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Leaders engage a diverse network of community partners and stakeholders in order to support and sustain STEM programs and initiatives.
Leaders engage a diverse network of community partners and stakeholders in order to support and sustain STEM programs and initiatives.
Choose Your Own Adventure; Financial Support, Grants, Donations, and Resources; & Student-Community Partnerships
Cahaba Elementary School has a systematic approach to partnership with a diverse group of community organizations, including local businesses, STEM practitioners, and institutions of higher education in order to achieve our STEM goals, mission, and vision. This system involves events and workshops, acquisition pursuits, and student community leaders. Actively seeking and consistently receiving resources and support from STEM partners improves STEM teaching and learning at Cahaba Elementary.
EVENTS - CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
EVENTS - CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
The newest way that Cahaba Elementary School utilizes our network of community partners to support our STEM Program is through our annual Choose Your Own Adventure Day. We hosted our first annual CYOA Day this year in October. The CYOA event began after one of our teachers won a grant to create a Maker’s Space in one of our classrooms. We call this space the Cahaba Creation Station. The Creation Station is currently in the works, but is not simply a Maker's Space. It is also a workshop area where teachers can host STEM professionals to do authentic workshops with students. Choosing the STEM professionals for student workshops begins with our Choose Your Own Adventure Day.
Planning the “Choose Your Own Adventure” began 3 months prior to the event. Teachers, district technology leaders, and parents were present in the meetings in which they brainstormed ideas, assigned duties, and discussed plans. A planning document was used and shared by members to record progress. The committee decided that groups should be small to provide a more personable hands-on experience. They also decided that we would begin the implementation of CYOA with our 5th grade student body.
Our first annual Choose Your Own Adventure Event was hosted October 27, 2022 from 8:30-10:30. 17 presenters hosted groups of 10-12 students for 15 minute rotations. Various presenters were chosen to show a vast array of STEM professions. Each class was divided into two groups and participated in different tours of STEM professionals.
After the event, students returned to their classroom and both groups reviewed the experiences of their tour. This review allowed students to teach each other about the STEM professions they did not see. After the review, students completed a survey where they identified the STEM professions and experiences in which they were most interested. The survey results were recorded and the data will be used to book STEM professionals to do workshops with students in our Cahaba Creation Station. Presenters, students, and teachers thoroughly enjoyed the event and we plan on including additional grade levels and add more presenters for our CYOA Event in the 2023-24 school year.
Some STEM Professionals at CYOA Day
Technology Integration Specialist, Rachel Brockman, Teaching 3D Modeling
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Naturalist, Dr. Matthew Brown,
Teaching About Animals and Their Habitats
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Drone Specialist, Spencer Stoehr,
Teaching Drone Flying
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Game Developer, Zoey Gooden,
Teaching Game Design
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Acquisition Pursuits
Acquisition Pursuits
FINANCIAL SUPPORT, GRANTS, DONATIONS, & RESOURCES
Cahaba Elementary's STEM initiatives are also supported by our community and stakeholders through their financial assistance, material contributions, and invaluable services. We have a very giving and active community and this list of stakeholders has been accumulated over time through administration and teacher contacts and community members contacting us. We have partnerships with individuals, organizations, parents, educational institutions, the community, local businesses, and media outlets who all contribute and participate in different ways, and our students learn to be a part of the community by giving back!
Video of AL Power Engineer, Jeremy Prickett
Discussing Engineering with Kindergarteners
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BUSINESSES
We have many local businesses like Bryant Bank, Keller Williams Realty, Bendys, Freddys, and Taco Mama that participate in our fundraising events. Local businesses like Alabama Power and Fenwick Labs help to provide electronics kits and plant growing labs. Other businesses, like Urban Air, Nelms Pharmacy, CrossFit, and Trussville to Go participate in our STEM Enrichment experiences. Organizations like the Sorors of the Progressive Pearls of Trussville (a graduate chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc) and the Boy Scouts of America help fund and landscape our garden labs at Cahaba. Our wonderful PTO helps fund the STEM Lab. This year their donation helped to buy HydroPower Generator Kits for our 5th graders. They also volunteer to help with our events, prepare STEM labs and kits, and do whatever is needed to ensure our success.
Examples of Business Involvement
PTO Facebook Post
Food Sponsors
for Our Tinsel Trail and Merry Market Fundraiser
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Chick-Fil-A Is a Major Spirit Night Sponsor - They Donate the Money Made on a Special Nights to Our School & They Participate in Our Events Like Walk to School Day
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Urban Air Owners, Steve and Jaime Horton
Talk to Students in Next Top Firm About Their Advertising Needs
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GRANTS
The Trussville City Schools Foundation is a highly valued partner. Their organization has provided a plethora of grants for our teachers that allow us to offer amazing STEM learning experiences for our students. Teachers at Cahaba actively seek out grants to improve STEM instruction and student learning at Cahaba. Our STEM Lab teacher has won grants from CBS One Class at a Time, AMSTI, TCS Foundation, and local business grants.
PARENTS AND COMMUNITY
Parents, community members and government officials help our school as well. Parents donate supplies so that students can build and create in our STEM Lab and Makers Space. Community leaders like Mayor Buddy Choat and State Representative Danny Garrett have donated money to our school. Local celebrities, like James Spann, come to our school to teach students about meteorology. Parents and community members who hold STEM jobs play a big role in STEM education at Cahaba. Alabama Power Engineer Jeremy Prickett comes to classes to talk about engineering and read children’s books about engineering and engineers to students during Read Across America Week. Southern Company Engineer Waymon Short comes and talks with classes about being an engineer.
State Representative Danny Garrett Donates Money
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PTO Donated Funds to the STEM Lab
Purchased HydroPower Generator Kits
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Our PTO Does It All!
Donates Funds, Organizes Events and Fundraisers, Volunteers, and Takes Care of Our Teachers
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MEDIA
We are fortunate to live in an area where the media takes pride in its school systems. The Cahaba Sun, Trussville Tribune, CBS 42, and ABC 33/40 all report about Cahaba’s learning experiences and events. We’ve even had US News and World Reports do an article about our school.
ABC 33/40 Chief Meteorologist, James Spann, Talks to Students about Meteorology
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Botanical Gardens Collaborated with Cahaba Elementary School Teacher, Angela Shorter, to Create a Special Field Trip for Kindergarten Classes in Birmingham
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Carroll Pharmacy Teaches Kindergaten Students About What Pharmacists Do for the Community on the Community Helpers Field Trip
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EDUCATORS, ORGANIZATIONS, & FIELD TRIP PARTNERS
Educators and educational organizations support STEM learning at Cahaba as well. Our administrators and teachers have poured thousands of dollars of their personal money into STEM learning experiences at Cahaba. This money purchased electronics kits, water filtration kits, building kits, rock cycle kits, a wind power lab, a rocket making lab, Lego construction sets, erector sets, construction materials, tools, and supplies.
There are many institutions that contribute to learning outside of the classroom. Local businesses like Carol Pharmacy, CrossFit, and Fresh Value Food Market participate in our community helpers kindergarten field trip. Students at Cahaba experience closeup, hands-on learning at the McWane Science Center, Botanical Gardens, and Birmingham Zoo. Organizations in our area like the Cahaba River Society and NASA’s Space and Rocket Center provide invaluable educational experiences for our students.
Some of our educational stakeholders offer vital support systems. For example, we purchased our MicroBits and Python curriculum from Firia Labs with a grant. Firia Labs provided crucial hands-on professional development and respond immediately when we need support.
Our stakeholders have provided us with money, supplies, time, expertise, and other resources that have greatly impacted our students. Providing a meaningful and impactful STEM education is an expensive and time consuming endeavor. Without our stakeholders, our teachers would not be able to provide authentic, real world STEM learning experiences for our students.
Student Leadership & Community Partnerships
Student Leadership & Community Partnerships
Hosting STEM professionals, gaining financial support, and acquiring supplies and resources are all very important ways in which we partner with diverse groups of community organizations, local businesses, and STEM practitioners to provide resources for instruction, but partnerships are a two way street. So at Cahaba Elementary School, we empower students to become their own advocates by giving them opportunities to practice and demonstrate real-world skills and community leadership by participating in our Next Top Firm Course, GATE Marketplace, and Community Partners program.
NEXT TOP FIRM
Next Top Firm is an in-school enrichment experience offered to 5th grade students, once a week for an hour. The course facilitator recruits local businesses to participate in this Apprentice/Shark Tank like experience, where students form their own advertising agencies, interview the business, and design an advertising campaign based on the business’s needs, values, mission, and vision. Students write a marketing plan with a target audience, strategy, and budget. Then, they create an advertising package that includes a custom made logo, slogan, electronic billboard display, business card, informational brochure, posters, and a commercial. Next, students create an ad pitch (presentation) where they must present their marketing plan and ad campaign to the participating business. On Judgment Day, the business comes to listen to each of the student firms’ marketing plans and ad pitches. These firms make notes, collaborate with business partners, and provide written feedback for all student firms. Then, the business chooses the best marketing plan and ad campaign. On Awards Day, the winning student firm is named CES’s Next Top Firm and each partner receives a trophy. After awards day, each student firm receives their feedback from the participating business.
The Next Top Firm course is a transdiscipinary, real world experience. It throws kids into the working world and requires them to utilize the STEM knowledge and apply the STEM skills they have developed so far in real time for a real purpose. Students get to experience first hand how STEM disciplines are used in design and problem solving and how the 21st century workforce skills they learn in all classes at Cahaba are vital to their success in the real world. The Next Top Firm Course greatly impacted the students. First, we noticed that students were finally understanding empathy as the first step in the design process. Students in elementary school are still very egocentric thinkers. When they are asked to design something, they tend to throw aside the wants and needs of their product’s audience and design it the way they would like it. Designing an advertising campaign around the wants and needs of a client really opened their eyes that design is about another person’s wants and needs. Another thing we’ve noticed was that teams of students in the course learned to work as a team effectively and efficiently by brainstorming ideas, pooling their collective talents, and assigning tasks to each member based on those talents. For example, one group had a member who was participating in another course at school called Coding Innovations. In the course, the student learned to create a digital display with a MicroBit. So, the group used his skills to create models of digital interstate signs with advertisements saying, “Come to Urban Air” as a part of their advertising package. Another member of the group loved graphic art. He played around in several drawing programs like, Procreate, and had mastered creating graphics in Google Drawings. The group utilized his skills to create an original logo and he led the group in the graphic design of their campaign. The third member of the group had participated in our TEDEd program. The group utilized his skills to write their presentation script and take the lead on presenting their advertising plan. All three members had a special talent that the group identified and utilized in the campaign. In the process, they also learned new skills from each other. Identifying talents, properly utilizing those talents, and working well with a team may seem like simple skills, but they are not simple in elementary school. Most young students still struggle with working with others. They want to do the whole thing, their way, or want to let someone else do everything.
Next Top Firm Student Marketing Plans and Sales Pitch Presentations
Next Top Firm Gallery
NTF Video Clip.mp4Urban Air Owners, Steve Horton and Marco Turner Listening to Judgement
Day Presentation
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Student Interviewing Trussville to Go Owner, Amanda Short, About What She Wants In An Ad Campaign
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Student Firm's Promotional Product Made for Urban Air
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Student Interviewing Chase and Kenley Nelms, Owners of Nelms Pharmacy, About What They Want In An Ad Campaign
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Student Explaining Her Firm's Advertising Strategy for
Nelms' Pharmacy's Ad Campaign
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Student Firm's Logo and Slogan for CrossFit
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GATE MARKETPLACE
Our GaTE Marketplace involves our community and student body as stakeholders in STEM learning. Marketplace is an experience where GaTE students have the opportunity to explore all realms of entrepreneurship. The students spend time surveying and collecting data from the student body and using the data to create a product to manufacture and sell for a GaTE fundraiser. This unit has critical and creative skills embedded in every lesson. From surveying the student body, analyzing data, creating price points, etc. this unit gives the students an opportunity to apply skills across the curriculum. Within this unit, the students must decide on important factors that will determine the success of their product such as, branding, advertising, pricing, manufacturing, displaying the product, etc. This unit provides a rich level of learning where students have choice within the activities. In this unit, students continuously apply skills on a higher level of thinking.
GATE Marketplace Carousel of Photos
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CAHABA CARES PROJECT
Finally, we believe that students are the most important stakeholders in their own STEM learning. Our faculty and administrators empower students to become community leaders that contribute to the public infrastructure systems in which STEM disciplines and professions play such a vital role by engaging them in our Cahaba Cares Project. The project is facilitated by our school counselor, Rachel Osburn during our Random Acts of Kindness Week. Our Cahaba Cares Project engages the whole school and each grade level in a project in which they give back to our community or help other communities in need. Grade levels have helped with disaster relief efforts in Louisiana and brought in canned and dry goods for the T.E.A.M. Food Pantry. They have provided the Jefferson County Humane Society with much needed supplies and set up a water and snack table for the delivery service personnel that come to our school. They have brought in truckloads of food and snacks for our police station and fire department and raised funds for our community library, the Trussville City Schools Foundation, Pathways Counseling Services, the YMCA, and the Brookwood Hospital Burn Center. In the past few years, students have begun to recognize the educational system as a public infrastructure service. As a part of School Board Appreciation, each grade level donates money or supplies to each board member’s favorite charity or organization in their name.
Cahaba Cares Carousel of Photos
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CAHABA STUDENTS TAKE CHARGE
We support student ideas and leadership. Teaching students to problem solve and providing them with pathways to achieve goals provides our students with the 21st century skills they need to be successful in STEM careers. For example, a group of fourth grade girls used the design process to design a basketball goal and court at Cahaba. Then, they created a plan for attaining it. The Cahaba Sun posted an article about our student's journey from planning, to fundraising, to the final product.
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