STEM Affinity High Schools Network
19 December 2011 in Headline
SOURCE: http://www.meetup.com/STEM-Affinity/
Published in Davie Life (December)
Davie County Schools has been sharing significant good news lately about the progress being made in 21st Century Learning. At the September Board of Education Meeting exciting advances in teacher education were shared by Noël Grady-Smith, Director of Curriculum and Leadership Development for Davie County Schools. In response to the North Carolina Call for Change and to the state securing Race to the Top funding for initiating national educational objectives, a new form of curriculum is being put in place for every subject area taught in the entire state. At one of the state-wide training sessions in Hickory, NC, Davie County Teacher Leaders were briefed on the national context for this significant shift in North Carolina’s education plan. “North Carolina is pleased to be one of the first states to adopt the Common Core,” said State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison. “Our state has been a leader in the movement from the beginning because we believe that it makes sense to collaborate with other states that share our vision for clear and rigorous standards.” At this point 46 states and provinces across America have formally adopted the Common Core Standards providing a vast network of technical support and shared assessment models. Read more at: http://www.corestandards.org/
This is a huge undertaking for all North Carolina school systems and each one is approaching it according to their specific resources and capacity-building processes. Davie County Schools has taken the approach of sending 20 trained Teacher Leaders out into schools to model 21st Century teaching skills while bringing the entire faculty at each school up to speed on specific content as well as the new shared responsibility for teaching literacy and mathematical thinking to all students throughout all subject areas. Dr. Danny Cartner, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Donna McNeil, Director of Career and Technical Education, and John Marshall and Sara Rhyne, experienced Instructional Technology Leaders, are spearheading this large scale effort to bring new technology skills and improved teaching methods to every teacher in the county. The Common Core State Standards for North Carolina and the new North Carolina Essential Standards are geared to provide every child in the Davie County Schools with a more sophisticated level of instruction and more technology-integrated methods of learning while preparing them to be career and college ready. Butch Rooney, Chief Technology Officer for the Davie County Schools and his team are essential to this intensive upgrade in technical skills for teachers, as they are providing support and meeting the challenge of keeping every classroom attuned to a higher level of technology implementation.
With this shift toward a more 21st Century mode of instruction in mathematics and capitalizing on current research models that focus on rigorous and relevant content, Davie County Schools is also adapting with a change from traditional subject by subject mathematics instruction to an Integrated Math I, II, III, and IV model. Single domain instruction as in Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II will be enhanced to include several overlapping domains and concepts in each course. This allows students to apply mathematics to “real life” problems and learn through a problem-based sequence of instruction that encourages higher levels of thinking to solve more complex and integrated problems, an approach that is closely related to the new Common Core Mathematics Standards and Curriculum.
The North Carolina New Schools Project has invited Davie County Schools to begin the process of learning about the possibility of becoming a partner in the STEM Affinity High Schools Network. This exciting opportunity is in keeping with the strong focus on STEM education that Davie County Schools has been involved with over the past six years and offers new resources to help students use an “Engineering Design Process” to define and solve real world problems. With this partnership, Davie County High School science and mathematics teachers would have access to extensive professional development opportunities enabling them to develop and deepen STEM themes with cross curricular projects and collaboration with other North Carolina STEM Affinity High Schools in the network. A team of teachers and administrators is currently attending seminars and visiting other schools in the network to gather information on this possible partnership.
Robotics Skills Challenge Series Kicks Off
16 November 2011 in HeadlineDavie County Schools has developed the Robotics Skills Challenge Series. The goal of this series is to engage students in an after-school robotics club to learn the basics of robotics programming using the Lego NXT Mindstorm Robots.
On November 4th, 108 students on 31 teams participated across the district in the first of three challenges. Challenge one was a logistics challenge that used downtown Mocksville as its backdrop. Students arrived with no prior knowledge of the tasks which required each team to bring forth their expertise and their ability to work together as a team as they proceeded toward their goal, devising strategies and solving each problem included in the challenge.
Teams were challenged to incorporate a 
number of robot programming skills which included, move forward and back, complete a point and pivot turn, push and pull objects with an attachment, make a sound, and speed up and slow down. Using these skills, students were challenged to complete tasks on a 4′ x 8′ competition mat. Some of the challenges included:
- Deliver a tire from BASE to the Skinny Wheels Bicycle Shop
- Deliver dog food from BASE to the Mocksville Police Station
- Drive from BASE to Southern States, pick up dog food and deliver to Mocksville Police Station.
- Drive from BASE to Walker’s Coin Laundromat and complete a 360o spin like a washing machine, keeping the front wheels inside the circle.
- Take money from BASE and deposit it in Suntrust Bank or pay your taxes at the Tax Office.
- Cruise the strip in Mocksville. Staring at BASE, travel up Main Street and turn left on Gaither Street, then left again on Salisbury Street, around Horn’s and return to BASE.
- Drive from BASE to the pedestrian crosswalk, wait 3 seconds then continue on past the trees. Turn left around the tree then play a tune as you pass the car show toward Depot Street before returning to BASE.
- Drive from BASE around Horn’s to Salisbury Street. Turn right on Water Street. SLOW DOWN for construction along Water Street, and then speed back up to return to BASE.
- Drive from BASE to Energy United to attend a Rotary Club Meeting, wait 3 seconds then travel to Restaurant 101 to meet some friends for lunch before returning to BASE.
The teams with the highest point values joined the Mocksville Rotary for lunch and provided a demonstration of some of the challenges.
Thank you to the following individuals and companies for their support and contributions: Davis Sign Company for printing the judging mats, Roger Dull from transportation for printing paper practice mats, Matt Wilson for auto cad work at DHS, DCCC for helping with design, Fuller Architecture for printing, volunteers, parents, DCAEOP, and the Mocksville Rotary.
Lego NXT Teacher Training
19 September 2011 in Headline
During the summer of 2010, two different week long workshops kicked off the year of the robot! DCS understood that successful implementation of 175 Lego NXT robots into the elementary and middle school curriculum hinged on good teacher and administration training. Twenty two teachers and technology facilitators received four intensive days of NXT training learning about iterative design, basic programming, loops, switches, and challenge design. Davie County School administrators completed a challenge designed especially for them at their summer administrators retreat. To see the challenge the administrators took on click: Administrator’s Challenge
Since last summer 257 teachers have received basic robotic training and have begun to implement the robots into all areas of the curriculum. Check out the DCS robot wiki used to collect grade level ideas and resources for teachers to share STEM robot ideas across the district. Teachers in the DCS also have access to two instructional coaches to help design and implement Lego NXT lessons. In addition to the regular day, afterschool clubs continue to enhance STEM learning!
Davie County Schools is making a commitment to encouraging teachers to be life long learners with a full summer of professional development opportunities based around the Common Core and Essential Standards and STEM education. Below are descriptions of 2012 summer robot institutes.
Davie County Robotics Institute Training. Grades K-8
June 25th-28th K-8
August 6th-9th K-8
3.0 Renewal Credits (Tech and Academic)
Limit 16 Teachers
The Davie County Robotics Institute provides teachers and coaches with a solid foundation for robot programming in the NXT-G 2.1 language, and experience in troubleshooting common student mistakes. It focuses on identifying and extracting academic value from the naturally occurring STEM situations encountered in robotics explorations. Finally, the course will align the robotics activities with the North Carolina Curriculum Standards for grades K-8 in Math and Science.
ADVANCED Robotics Institute Training. Grades K-8
June 18th – 20th
2.5 Renewal Credits
Limit 16 Teachers
The Davie County Advanced Robotics Institute provides teachers and coaches who have a solid foundation in robot programming in the NXT-G 2.1 language to explore a deeper understanding and functionality of the NXT brick and advanced programming features. It continues to focus on identifying and extracting academic value from the naturally occurring STEM situations encountered in robotics explorations. The course will align the robotics activities with the Common Core and Essential Standards for grades K-8 in Math and Science.
