News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Communications and Publications
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Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
TEL 609/258-3600 FAX 609/258-1301

Release: May 11, 1995
Contact: Tom Krattenmaker (609/258-5748)


Princeton Student Gets Physics
off the Ground at Marie Katzenbach
School for the Deaf

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Before this year, juniors and seniors at the
Marie Katzenbach School for the Deaf had basic instruction in the
physical sciences. But thanks to a Princeton University chemistry
student with a gift for teaching, physics has come alive for
Katzenbach students this spring with lab lessons and other
advanced, hands-on activities.

The students will put their new prowess to work on May 24 when
they take part in Physics Day at Six Flags Great Adventure, where
they and other students will use park rides to explore kinetic
energy, acceleration and other physics concepts.

"I don't think we'd have been able to do any of this if it hadn't
been for Michelle Meredith," says Bernadette Beury, a science
teacher at the West Trenton school.

Meredith, a Princeton senior from Wilmington, Del., has taught one
day a week at Katzenbach the last two school years under the
auspices of the university's Teacher Preparation Program. Her work
was funded by the Merck Institute for Science Education, which has
awarded Princeton a three-year grant to develop science education
programs.

Since high school curricula for the deaf often concentrate on
communications skills, this level of physics instruction is
unusual at Katzenbach -- and most welcome, Beury says.

"Michelle is an excellent teacher," says Beury, whose students
Meredith has been teaching this spring. "She is able to explain
difficult concepts in a way that is enjoyable and that enables the
students to apply the knowledge to life. She manages to make this
very complex material accessible to the kids."

Meredith, who uses sign language to talk to her students, received
special training for teaching the deaf through a program at
Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., last summer. After her
graduation from Princeton this month, she plans to return to
Gallaudet to pursue a master's degree in deaf education. She hopes
to make a career of teaching science to the hearing-impaired.

"It's remarkable to find someone who has this extraordinary
science background and who has made a decision to teach the deaf
as a career," says Carole Stearns of the Teacher Preparation
Program at Princeton.

"For Michelle to get these Katzenbach students geared up to
participate in Physics Day with non-hearing-impaired students is
an incredible accomplishment," Stearns says. "For them, to realize
they're on a par with their hearing peers is really quite a self-
esteem boost."

Call the university's communications office at the above number
for more information or to arrange interviews with Meredith or
Stearns.

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