Creating relevant classroom experiences focusing on problem solving and collaboration in a small school setting.
Today, students hold more computing power in the palm of their hands than the first astronauts had in their spacecrafts. For more than a generation, our world has been shaped by technological innovations. The power of these changes is reflected in Moore’s Law which states the speed of technology doubles its size every two years.
In the time of Sputnik, science and technology were necessary areas of study to compete in the space race. In the 21st century, science and technology are foundational for all studies and all pursuits. Whether on the job or at home, technology is refining everything about our behaviors.
The Tuxedo STEM Academy is a STEM High School that incorporates the methodologies of STEM into ALL classes (Inclusive STEM), for ALL students, by ALL Faculty. In our program, STEM at serves an important role. It is to look at STEM as the foundation of all instruction: Strategic Transitional Experiential Modern.
We have established a program that provides a unique educational opportunity for ALL STUDENTS who attend the Tuxedo STEM Academy by incorporating the ideology and methodology established within the STEM fields. Students will see the connection and integration of all components of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). We do not believe that integrated STEM instruction should take place in a vacuum. Nor do we believe that STEM learning consists of an isolated list of electives that may or may not fit into one’s academic schedule.
Most importantly, The Tuxedo STEM Academy's curriculum map is highly adaptable that will allow the Tuxedo STEM Academy to adjust course offerings by hiring experts in various STEM fields filed to instruct at the Tuxedo STEM Academy. It is our vision to have Tuxedo STEM Academy certified teachers to co-teach with these STEM professionals.
This unique aspect afforded to the Tuxedo STEM Academy as a charter school will provide our students the Real-Time, Market Driven course offering to prepare them for the Work Force and Post-Secondary Education
What is the Tuxedo STEM Academy at George F. Baker High School?
The Tuxedo STEM Academy is designed to provide students with progressively specialized instruction and hands-on experiences in one of four Pathways: Applied Sciences (Traditional Engineering), Computer Science, Health Science, or Environmental Science, in which the ideology and philosophy developed in the STEM fields is infused in all aspects of curriculum. This will be accomplished through hands-on, problem-based, collaborative learning ingrained with digital and technological literacy. Our program is designed to provide relevant learning opportunities that allow students to become active participants in the learning process.
What is our vision of STEM Education in the 21st Century?
STEM education is an approach to teaching and learning that integrates the content and skills of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics with the arts and humanities. Through rigorous engagement in inquiry, applied practice, collaboration, and investigation students will engage in project-based challenges and diverse assessments that focus on real-world applications. The goal of STEM education is to better prepare our students for the challenges of tomorrow with the skills of today.
The Tuxedo STEM Academy seeks to provide every student with a unique educational opportunity available through a STEM education by focusing on the processes and practices incorporated in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics as it applies to problem solving, collaboration, and ingenuity. The Tuxedo STEM Academy believes that every student can and will benefit from this unique educational opportunity and that the skills developed in our program will be relevant not Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, but to ALL fields of study.
Our classes will provide our students with the following skills:
Critical Thinking
Collaboration
Presentation
Troubleshooting
Engineering Design
Teaming Skills
Engineering Literacy
Analytical Thinking
Problem Solving
System Thinking
Active Listening
Digital Literacy
College Readiness
Mathematical Literacy
Brainstorming
Communication
Workplace Readiness
Active Learning
Technological Literacy
Scientific Literacy
STEM Literacy
Our program is designed to incorporate the ideology and methodology of an integrative STEM education in all coursework and in all academic classes. All classes will engage students with design challenges and project-based activities that teach science, technology, engineering and mathematics that have practical application and real world connections.
What is the mission of the Tuxedo STEM Academy?
It is our intention to develop a fully integrated high school that will connect components of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and actively engage students in project-based, collaborative learning environments that incorporate and promote the use of higher level thinking, digital technologies, content-driven problem solving skills, and alternative assessments in EVERY CLASS.
The Tuxedo STEM Academy has developed a performance-based assessment model that evaluates collaboration, work ethic, presentation skills, classwork, journal logs, participation, and self-evaluation rubrics as a primary grading tool that is directly correlated with content-driven design challenges and problem solving. Through alternative means of assessment, all students are able to demonstrate an understanding of engineering design and practical application of content and use STEM interconnected skills through various mediums rather than relying on a single paper and pencil test. Performance-based models provide diverse learners with diverse means of assessment.
The Tuxedo STEM Academy is designed to provide ALL STUDENTS with progressively specialized instruction and hands-on experiences in one of five Pathways: Applied Sciences (Traditional Engineering), Computer Science, Health Science, Environmental Science, or a Creative Design Plan, in which the ideology and philosophy developed in the STEM fields is infused in all aspects of curriculum. This approach will be accomplished through hands-on, problem-based, collaborative learning ingrained with digital and technological literacy. Our program is designed to provide relevant learning opportunities that allow ALL STUDENTS to become active and effective participants in the learning process.
Unlike traditional public schools, the Tuxedo STEM Academy will have the opportunity develop a more flexible, robust curriculum that allow us to meet the changing demands of the STEM fields and provide relevant, meaningful programming taught by STEM user experts from various fields of employment in addition to our own teaching staff. Our continued relationships with our partners will also allow us to develop unique job shadowing and internship programs that will be available for our students during their Junior and Senior years in the program.
The Tuxedo STEM Academy serves as a model for educational reform. We are committed to plotting a new course in education. WE ARE A FULLY INTEGRATED STEM HIGH SCHOOL. We offer more than the typical Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math electives. We have INFUSED the ideology and methodology of the STEM fields throughout our ENTIRE academic program. We are employing the use of content-driven design challenges and problems that use a variety of methods to arrive at multiple solutions through an Integrative STEM program.
As pioneers of educational reform, the Tuxedo STEM Academy is RE-INVENTING and RE-DESIGNING public education in the 21st century.
INNOVATION COLLABORATION PROBLEM SOLVING CREATIVITY INGENUITY