In 1994, about 40 teachers met at Marist College to voice their concerns about science education in the local area. The two central themes teachers expressed were:

1. Science is taught with inadequate laboratory equipment and outdated learning methods and materials. Budgets have not kept up.
2. There is a need, "...for us, as science teachers, to crank up our own enthusiasm..." to effect systemic change in the way science is taught.

High school students in the Mid-Hudson Valley region typically learn about cell development and other scientific phenomena primarily by reading a textbook or listening to lectures. When a microscopy lab is offered, it often involves 30 students sharing three obsolete microscopes with magnification and resolution that limit their ability to see detail and where the number of microscopes require several students per microscope.

School districts are facing the challenge of scheduling more students than ever before into Regents science classes when current performance levels in many cases are not at an encouraging level. There is also a strong indication that many students are neither learning nor interested in learning science.

In many districts less than 50% of students are taking Regents exams and of those taking them less than 60% are successful.

For these reasons and others too numerous to include here, the Marist College Division of Science developed a plan to upgrade science instruction in surrounding secondary schools. After a survey of of what is being done in this regard in other areas, a plan for a pilot summer workshop was developed. Funding was obtained and area teachers were invited to participate. As a result, a formal proposal was submitted to the National Science Foundation and Science on the Move became a reality.

What is contained in this website is the fruit of that labor. It combines the efforts of the Education Department, the Science Division,the Information Services of Marist College, the Arlington School District and teachers from area schools.

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