ST 1.10

Self-Assessment Rating: 4

Community, post-secondary, and business/industry partners and/or families actively support and are engaged with teachers and students in the STEM program.

Community Involvement with Elementary

Parents At Work in School (PAWS)

Our Parents As Work in Schools (PAWS) have worked diligently to support Pinecrest Academy Cadence Campus in a variety of ways. This esteem group of parents or PAWS as we call them, work in conjunction with classroom homeroom parents in order to support classroom instruction. They help assist teachers with additional hands for complex in-house activities, such as helping students build prototypes. PAWS members chaperone field trips, ensuring that students are actively engaged when attending, for example, the Children's Discovery Museum. Through fundraisers such as our annual Fun Run, PTO Harvest Festival, and free-dress fundraisers, PAWS help to gather donations and materials needed for STEM Lessons. Every year, PAWS members encourage health and wellness by organizing and volunteering for field day. Our parents not only donate materials but also their time. They are vital in representing our school through Holiday Shows, Science Fair, STEM and related Family Nights, STEM Showcases, Career Day, and on-going STEM Career Presentations.

Parents Seeking Real-Life Connections

Pinecrest Academy parents are encouraged to continually seek real life connection with the school programs and focuses. Through meet and great as well as social media platforms parents are encouraged to attend community events and dive deeper into what their children are learning. From sentence starters to explore what their children are learning about and reading, to the promotion of local STEM related activities, parents are asked to get involved. This aligns with our mission and vision to untie the community

Solar Eclipse Community Event

Pinecrest Academy Cadence organized a community event for the solar eclipse. Parents were invited and encouraged to attend the viewing as well. Donations from the glasses went directly to funding the astronomy classes. The event was a huge success and many community members joined in the viewing.

STEMfinity Sponsored STEM Lab

STEMfinity, a large online supplier of STEM materials for schools sponsored the Pinecrest Academy STEM lab. A ribbon cutting was held in which many local community politicians attended to celebrate the opening of these educational opportunities for children. In building this community partnership, STEMfinity agreed to sponsor roughly $26,000 worth of hands-on STEM materials for students. The lab serves as the space for elementary students to explore STEM weekly in their specials class. All students are afforded equal access to the lab and the highly engaging activities provided by our PLTW-trained instructor.

Community Involvement with Secondary

Cybersecurity Industry Speakers

Industry experts are valued guests speakers addressing PAC students each week on a variety of topics, making real-life connections to the standards and guiding students to translate skills acquired in class into real-world careers. Pictured is a guest speaker interacting with cyber-security students.

Aviation Industry Speakers

Each year the aviations classes hear from a variety of industry guest speakers. Speakers represent a multitude of platforms within the industry including:

Commercial
Private
Airforce and Military Branches
Delivery services
Unmanned Aircraft
Support Jobs and Industries

Industry Visits

Each year students get to experience hands-on learning out in the community. Community partners teach students, first hand, what their careers entail. From flight experiences, Air Force tours, and other industry experiences, Pinecrest offers a variety of real-life connections to students.

Finance Park

Students as Pinecrest Academy are taught an intensive eight-week financial literacy curriculum. This program culminates with a sponsored field trip to the Junior Achievement Finance Park. As part of the experience, students are assigned a career and salary. The coursework helps PAC students acquire the skills required to budget for real-life needs and navigate the costs of strains on a household budget.

Goals for Improvement

Add opportunities for parents to engage in more frequent hands-on experiences with their students
Expand industry trip opportunities
Reduce barriers of costs and transportation to industry opportunities
Provide STEM-based internship opportunities for secondary students

ST1.9

ST1.11

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