Science Instruction at Jefferson School
Science Instructor
Ray Adams
Teaching 4th and 5th grade science this year is Ray Adams.
Mr. Ray, as his students call him, was born in the Midwest and went to school in San Diego. He came to Berkeley to study chemical engineering at Cal and never left. In his junior year at Cal, he volunteered to work in the Richmond schools and decided to change his career path from engineering to the social sciences and education. After graduation, he was a naturalist with the City of Berkeley and for a couple of years supervised Adventure Playground. He received his Masters in Education at Cal State Hayward.
This is his 17th year teaching science in the Berkeley schools. He teaches all the first and second graders at Jefferson once a week for 45 minutes each and also teaches fourth and fifth grade science at Emerson and Oxford. In addition, he teaches two courses at CSU East Bay: he teaches students getting their credential science methods, or how to teach science, and he also teaches environmental education in the Masters program there.
When he’s not teaching, Mr. Ray loves growing heirloom tomatoes in his front yard and spends a lot of time working on his century-old house. He’s very interested in astronomy, and loves to travel, too.
He encourages parents to do science activities with their children at home. In winter, he suggests, it’s a good time for parents to look up at the night skies with their children, pointing out constellations and the planets.