Science expert addresses Pine Cobble graduates

WILLIAMSTOWN – Graduating ninth graders at Pine Cobble School heard from a science expert and fellow graduate at their commencement.

Tyler DeWitt (Pine Cobble Class of 1997) is a Ph.D. candidate in microbiology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a high school teacher who advocates for storytelling in science.

“Ultimately, we help guide our students to become lifelong learners who can make connections across a broad landscape of ideas,” Pine Cobble Head of School Susannah “Sue” Wells said. “Tyler is a living model of that approach to teaching and learning…”

Mr. DeWitt recently gained attention for giving a TED (Technology-Education-Design) Talk titled “Hey Science Teachers: Make It Fun,” which has been viewed more than 500,000 times since February.

“Good storytelling is all about emotional connection,” he said in the talk. “We have to convince our audience that what we’re talking about matters. But just as important is knowing which details we should leave out so that the main point comes across.”

In his commencement speech, however, Mr. DeWitt deviated from the topic of science and spoke off-the-cuff, encouraging students to simply be themselves.

“I was standing behind the stage, so I could see the audience, and I was floored by how every age – first grade through teenagers, and all the parents/grandparents were listening and laughing along,” Alison Benjamin, who does marketing for Pine Cobble, told The Beacon.

The six graduates and those in attendance at the ceremony were not the only ones to be exposed to his thoughts; earlier in the spring, students in grades five through seven watched the TED Talk and then wrote stories about scientific principles such as states of matter, particle physics and solar eclipses.

“Tyler’s work is 100-percent consistent with what we are trying to accomplish at Pine Cobble,” Ms. Wells said. “Every day, we strive to make learning come alive in new ways.”

Posted by Catherine M. Krummey on June 20, 2013. Filed under Education News,Graduations,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry