About

Bio version 2.1

Steve Chinosi is an architect of experience and the chief innovation officer of Newton’s Lab. He’s spent the last 20 years guiding students up mountains, down rivers, across Shakespeare, and beyond biodiesel. 

In the summer he builds stone walls. Actually, it’s just one stone wall that he has been working on for the last nine years. During the fifth year of hauling and setting stone, while he was jamming a smaller stone between two larger stones with his hand, one of the larger stones shifted and fell, temporarily rearranging his thumb. It was then that he remembered the best advice he ever received, “be smarter than the stone.” 

(Bio version 1.1)
For 17 years, curriculum innovation and development is the core of Steve's instructional practice. He started his teaching career as a mountain guide and has spent the last fifteen years incorporating and translating all he learned as a guide into his literature classes. His curiosity led to his specialty in Postcolonial literature and identity theory.

Curiously, it was students in his English class that inspired him to develop a STEM curriculum called “the Greengineers.” As a learning project, the Greengineers program is leading the country in curriculum innovation. The program is a collaborative think-tank (formerly known as a 'class') that integrates Chemistry, Engineering, Physics, Economics, Finance, Design, and Industrial Safety. Steve and his team lead the students through research covering biodiesel, recycled plastics engineering, algae as fuel - and few other projects. The curriculum innovation hinges on the creation and implementation of “Solution-Centered Learning with Student-Centered Solutions.”

Under Steve’s leadership, the success of the Greengineers led to the creation of Newton’s Lab, the innovation laboratory of the Newton Public Schools. Newton’s Lab is a conceptual and physical laboratory that will re-imagine, explore, and create an active and dynamic relationship between public education, universities, and the business community. We will access and employ business expertise, acumen, and ingenuity at the same time as we harness the innovation, exploration, and brilliant ideas of our best students and most innovative faculty.