A Life-Changing Teacher, His World-Changing Kids, and the Most Inventive Classroom in America
July 1, 2018
A year in the lives and experiments of one exceptional high school science class.Andy Bramante isn't just a science teacher; he's the head of the renowned honors science research lab at Greenwich High School in Connecticut, a school that has "no curriculum, tests, textbooks, or lectures." Bramante's students don't just win science fairs. Among other impressive accomplishments, they discover how to treat Lyme disease and then get full scholarships to MIT, Yale, and other prestigious colleges. So it's no wonder that Tesoriero, an Emmy-winning former producer at CBS and reporter at Newsweek, Time, and the Wall Street Journal, latched on to him as a subject. His accolades alone scream "amazing feature story." But what gets lost in the author's exhaustive storytelling is any sense of plot; the book would have made a much better documentary. Still, the story has lots to recommend it. Dividing the narrative by season and then into chapters starring a handful of students, Tesoriero meticulously documents not just the students who make up Bramante's course, but also their incredibly advanced projects: There's Olivia, who created a low-cost Ebola test; Romano, the reformed jock working on an antibiotic-laced liquid bandage; and the astoundingly bright William Yin, a senior who developed a new test for arterial plaque buildup that could predict Alzheimer's disease. No doubt these are remarkable individuals (a glance at the list of awards at the back of the book will confirm that) with impressive stories, but by chopping the book up by character and filling each chapter with science jargon, the author slows the narrative momentum. Halfway through Spring, readers may find themselves flipping back to Fall to figure out which kid is which. However, the book will prove worthwhile for those interested in innovative approaches to education. Bramante, unlike so many exceptional teachers, gets the attention he rightly deserves.Mr. Wizard meets Sweet Valley High in a fly-on-the-wall look at some of the future scientists of America.
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July 9, 2018
Journalist Tesoriero embedded in one exceptional Connecticut classroom during the 2016–2017 school year for this inspiring account of how a high school science teacher mentors and motivates his prize-winning pupils. Andy Bramante, a corporate scientist turned public school teacher, teaches Greenwich High School’s science research class, where his students have been cleaning up awards on the science fair circuit for years. In writing about the curriculum and students’ projects, Tesoriero excels at making the science accessible, whether discussing experiments with PDE4 inhibitors or the importance of carbon capture. Sometimes, however, she strains to do the same with the students’ lives, such as with descriptions like “the primero popular girl-boy posse” or poking fun at a student’s use of a made-up word. But Tesoriero keeps Bramante at the emotional center of it all, following him as he opens the lab during winter break, frets over a student who loses focus, and balances celebrating the winners and commiserating with the losers at science fairs. The students’ kindnesses, worries, feuds, and projects are likewise sketched so lovingly that readers cannot help rooting for them. With its winning mix of human-interest and scientific innovation, this book will appeal to general readers and fans of pop science alike.
September 1, 2018
Tesoriero, a former TV news producer and newspaper reporter, captures with humor and empathy the lives and dreams of an extraordinary group of students in an honors science class in wealthy Greenwich, CT. Chapters alternate between the points of view of former corporate scientist and devoted teacher Andy Bramante and some of his star pupils, many of whom are from immigrant families. Bramante's students stand out in the competitive science fair circuit. Tesoriero exhaustively details their science projects--an affordable test for Ebola, a treatment for Lyme disease--along with their admissions to Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. Not only are they incredibly intelligent and unfailingly likable but the girls all seem to be "head-swirlingly gorgeous," with one of the boys described as "handsome, popular, and a walking study in cool." Although the multiple viewpoints can be confusing to follow, Tesoriero makes a strong case for the importance of science and inspirational teachers. VERDICT Recommended for readers of Alexandra Robbins's works, The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids and The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth.--Elizabeth Safford, Boxford Town Lib., MA
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