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2008: Brain POP Jr. Science Citation

A Living Science Lab
Guiding young environmentalists, with an eye toward innovation

Steven Tomsik became a science teacher thanks to a “great fluke.” (Serendipitous that he should use the word “fluke”—given that a subtle fish theme runs through his tale.)

Tomsik was pursuing film and writing before he became one of New York City’s earliest Teaching Fellows. The first school he visited, P.S. 183 in Brooklyn, happened to have a science opening, so he took it.

“This job has changed the way I look at things,” he said. “I’m a lot more curious about the world now, like when I was a kid.” He taught at P.S. 183 for four years before moving to the elementary school P.S. 107, where he has been for the past three years.

“His classroom is a living lab,” said parent Michele Israel. “Walk into it any time of day, and there are experiments in the making, trout being raised to release into fresh waters and plants blooming under ultra-violet lights.”

Tomsik believes the best way to learn science is to experience it hands-on, to foster real inquiry and curiosity. And his primary focus, he said, is environmental education—finding ways to help kids “look at the planet as an organism that requires certain things to be healthy.”

He takes older students to Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in the Catskills. At the watershed, they release the brook trout they have raised in the classroom. They identify macro-invertebrates in bodies of water and participate in oyster gardening. Fifth graders dissect fish, looking for the “similarities between the fish and themselves.” Tomsik encourages school-wide recycling. He strives to help children see connectedness, so they feel “ownership in the world.”

In conjunction with the PTA’s Eco-Science Committee, which Israel chairs, Tomsik is planning the creation of an edible fruit and vegetable garden. It will serve as an outdoor learning classroom for all pre-K through 5th grade students. “He wants to focus on how the garden is a microcosm of real-world environmental issues, concerns and phenomena,” Israel said.

“I think about what keeps me engaged,” Tomsik said describing his methods, “then adjust for 2nd grade or 5th grade.”

One challenge for a teacher who professes to get “bored easily doing the same thing” is to continue to find new, appropriate hands-on experiences for his students—and to stay focused on the science rather than the process and rules, which cause kids to tune out.

“The trick is to get them working as a scientist based on their own interests, not mine,” he said.
Tomsik models his approach to science—and life—by following his interests and curiosity in other realms, too. Off hours, he plays drums in a small band with his girlfriend and a colleague.

“Think fractals and graphing calculators and eight-minute solos,” he wrote in an email describing their music. “We hardly ever play out, but we’re hoping to play at a fish fry.”

— Lydie Raschk