Harvard School - Sentinel Yearbook (North Hollywood, CA)

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Mr. Stewart MATHEMATICS When the class of 1968 returned for their senior year, they found a familiar face and voice gone from the Math Department. After sixteen years of superior teaching, Taylor Cole had returned to Philadelphia. This loss to the department along with the part time loan of Mr. Roberts to the Science Dept., caused a general shifting of courses taught by the math teachers. Mr. Carlson dumb- founded the math analysis and pre-calculus classes with his easy', tests. Mr. Hays lost many chances to say Muse X manj, as he taught three sections of geometry. Mr. Mc- Cosker began his teaching career with 8th grade math, and algebra II. Dr. Conconi met students of many levels teaching '7th grade math, algebra I, and geometry. Mr. Radstrom finally passed,'7th grade math and taught some algebra I classes, as well as the '7th graders. Mr. Roberts continued to teach the English version of algebra II. Mr. Stewart played the field from algebra I and II, to prob- ability and statistics, to calculus. In the experimental stage, One of the alge- bra I sections was made into a combination algebra and geometry course to be taught over a two year period. Bob Keefer won a One Hundred dollar prize for Sth place in the Claremont Men's College Mathematics Competition. A five man team of Takata Hashimoto, Sean Smith, Bill Russell, Dave Linker and Bob Keefer placed second in the schools under the '70O enrollment division of the Occidental Math Field Day. f -rw Q 'e P23 gif fy . tw Q, xi l W, get , BX? QS. - ' ycyjm it ,x. 163 4, g4 27Zo A 4, Mr. Radstrom Mr. McCosker MF'

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W V.: 9 575 , ,ZQWWV YWXZZX gyyw, J Mr. Miller This year of 1967-68, and the summer preceding it, has seen great activity and effort on the part of the science department faculty in bringing about changes in existing curriculum and in creating new courses. In particular, Mrs. Alice Thompson with the assistance of Mr. Thompson and Mr. Clark began the demanding task of developing, organizing, and writing a completely new course and textbook for the '7th and 8th grade levels of science. Funding for the development of this new course was provided by the Seaver Foundation, an organization interested in and supporting new advances in education. The new course is basically ecologically oriented with heavy emphasis on laboratory work. Students first hand study the interrelationships between plants and animals and their environmen- tal factors. As no commercially available course existed which fulfilled the needs at this level, the science department faculty decided that it had no other alternative than to create its own materials and textbook. When the course devel- opment has been completed, it is possible that it may be made available to other schools through a commercial pub- lisher. Even though the introductory '7th-8th grade science course is still in its beginning stages, already students have responded so favorably to the new ideas and content that several have requested that a second level course in ecol- ogy follow the first. Thus, on an experimental basis Cbut with apparent success alreadyj a new course is being intro- duced by Mrs. Thompson to accommodate the wishes of these few highly motivated 8th grade students who took the first semester of the introductory course. These boys at present meet once a week, hold seminars on ecological prob- lems, and carry on outside-of-class research projects under Mrs. Thompsorfs direction. Word is that these same boys are now agitating for a continuing course on into the 9th grade Cin addition to the 9th grade physical science course J! That remains to be seen! Much new equipment has been added to the science department this year, and at the time of this writing, a much needed, long standing order of cabinetry and lab furniture for the advanced project lab, room 112, and the biology labs, is pending arrival. In addition to this, which will greatly relieve storage problems, funds for the machine shop equipment which will eventually be installed for student and faculty use in room 112 are being raised. Members of the Board of Trustees and other Harvard friends are rapidly moving toward completely equipping our science labs so that they can be put into their highest level of operation. When this is done, students will be able to carry on almost any type of research project they devise, for machine tools and materials, as well as a variety of sophisticated elec- tronics instrumentation, will then be made available to them. Though it is a relatively expensive initial investment to so equip our labs, the benefits of secondary school students carrying on higher level research will be well worth the cost. The 9th grade physical science course continues to be one of the most stimulating, highly motivating courses the science department at present offers. In fact, the success derived through its format and content has been responsible for much serious thinking and birth of creative ideas toward changing or revising curriculum in existing courses at higher levels. Particular scrutiny of the lab portion of these courses exists, and area in which fairly large changes will be seen in the next few years, no doubt. Mr. Thompson in biology has been concerned for some time along this line and has been creatively working out new and better laboratory experiences which serve to complement the rest of the course.