to the experiment. Reports are typed with a word processor, and data is stored in a database for later use. This system works for classroom demonstrations as well. The teacher can perform an experiment at the front of the room with the networked science probes, locking the students' screens so everyone can see the experimental data as it feeds into a graph. Then the screens are released so students can manipulate the information themselves.

At first the program met some resistance from teachers inexperienced with computers and wary of the complex curriculum (the documentation, written mainly by the teachers themselves, runs to 800 pages). But after a few months of the program, says Cusimano, teachers were hooked, deluging him with new ways of using the technology.

The effect on the kids, though, is what counts, and that is profound. "People think that if you put computers in the room, kids are motivated, but it's not true," says Cusimano. New students realize right away that they can't hide in the back of the class--there's no place to be but in the group and learning.

Soon, however, students begin to pool data and methods on their own and to cooperate in small groups without prompting from the teacher. Within six months, even low achievers are proud to show their work.

Styczynski is amazed at how comfortable the students have become with computers and sees them bringing away an understanding of science that they often couldn't have before.

David Podell and Sally Kaminsky of the Research Foundation of City University, who are evaluating the program for the Board of Education, note that students who have participated are more likely to take higher-level science courses, score better on the state's Regents' Competency Test in Science, and even have better attendance. It's the independence computers provide that seems to make all the difference.

Students themselves give the best evaluation of the project, says Cusimano. "If you go in a class, you can feel the kids' enthusiasm. They say, 'Come her; look at this.' If any science teacher can get a kid to say that, he is successful."