About Mr. McKenry

My name is Matthew McKenry, and I teach Biology and Honors Biology at CASHS.  I grew up in Windber, Pennsylvania which is a small coal-mining town located about 2 hours west of Chambersburg.  I graduated from Windber Area High School in 2003.  After graduation, I attended the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.  I majored in Biology and Secondary Education, and I graduated and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 2008.  I worked at an alternative high school for about a year following graduation, and then moved to Chambersburg when I was offered a teaching position in 2009.  I have been teaching at CASHS for 11 years, and I have taught General Biology, Honors Biology, Biology I, and Biology II.  In 2012, I became a club advisor when Christian Skultety and I started a "Hooked On Trout" club at the high school.  The trout club, through grant money, raises brook trout in the classroom, goes on trips to local streams to analyze water quality, and particpates in stream conservation efforts. 

My teaching philosophy centers around two major topics:  the Science Assessment Instruction and Learning Cycle (SAIL Cycle) and inquiry-based learning.  I believe that the learning cycle should involve six components: engagement and readiness, eliciting prior knowledge, exploration and discovery, concept and skill development, concept and skill transfer, and reflection and self-assessment.  Learning should begin with engaging students with interesting materials and events.  Learning should also begin with determining the readiness of our students.  All students come into class with different experiences and background knowledge that help determine how prepared they are for the content being taught.  I believe that we need to elicit students' prior knowledge.  We need to determine what they know about the content so that we know where to start teaching.  If misconceptions are uncovered, we need to challenge students' ideas and help them understand the scientifc views of the content.  I believe that we need to have students explore and discover, and this is where inquiry-based learning comes into play.  Inquiry-based learning allows students to be scientists in the classrooms.  They are not following a cookbook approach to labs and activities. Students utilize the scientific method to explore scientific content and to discover scientific knowledge.  I believe students need opportunities to develop skills and to deepen their understanding of scientific knowledge.  I feel that students need to be able to takes skills they develop and transfer them to other learning experiences and situations.  Lastly, I believe that students need to take time at the end of learning experiences to conduct a self-assessment and reflection.  Students need this time to monitor their own thinking and progress towards learning goals.  In order for the above steps to be apart of an effective learning cycle, I believe that students should be assessed often.  I believe that utilizing diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments will provide, both myself and my students, with valuable data that will serve as documentation towards mastery of learning.