How Does Energy Drive You? And What Can You Do To Control It?

Welcome to Dilworth STEM Academy's first STEM Unit! The final quarter many STEM activities will be taking place as we evolve into our fill fledged academy. One of the most visible activates is the 8th Grade pilot project. Our 8th grade teachers and students will be participating in a 5 week project on energy.

The Science, Language Arts and Math and ESL teachers, have been working very hard as they research Project Based Learning (http://www.bie.org/ ). They have been working through the process of selecting standards, both state and national (http://www.commoncore.org/), to be the skeleton of the students learning. They even took a whole day to sit down together to plan more of the unit so they could create a true interdisciplinary unit. The location of that planning session was at our new Partner in Education, Desert Research Institute (www.dri.edu).

 

The teachers first drafted the essential question: How does energy drive you? And what can you do to control it? They then created a rubric, which a panel of judges will use when scoring the students small group presentations the week of May 25-27. The students will be responsible for presenting on one area of energy. They are to include a school energy audit, home energy audit, research paper, a model of their topic on energy, as well as SMART goals for both energy conservation and goals for themselves as they transition into high school. One important component for real world learning in education is to include the community and outside organizations to help make education more purposeful.  The organization we are working with for this project is Envirolution (www.envirolution.org) They are helping to provide much of the curriculum which teachers and students will use during these 5 weeks.   

We are all very excited about this project. We know it will make learning hands on, fun, and the students will be gaining and applying their learning in depths never touched before. To learn more about the project please talk with the 8th grade teachers and you can get a better feel as to how Dilworth STEM academy will operate next year.



Silver Scholars Ceremony

On February 26th these students were recognized as Silver Scholars.

Theywere recognize for being in the to 15% of their class.

Holocaust Symposium

On Feb 17th Henry Fournier took a group of 7th grade students to the Holocaust Symposium. The students participated in a break out session dealing with people who helped the Jews during the Holocaust.  They were part of a partisan group of dissenters that also fought back against the Nazis.  Dinner was exciting and the students listened to the story of Henry Greenbaum, a Holocaust survivor.  Between the ages of 12-17, Mr. Greenbaum was confined to a Jewish ghetto, shipped to Auschwitz and was part of a death march before being liberated by the English army.  He was eventually reunited with his surviving family and they moved to America after the war.  The students then met with Mr. Greenbaum and posed for pictures with him.

SIOP Refresher-Lesson Preparation

"As we all know, lesson planning is critical to both a student's and teacher's success. For maximum learing to occur, planning must produce lessons that enable students to make connections between their own knowledge and expierences and the new information being taught. With carfeul planning, we make learning meaningful and relevant by including appropriate motivating materials and activities that foster real-life application of concepts studied." (MCC pg. 23-24).

Key Things to Remember when Planning:

• Objective(s) need to be standards based and promote academic language development. For example, "I can calculate slope and midpoint by solving sample problems in my notebook." 4.8.5 (Content Objective) "I can describe how I found the slope and midpoint of an equation by listing the steps I took and sharing those steps with a partner." (Language Objective)
• Differentiating your instruction allows you to meet the students' needs and scaffold them up to the desired level of content.
• Supplemental materials may vary from class to class and manipulatives provide concrete examples of the content.
• The more time students are able to practice the desired skill, the more likely the student will be able to generalize it.

Who is Brandy Franck?



My name is Brandy Franck, and I am the on-site technology person that you will be sharing with Mendive. I will be here from 7-11 every morning for the foreseeable future.  I was asked to give you a little background on myself so here it is.

I was born and raised right here in the Reno/Sparks area. I attended Washoe County schools most of my life, but I graduated from Wrangell High School in Wrangell, Alaska. I have worked for the Washoe County School District since 2005. I was an ETS (also known as Computer Assistant) at Van Gorder, Kate Smith, and Bernice Mathews. Prior to that I worked in customer service for AT&T Wireless and DirecTV.

I am happily single and I don’t have kids (my middle school aged sister is more than enough for me).

I am a self-taught geek since 1995 which means I am not a conventional geek. I like to say I’m geek-lingual. That means I can understand what you may mean by “jumpy thingy” or “computer thing-a-ma-jig”. I specialize in Microsoft Office and its many uses, and have successfully taught Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher to many self-titled technology challenged individuals. I am familiar with just about anything you may use, from NWEA and MAPs to Renaissance and Infinite Campus, and if I don’t know it, I will learn it.

I am excited to join such a dynamic team of educators, and am anxious to assist in your continuing adventure to bring the students to their full potential. If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, etc, please feel free to email, call, text, IM, telepathy, what have you.

Happily Yours,

Brandy

bfranck@washoeschools.net

(775)303-5939

Classroom Setting

Classroom setup can dramatically affect students' attitudes toward and habits of learning. Students need an environment that is organized, stimulating, and comfortable in order to learn effectively. Creating such an environment entails arranging a practical physical layout, supplying diverse materials and supplies, and encouraging students to have a sense of belonging and ownership.

There are 6 items that help create an effective classroom setting:

1. student exemplars displayed 2. print rich environment 3. availability of manipulatives

 4. furniture allows for grouping 5. technology readily available 6. instructional material on walls

When you receive feedback done by an administrator or coach you can look in the Classroom Setting section to see what areas of strength you have and what areas need support.  Below are examples of each.

Instructional Material on Walls:

objectives, information about the standards, examples/models, vocabulary, charts/graphs etc.

Technology Readily Available

Teacher and student able to access and use Activeboards, Elmo, Projector.

 And for "older" technology, overhead projectors  :-) 

Furniture Allow for Grouping

Students will quickly be able to work cooperatively with their partners or team

Availability of Manipulatives

Students can quickly access materials need for learning; highlighters, rulers, colored pencils etc.

Print Rich Environment

Students can easily refer to text up on the walls, charts, graphs, books, exemplars to help them with learning

Student Exemplars Displayed

Examples of student work that meets standard



Reno Gazette-Journal 02/02/2011, Page B01

STEM academies teach a hands-on approach

By Michael Martinez
mmartinez@rgj.com

The seventh-graders in Matt Oates’ science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, class at Dilworth Middle School were going full bore as teams measured wood and calculated dimensions to build medieval- style catapults as part of a hands-on exercise in math and architecture.

As Oates talked with visitors in his class, only one student interrupted to ask a question. The students worked amongst themselves to solve problems and complete their tasks.

Dilworth is one of seven schools that received federal School Improvement Grant money, one of five that have opened STEM academies and the only middle school with such a program.

In the first year of the academy, the goal has been to give students hands-on learning experience to connect with science, said Dilworth assistant principal and STEM coordinator Georgette Knecht.

“We’re giving them some experience on what project-based learning looks like, especially in our science classes and three of our elective classes that are honors science skills classes,” Knecht said.

Eighth-grader Zoey Jones is one the students in an advanced science course and is designing a presentation of the project being worked on in Oates class to share with parents and incoming students.

“We thought it was important to have a student design the presentation,” Knecht said.

Jones said the presentation will consist of photos and video of the projects that the students have worked on during the year in preparation for a Science Olympiad last Saturday at the U niversity of Nevada, Reno.

“It’s about challenging yourself,” Jones said of the STEM learning. “I’ve learned how to work in a team, communicate with people you may not know right away and get through problems.”

The catapults students were working on would be entered in the Science Olympiad as part of a “Storm the Castle” competition.

Oates, the STEM implementation specialist, said the hands-on learning was valuable in preparing the students for the Olympiad and called it an example of what they’d like to do more of.

“(It’s) not your typical ‘stand up and give a book report’ but how can we make this current and applicable to future jobs,” Oates said. “They’ve also designed bottle rockets and towers designed to hold weights.”

Dilworth staff recently held meetings to plan how the STEM curriculum will be implemented in its second year.

“The plan for next year’s curriculum at the school is for a ll teachers to have STEM

SEE STEM, 3B »

Eighth-grader Mathew Fenlason works on a science experiment after school Thursday at Dilworth Middle School. Dilworth is one of four School Improvement Grant campuses.

Efren Johnson works on a science experiment after school on Thursday at Dilworth Middle School.