Matt Lapolla

Mr. Lapolla’s bio is now up on the Contact page!

2014-11-17 10.53.12Mr. Lapolla joined the Williston in the fall of 2014 after teaching for five years at The Pennington School in New Jersey. He graduated from Pomona College in 2008 with a B.A. in economics. During his time in Claremont, CA, he also played on the Sagehens football team for four years. Mr. Lapolla has taught a variety of classes ranging from Algebra I to Probability and Statistics. He currently is teaching Geometry, Precalculus, and Probability and Statistics. He coaches football and baseball at Williston and lives in Ford Hall with his dog.

Carl Sagan’s Birthday

Yesterday was a grand day — It was Carl Sagan’s birthday!

Here are three great ways to learn more about one of the most legendary humans ever to walk the earth.

Astounding Carl Sagan Quotes About the Wonders of the Cosmos

The Pale Blue Dot – Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey

Cosmos_spacetime_odyssey_titlecardAlso, if you have access to Netflix, I so very highly recommend watching Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.

Anyone else up for hosting our own Carl Sagan Day here at Williston?

STEM Scholarships at Elms College

elmsCheck out this great opportunity:

Elms College, with a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), will begin awarding full scholarships in the Fall of 2015 for first year students majoring in Biology (except pre-medical and education tracks), Chemistry, Mathematics, or Computer Information Technology (CIT). The scholarships range from $3,800 – $10,000 a year until graduation at Elms College. Review of applications will begin February 1st 2015, and applicants will be informed of scholarship decisions in late March 2015.

In addition to the scholarships, the Elm STEMs program will include science field trips, career seminars, research opportunities, and science and tech internships. For more information on the Elm STEMs scholarship and applying to Elms College, please see our website http://www.elms.edu/elmstems.

 

Nina Theis, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Director of Elm Stems NSF grant
Elms College
291 Springfield St
Chicopee, MA 01013 U.S.A.

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New things to check out!

A few fun items were shared at today’s math department meeting that are worth checking out:

A interesting article (with lots of comments) written by an educator who shadowed a student for two days.

Fluid Math, a math program for tablets:

Two super fun math-related movies coming out soon!

The Imitation Game” about Alan Turing, premiering on 11/28/14:

The Theory of Everything” about Stephen Hawking, premiering on 1/1/15: