Question 1: Provide a general description of the learning experiences in which the STEM students were most successful. Additionally, generally describe the learning experiences that need improvement for greater student success.
"Develop the whole child to ensure success" is the mindset and motto of Bankhead Middle School. Our motto perfectly captures the goal of the faculty and staff in our school. We know that while test scores are important, they do not define the success of our students. Therefore, we focus on providing authentic learning experiences for our students with the belief that through these experiences, high test scores will follow. Our school's STEM program centers on providing students with opportunities to develop problem solving skills by learning how to gather and evaluate information to solve real-world problems. In our school, STEM means project based learning, technology centered instruction, cross-curricular learning, student choice assessment, real-world expertise in the classroom, exploration, collaboration, hands-on inquiry, rigor, and supportive environments to fail until success is achieved. Over the past five years, we have became a 1:1 school with every student being assigned a Chromebook to use throughout each school day. Our approach has led to a new way of learning for our students. Below is a list of learning opportunities being provided at Bankhead Middle School.
For the past 8 years, Bankhead Middle School (BMS) has been actively involved in BEST Robotics. BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology) is a national six-week robotics competition in the United States held each fall, designed to help interest middle school and high school students in possible engineering careers.
Each year, teams of students are given a kit of materials to build a robot to perform well-defined tasks. Teams document their design process and give a marketing presentation about their robots. Kits are provided by the HUB at no cost to the school.
This year's team had the task of designing and building a robot capable of working with a lineman to perform the following tasks in rebuilding the power grid:
Teams are judged on 5 components:
The competition allows students from all grade levels, with no limit to the number of students allowed to participate, to develop critical thinking skills to prepare students for the world outside of the brick and mortar classroom. Through robotics, students are allowed hands-on experiences with solving real-world problems in creative ways. Students collaborate through the entire process, whether they are part of the robot design team, the marketing team, or the interview team.
Each month, our school has STEM day. During these days, 5th and 6th grades combine and 7th and 8th grades combine to experience STEM projects and opportunities with students not in their regular classes. Each month, these students rotate through various STEM opportunities to create products and solve real-life problems through collaboration with teachers and fellow classmates, as well as outside experts. Students are then given opportunities to share their experiences and products with parents and other members of the communities through showcase events sponsored by the school.
During STEM days, students are able to problem solve using real-world issues. Among the opportunities available during STEM days is coding, self-defense, recipe cooking, budgeting, art, carpentry, chess, Mason jar science, robotics, community service projects, videography, and computer drafting.
New this year, our librarian and has started a weekly news cast. Under her guidance, students are involved in creating, producing, editing, and broadcasting a weekly news cast that is shown in all classrooms each Monday morning. Monday through Friday of each week, students gather the school's news for the week, write scripts, record, and edit the week's edition in preparation for the weekly broadcast. Students are given access to professional grade cameras, audio equipment, lighting, and a green screen. They are able to edit broadcasts by using WeVideo editing software.
Through a six-week rotation schedule, students involved in the weekly broadcast are continually changing to insure all students have the chance to participate, collaborate, and develop the news broadcasts.
Perhaps the strongest example of STEM in our school is classroom instruction. At BMS, teacher led instruction with pencil and paper note taking is a thing of the past. Our classrooms are full of investigating, questioning, problem solving, technology, collaboration, productive noise, and a lot of movement.
One example of these qualities is Project Based Learning (PBL). At BMS, every teacher receives weekly warm-ups from The PBL Project, available through a paid subscription. These warm-ups provide a weekly problem, teacher instructions, leading questions, and rubrics. Each weekly problem also provides 3-4 stimulus items to guide students to solve the supplied problem. Students are given all needed supplies and access to technology. Students work in collaborative groups to find a solution to the week's problem.
While the weekly warm-ups are excellent, they are not the only method for Project Based Learning in our classrooms. Whether it be cross-curricular projects, like 6th grade's regarding the novel The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, or the 8th grade's living wax museum, PBL is a consistent teaching method at BMS.
Another great example are the Breakout lessons used by numerous teachers throughout the school. During Breakout, students work in collaborative groups to solve a problem using skills being taught in the classroom. Students are given a problem, and they must work together to solve steps that lead to combinations to unlock final tasks. Students are also often given the task of using Google forms to create breakout games for other students. Both situations require students to use thinking, listening, collaboration and technology skills to problem solve.
While we provide continuous STEM learning opportunities to our students, we realize we always have room for improvement. First, maintaining working technology to provide a 1:1 ratio in our school is expensive. Collaboration is key, but we also know the value of each student having equal access to his or her own technology. Second, funding for desired projects is not always possible. To help alleviate this problem, we are constantly on the lookout for technology and science grants, and have won several to date. Third, finding and funding adequate professional development for teachers will always be an issue, due to the continuously changing world of technology.
Bankhead is also enjoying academic improvement resulting from professional development activities chosen at the school level. Being an ARI/PALS school equates teachers who effectively utilize strategies which are scientifically-based and embraced by educational specialists, and math and science mastery continues to improve as a result of AMSTI instruction.
We believe that improved student achievement will be the direct result of such efforts. We also want to see our students better prepared for the technological age. We intend to accomplish this end by providing our students with educational experiences using the most current technologies available.
In addition, Bankhead is implementing an Algebra I for 8th grade students and Pre-AP Language Arts class for 5th-8th grade students. To prepare for these new curriculum additions, several staff members attended Laying the Foundations training during July of 2015 thru the summer of 2018. We have continued to integrate a grade level per year into this process.
Finally, we intend to continue to reach out to the parents in our community by educating them on the importance of their children's learning at the highest level education possible. We will accomplish this not only by continuing current efforts, but also by finding new ways of teaching parents about the benefits of a twenty-first century education.
Question 2: Provide evidence of how STEM educators and facilitators implement and sustain the core tenets of an effective and age-appropriate STEM curriculum.
BMS focuses on three things: planning, implementing, and maintaining in regards with the core tenets of an effective and age-appropriate STEM curriculum.
Planning is the foundation of our curriculum. Our STEM team works diligently with our entire faculty and staff to set goals for our school. We consider our students, staff, resources, grade levels, content areas, strengths and weaknesses, and community when setting these goals. After goals are set, we come together as a faculty to determine every resource we will need to reach the goals. Goals and needs are then clearly articulated to all stakeholders. Our administrator sets time aside for faculty members to work across content areas and grade levels. We know the key to success is ensuring that faculty has dedicated, protected planning time and that everyone is involved. Just like in our classrooms, collaboration is essential. At BMS, we have working Wednesdays each week to discuss activities, lessons, and thematic units, and based on these discussions, we plan times to meet in smaller groups, as needed to accomplish plans. As ideas are explored, the teams solicit input from our librarian/media specialist, counselor, and our PE coaches. We always do a walk-through of lessons, such as breakout activities, to insure all kinks are addressed before we bring them to the classroom. The goal is always to be 100% ready to engage students. We plan by considering the needs of our students, studying content, creating supply lists, creating rubrics that clearly express expectations of the students, and by making sure we include appropriate formative assessments, as well as summative when applicable.
Implementation is our second focus. We know that when planning is done first and done well, a teacher or group of teachers can focus on the needs of the students when implementing STEM curriculum. During implementation is when the magic happens. When implementation is successful, authentic learning experiences occur. We know that a crucial part of implementation is being prepared to scaffold and offer support to students, and we also know that challenging students means being able to let them sometimes struggle, fail, and try again. However, we also know that implementation sometimes means trial and error. With experience we have learned that even with intensive planning, things can and will go wrong. For this reason, note-taking and documentation are always part of implementation. While we use formative assessments to monitor student learning and growth, we must also spend time evaluating our own effectiveness. During implementation, we must determine areas of strengths and weaknesses with each learning experience. We make sure to ask ourselves a few key questions. What was the strength of the unit? What was the weakness of the unit? Where did we see the most growth with students? Where did we see the least growth with students? What simply did not work? Where do we need more scaffolding? Where do we need to increase rigor? How can we improve this lesson/unit for the next time? Based on the answers to these questions, we make adjustments, immediately.
Implementation also means administrators are in classrooms on a regular basis. We believe in the concept of "inspecting what we are expecting." This requires regular walk-through and observations to not only make sure STEM is being applied in every classroom, but also as a way to offer support wherever it may be needed.
Our final focus is professional development. Our entire faculty, including administration, participates in STEM learning activities, workshops, and conferences. We are constantly on the lookout for new or innovative experiences that will support our staff. Numerous staff members spend several weeks each summer participating in STEM professional development, and throughout the year, staff attends several available workshops and conferences. A few of the STEM PD opportunities our staff has taken advantage of includes Mission 200, AMSTI training, AETC, Makey Makey, Technology in Motion, Mountains to the Gulf, Outdoor Classroom Planning, Jr. Master Gardener, Project Wild and HudsonAlpha Genetics and Biotechnology. The idea behind these type of experiences is of course to provide faculty with the most up-to-date and relevant instructional or teaching tools. We also set aside training time in our school for trained teachers to come back to BMS and provide turn around training for other faculty members. In this way, we are able to sustain our STEM program by providing opportunities for teacher-learning that can directly translate into positive student outcomes. We recognize the fact that technology is constantly changing. For this reason, we are constantly seeking new opportunities for our staff in regards to professional development.