Daniel Novak

            Mine has been a long and rewarding love affair of science and teaching. Saying that I am a scientist is just a convenient way of justifying being able to pursue my natural curiosity and love of the world around me. My fondest memories of my childhood invariably involve outdoor experiences, whether it involved fishing with my father or finding a personal nook in the forest to explore alone. The biggest word I remember being able to spell in the third grade is “oceanographer,” and I cherished the experiences that made that word real to me at such a young age. 

            My love of the outdoors and science lead me to the Dutchess Academy of Environmental Studies, a college bridge program that focused on Hudson River ecology and celebrated a pursuit of knowledge that integrated field work, technology and traditional classroom studies. Class was as often outside as in, observations made through field glasses as well as from readings. As part of this program I began an internship with my local community animal hospital (I originally wanted to become a veterinarian) that extended well beyond the program and began more formal research involving the Hudson and other rivers through work with the  Cornell Cooperative extension and grant writing. 

            Simultaneous to continuing to explore my love of the natural world I began teaching. My mother taught while I was growing up, providing me with an early window into that world. I officially became the teacher when I began tutoring my friends in Spanish my freshman year of high school. This seed began to grow, and by senior year I was unofficially teaching the freshman biology class many days and tutoring friends and family friends in my spare time.

            I enrolled in Providence College (PC), eventually graduating with a BS in Biology and a BA in Environmental Studies. I enjoyed the breadth of the liberal arts education while maintaining my focus and research on ecology, specifically working to remediate local ecological issues and working in the marine ecology lab of my mentor, Dr. Jack Costello. I also pursued my interest in education, volunteering at the local elementary and middle school as a tutor, leading a series of summer education and employment programs for struggling and disabled teenagers through the Dutchess County Boces, and serving as a TA for the marine biology and zoology courses at my college. I was teaching at all levels and loving the way it helped me appreciate what I was studying that much more.

            Upon graduation I continued to work with Dr. Costello, situated now at the Marine Biological Laboratory on Cape Cod. We studied a particular gelatinous invertebrate whose success has been linked to global warming and reduced success in local fisheries. Wrapping up that research, I moved back to NY and began working at the Institute of Environmental Studies (IES) under Dr. Charles Canham as a research assistant, studying the affects of various fertilizers on the growth and health of a variety of tree species in the Great Mountain Forest of CT. It was at IES that I was finally able to bring my love of science and teaching most fully together for the first time.

            At IES I made the shift from part-time educator and full time researcher to full time educator of science and research. It began in my position as an instructor of the Summer Ecology Camp at IES, where I designed and implemented an 8 week long intensive study of a pond’s local ecology. After a rousing summer of success, I continued on as an IES educator working under an AmeriCorps grant through the Student Conservation Association. As a newly minted Ecology Education Fellow I worked with another educator to impact the classrooms of students in the Hudson Valley with the resources of our world renowned science institute. I was privileged to work with students of the delicate age of five to the robust age of sixty on a wide variety of programs developed both for the indoor classroom and outdoor classroom of the world.

            It was through my wide array of teaching experiences at IES that I decided that I wanted to spend more of my energy educating inner city youth, a population with so much potential to benefit from enriching experiences involving science in the expanded classroom I have known my entire life. I applied to the New York City Teaching Fellows Program and began teaching at the Future Leaders Institute (now FLI Charter School) in the fall of 2003.

            My tenure at FLI involved a lot of professional growth and program development. As the first science teacher to return for a second year, and as the senior science teacher after six months of employment, I was charged with helping to construct the science program from the ground up. Cornerstones of this program included a two-day science fair that was open to the entire school and served as a culmination of the scientific inquiry training and process work, regular and repeating field trips that supplemented classroom material and instruction, technology integration that extended the classroom beyond limits of space and time, and unconventional, student driven project based learning that fostered individual student interest. Over the course of several years my students have learned to look at themselves as budding scientists. They have learned that science is involved in every aspect of their lives and is all around them. They have become experts in particular fields of study, pursued their own research and presented this research at science fairs and in classes for the enrichment of their peers. They have grown their own food. They have worked with college students to better understand and redesign their learning environment. They have learned how to ask questions and find answers.

            An integral part of my teaching includes the extension of the classroom beyond its typical constraints. Some of these extensions include the obvious, but I also have worked to partner with Columbia and other professional institutions and individuals to access resources to improve the school and the community. I have consistently worked with Dr. Jack McGourty’s Gateway Program at Columbia University. This partnership has consistently directed the efforts of talented undergraduates of Columbia’s engineering program toward improving the facilities and programs supporting students at FLI. Additional work around the science of green technology, gardening and health have helped foster or create relationship with organizations like Healthy School Lunches, Greenmarket, Trust for Public Land, Children for Children, NASA, the Goddard Institute of Space Studies and many others. It has been my privilege to work with these various organizations and students of FLI have benefited tremendously from their professionalism, expertise and generosity.

            Most recently I spent the summer working with NASA under the New York City Research Initiative on green roof instrumentation and analysis and the creation of a NYC meteorological network.

            In other parts of my life I am happily engaged, a brother, son, uncle and God Father, a Captain in the Army National Guard Medical Service Corps, an avid biker and outdoors-man.