Alumni Spotlight: A Conversation with Ron St. Amand, '91 BS, '97 MA, Director of Science for Springfield Public Schools
Ron St. Amand, the Director of Science for Springfield Public Schools—the second-largest school district in New England—lives and breathes science. In his capacity, St. Amand provides valuable support to educators in his school district by crafting comprehensive science, technology, and engineering curricula and assessments. In addition, he identifies professional-development objectives and curriculum requirements through his working knowledge of educational trends, classroom observations, and collaboration with educators to craft and refine curricular materials.
The College of Natural Sciences (CNS) team is connected with St. Amand, who recently served as a liaison for UMass’s donation of 10,000 solar shades to Springfield Public Schools in preparation for the total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024. The conversations that led to this opportunity were born of the fact that St. Amand has both an undergraduate and a graduate degree from CNS, earned a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS) from the School of Education (now the College of Education), and remains active with the university.
In light of St. Amand’s area of focus and his ongoing collaborations with CNS, we wanted to sit down with him and understand how his UMass education has led to an important and fulfilling career in science education.
The Path to Science Education
With two impressive degrees, St. Amand could have chosen many career paths. We were curious about what motivated him to pursue a career in science education—particularly in the realm of K-12 education. “My undergraduate degree is in Botany (’91), and I have always been interested in plants, insects, and ecology,” explained St. Amand. “When I returned to UMass for graduate school in 1994, I thought I would get a PhD in Plant Biology. I had a teaching assistantship and began working with undergraduates as a TA and found that I really enjoyed it. I also found that I was a little too gregarious to be working alone or with a small team in a lab. I was much better suited to teaching in a classroom full of students. I found I was able to connect with my students, and I had a great deal of enthusiasm for teaching them about the wonders of the natural world. I approached my committee and told them I’d like to think about getting teacher certification to teach high school. They worked with me and our department chair James Walker to allow me to finish a master’s in Plant Biology, and to add an extra year on my assistantship to complete the Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP) and become certified as a biology teacher. I started teaching at Springfield High School of Science and Technology in the Fall of 1997 and have been with Springfield Public Schools ever since.”
For St. Amand, his enthusiasm for science education started many, many years before his current role as Director of Science for Springfield Public Schools. “In second grade I wrote an essay for Career Day about becoming a lepidopterist [someone who studies butterflies and moths] when I grew up,” recalled St. Amand. “I have always been fascinated by the living world, and while I didn’t become an entomologist, you can’t get much closer than a botanist. There is an inextricable link between plants and insects that has always fascinated me and captured my imagination.”
Once St. Amand came of college age, UMass played a key role in translating his passion into a profession. As with many students he grappled with a very common challenge: his choice of major. “In my undergraduate studies and in graduate school, I had amazing teachers who fostered my curiosity about plants and their relationships with other organisms,” St. Amand recounted. “In my freshman year, I’d been in giant lecture halls for introductory classes in biology, chemistry, and calculus with 500+ students, and I wasn’t even sure I would remain a botany major. In fact, I briefly switched to landscape architecture.”
As fascinating as landscape architecture was, two professors aided in St. Amand’s journey back to botany. “In the fall of 1988 I had the good fortune to take New England Flora, which was an elective for Landscape Architecture and Botany, with Margaret Bigelow and Edward Davis. I was amazed that, at such a large research university, I was in a small class of 25-30 students with two professors. Dr. Bigelow and Dr. Davis worked hard to form a relationship with their students and to share their enthusiasm for the plants of New England with us. We were often out in the field botanizing, which made me realize it would be a mistake not to follow my passion for plants. After the semester ended, I headed back to Whitmore and changed my major back to botany.”
One’s UMass education is very often shaped by interactions with the university’s professors and other researchers, and this was certainly true for St. Amand. “As an undergraduate, and in graduate school, Paul Godfrey and Edward Davis, of the Botany Department, were the two professors who had the strongest influence on my development personally and professionally,” St. Amand remembers. “These scholarly gentlemen were very caring and empathetic listeners who would take the time to help me talk through issues and figure out my path. I still believe the most important part of being a great teacher is forming strong relationships with your students. As Maya Angelou said, ‘I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ In my experience, students are much more open to learning from adults who they feel care for them. I’ve also carried this through in my leadership style. Strong interpersonal relationships with my team members, just like my students, help to build trust and cohesiveness, which is crucial for our success.”
Paul Godfrey taught a number of classes in plant ecology, including Coastal Plant Ecology and Aquatic Vascular Plants, which were St. Amand’s favorites. “What stood out about his teaching was the constant use of visuals (he was a fantastic photographer), hands-on field experience, and the relevance of what we were learning to our lives, communities, and world. Providing folks with hands-on experience and making the learning relevant, has also been crucial to my success as a teacher and leader at Springfield Public Schools.”
Edward Davis challenged St. Amand intellectually. "Ed always wanted to discuss the research that led us to know what we know, which really helped me to appreciate the rigor of the scientific endeavor. He was also an extremely encouraging teacher and mentor, and was the first person with whom I shared my desire to become a teacher. He was endlessly enthusiastic about the prospect and helped me convince the department to keep me in the assistantship for an additional year to complete the STEP program. Through a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant, we also ran a summer program for teachers that Ed got me involved with as a teaching assistant. Through this work I was able to network and meet several Massachusetts biology teachers, many of whom ended up being my colleagues in the Springfield Public Schools.”
St. Amand believes that James Walker and Edward Klekowski were also instrumental in helping him to become the science educator he is today. “They both shared their vast botanical knowledge willingly and with great enthusiasm. They challenged me to think like a scientist to become a better critical thinker and problem solver.”
Taking UMass to Springfield
With such a strong education guided by impressive educators, St. Amand could have taken his emerging expertise to many different places. Why Springfield? “Both of my parents grew up in Springfield and attended Springfield Public Schools, as did all of my aunts and uncles,” explains St. Amand. “While I grew up in neighboring Ludlow, many of my days were spent in Forest Park, at Johnson’s bookstore, walking through the Eastfield Mall, or visiting the museums and the library at the Quadrangle. For me, Springfield has always felt like home. While completing the STEP program, there was also a strong focus on urban education, and Springfield just seemed like a great fit for me.”
Since choosing Springfield, St. Amand has worked to integrate his academic background at UMass into the development/implementation of curriculum within the Springfield Public Schools system. “When you are a life sciences major at UMass, you take a large number of electives in physics and chemistry, and due to my own interests in ecology, I was also fortunate to have studied earth sciences and wildlife biology/natural resource conservation. As such, I was extremely well-prepared with the scientific knowledge and skills necessary to teach an array of courses, including biology, chemistry, environmental science, AP Environmental Science, and AP Biology. As I moved into science administration and became the leader of curriculum, instruction, and assessment for all of the natural sciences, my academic preparation at UMass has served me well. It has allowed me to work with our curriculum teams across all of our K-12 science and engineering courses.”
As we can all agree, these are interesting, fast-moving times. In light of rapid advancements in technology (including those being developed at UMass), St. Amand goes to great lengths to ensure that his educational strategies remain current and effective. Furthermore, he works to address inherent challenges regarding access to technology that specifically affects Springfield. “We are very fortunate in the Springfield Public Schools to have a 1:1 laptop initiative for our students” said St. Amand. “We were way ahead of the curve on this and when schools went fully remote in the spring of 2020, all of our students already had an assigned laptop with them at home. Because of our digital learning initiative, We Learn, teachers had been working to incorporate digital learning as a strategy to boost student engagement and achievement. We utilize Schoology as our learning management system (LMS), and most of the curricular resources we use in science integrate with Schoology for a seamless student experience.”
St. Amand feels that Springfield Public Schools has also been very fortunate in terms of the funding allocated for science materials, supplies, and equipment. “Our students have up-to-date technology to conduct biotechnology investigations, and we have the latest probe ware for lab work in the physical sciences as well. My colleagues and I are members of professional associations—such as the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT), the American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT), and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT)—and that helps us to remain current in the latest research-based teaching strategies/practices. We also work closely with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.”
Laying the Foundation for a Stronger and More Inclusive Springfield Public Schools
What’s next for Springfield Public Schools? “We are in the process of adopting the OpenSciEd curriculum in grades 6-12, which has been designed specifically to help disrupt the inequities in science education by supporting instruction that begins with the interests, curiosities, and voices of our students,” St. Amand explained. “By empowering student voices and following a storyline curriculum that asks students to make sense of natural phenomena, we are supporting equitable learning opportunities in science for all of our students. We are also in the process of implementing our new Strategic Plan based on our Portrait of a Graduate. One of the six pillars of the Portrait is WORK: ‘I can identify and pursue career pathways that empower and sustain me.’ As you know, STEM career opportunities are growing in Massachusetts, and we have launched a program for our high school students with our partner World is Our Classroom, Bridging Expectations, to help students envision themselves in STEM careers."
We look forward to following St. Amand’s work at Springfield Public Schools and to see where these initiatives take the district in the coming years.