Science Buddies Across Sayville

The idea began when teachers Heather Gonzalez and Kate Enea both taught Kindergarten classes in the same building, Lincoln Avenue. “We loved team teaching,” Mrs. Enea explained, “and would join forces to do science-related activities.”

Similar to the “Book Buddies” arrangement between Kindergarten and older classes, the idea of continuing the Science Buddies followed Mrs. Enea when she moved up to teach second grade. “We decided to make our Science Buddies even more official by incorporating field trips to Connetquot State Park and Caleb Smith State Park.” 

These Science Buddies ventures were so successful that when Mrs. Enea was transferred to Cherry Avenue to teach Kindergarten, “we thought that In-District meetings of our kids would still be a great idea. So, we now have Lincoln/Cherry Science Buddies.”

This year, the Kindergarten classes from the two schools have already enjoyed collaborating on various projects: Mrs. Enea’s Cherry Avenue students went to Lincoln Avenue and conducted “experiments with milk and food coloring, sink/float, gloop (a solid/liquid cornstarch mixture), baking-soda secret-message paint, and magnets.” Mrs. Enea’s students Abigail and Sophia agreed they liked the gloop, while Devon proudly announced, “my project was mixing colors in milk.”

They also went to Connetquot and Caleb Smith State Parks where they all learned about animal tracks and observed winter birds. They had even seen a woodpecker.

During their latest science encounter, Mrs. Gonzalez, students, and parent chaperones visited Cherry for an array of activities. In addition to experimenting with what happens to the color-marker designs on coffee filters when the filters are moistened, the students made play-doh, blew bubbles with wands they fashioned out of pipe cleaners, and wrote in their journals about their observations as well as their favorite part of their recent field trip to Caleb Smith Park.

Summing up their Science Buddies activities perfectly, Luke D. from Mrs. Enea’s classed declared: “science is fun!”