SCIENCE SPOTLIGHT
Sam Margles Sam Margles, Life Science teacher at Steiner for the past 12 years, exudes boundless energy. Asked about making science fun at a Waldorf school, Ms. Margles commented, “When you start talking about diseases of the intestine, intestinal parasites and how diseases move in the body, the kids are interested, which furthers my awareness. I’ve always felt that I’m lucky in terms of what I do to keep the students engrossed.” Sciences can be challenging at a Waldorf school, however. “Laboratory work is inherently experiential and you can’t do science without getting your hands dirty,” says Margles. “It can be chal08
lenging to give kids an authentic experience, but once they grasp the subject, the connection they make is so deep and they take it with them forever. We are igniting a lifelong interest in students, especially ones coming from other schools who never thought they would be interested, and they quickly realize how interesting the subject is. There’s a lot of energy at the school right now around the science curriculum. That’s why students at Waldorf schools are so interested in the sciences.” The challenging component of laboratory work is figuring out how to add the experiential. Ms. Margles stresses that making main lesson a time for participation, not a lecture, while getting the kids to add their observations,
is why science is so stimulating. Whether with botany, zoology or physiology, Steiner sciences are always about a true interdisciplinary experience. Periodically more drawing and observation will be called for while the next block may have a deeper experiential component, such as visiting aquariums and spending time observing animals. Ms. Margles points out that physiology is especially unique for the upper school students. “We used clay in Embryology to develop three-dimensional zygotes to see the changes taking place,” exclaims Ms. Margles. “The students change the clay shape in the way that things were developing. We would take a ‘here’s the situation’ approach, and I would ask, ‘how could you