NARRATIVE

Winfield City Schools takes pride in equipping students with STE(A)M skills and knowledge that is necessary to be prepared for next-level learning. These skills are essential when educating the 'whole child'. STEM literacy is taught in a variety of ways at Winfield City Schools. For example, the Alabama state standards for math and science, the inquiry-based learning opportunities, the 21st Century skills and opportunities, and the 1:1 initiative that have been implemented inside the school system.

Teachers at Winfield Middle School make a conscious effort to take the fear out of failure for students by referring to it as “productive struggle”. Often students learn more from their mistakes than they do from the resulting accomplishments. The Engineering Design Process, which emphasizes reflection and redesign, guides students and allows them to consider many possibilities without apprehension. Our students have become self-directed learners through consistent exposure from the teachers who facilitate their learning. This happens in a variety of ways from computer-assisted programs and classes to a STEM Kitchen. Activities and classes are designed to stretch a student’s learning while scaffolding instructional sequences, which create space for failure in a safe and secure environment. As a result, the process is just as important if not more so than the product.

This ability to personalize and self-direct their learning enables students to become owners of their STEM learning experience. Teachers have restructured their roles in order to become facilitators of learning; however, a balance between this restructuring and traditional face-to-face instruction is maintained to ensure an overall successful learning experience.

Strengths: Engagement and Embeddedness are two of our strengths for Standard 14. Winfield City Schools frequently provides opportunities to develop cross-cutting competencies to support workforce readiness. Each school has embedded specific projects, activities, and classes that give opportunities for students to explore different STEM fields and display readiness for the real world.

Opportunities to Improve: Winfield's greatest areas for improvement are Results and Sustainability. While student data is used to create the STEM classes and place students inside of these classes, data is not as frequently used to evaluate the effectiveness of each program.

SSEP Intro PPT.pptx

SSEP

SSEP is about immersing and engaging students and their teachers in every facet of real science—on the high frontier—so that students are given the chance to be scientists—and experience science firsthand.

More broadly, SSEP is about a commitment to student ownership in exploration, to science as a journey, and to the joys of learning.

Each community participating in SSEP is provided a very real research asset – a flight certified, straightforward to use microgravity research mini-laboratory, and guaranteed launch services to transport the mini-laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS) where it is operated by the astronauts. It is a precious and limited research asset given that the mini-laboratory can only contain a single student-team-designed microgravity experiment. After a typical 4 to 6 week stay in orbit, the experiment will be returned to Earth for harvesting and analysis by the community’s student flight team.

Mirroring how professional researchers formally compete to obtain limited research assets, the participating community carries out a ‘call for proposals. More specifically, the community conducts a local Flight Experiment Design Competition, engaging potentially hundreds of students in teams of typically 3-5, with each team vying for the community’s single experiment slot by proposing a microgravity research program that can be carried out in the mini-laboratory. The competition is conducted through the formal submission of real (but grade-level appropriate) research proposals by the student teams – as is standard practice for professional researchers. 50-80 flight experiment proposals are typically secured across a single pre-college community. At least 10 proposals are required for an undergraduate community.

Each community’s flight experiment is selected through a formal 2-step proposal review process. The final selection is carried out by the SSEP National Step 2 Review Board, which meets at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. The flight experiment then undergoes a 4-month NASA flight safety review at Johnson Space Center; laboratory refinement by the student flight team; handover to Nanoracks in Houston for integration into the SSEP experiments payload; and payload integration into the ferry vehicle for flight to ISS. SSEP experiment payloads launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Winfield City Schools has participated in this project for the last four years. The most recent winning team was a group of sixth-grade students that wrote a proposal on the effects of microgravity on the germination of Aloe barbadensis seeds. The proposal for this project can be viewed below.

AG in the Classroom

Alabama Agriculture in the Classroom is an interdisciplinary educational program that promotes Ag literacy for students in all grade levels K-12. Winfield Middle School offers Ag in the Classroom as a sixth grade elective that introduces students to various Alabama Agriculture careers, needs, and much more! The students participate in activities such as, using the EDP to design a pig barn that will help farmers meet the needs of pigs, research and present on the five Ag areas in Alabama, and research and create a presentation on Agriculture Careers in order to find a career that may interest them.

In addition, the class is able to experience Ag outside of the classroom on field trips to local Agriculture sites.

WMS STEM Kitchen

STEM Kitchen

The family and consumer science (FCS) class is currently a one semester course offered only to 8th grade students. It serves as ½ science elective with the students transitioning from FCS to a Robotics class and vice versa.

The main focus of the class is to equip students with the basic knowledge of kitchen equipment, measurements, following a recipe, understanding kitchen terminology and to school them in etiquette and nutrition.

Students engage in the engineering design process by developing menus based on research of whom will be served, plan grocery lists by researching prices, planning jobs within their assigned kitchens and executing recipes and table settings. A wrap up session is held after each function to discuss pros and cons of the meals and how they could be improved or done differently.

The FCS class was designed to introduce students to the basics of food preparation and self survival but has evolved into a hub of food service for many school functions.

Journeys

The Journeys 21st CCLC After-school Program serves many students with a wide variety of activities and interventions to help with academic enrichment, especially math and reading skills. In addition to homework help and academic enrichment, Journeys provides many other socialization skills, technology training, and the Arts. The program serves as a valued service in keeping children safe who may otherwise be latchkey kids without adult supervision or placed in other unsafe situations.

The program sends children home with the majority of homework completed, test preparation, and other work finished which helps with creating a positive relationship between the school day and the home.

STE(A)M lessons or activities are included in each after-school and summer program day. Since family involvement is the basic dynamic of the Journeys Program and the piston that drives students achievement, our goal is to be an avenue that makes family time better. This project taps into the family as a vital resource and incorporates workshops for parents to assist them in the use of programs along with strategies to increase the learning of their children. Homework is redefined to mean not only work done alone but also interactive activities shared with others at home. Homework with link schoolwork to home life. By providing the home with access to the same curriculum that students work on at school as well as the use of 1-1 initiative laptop computers, Virtual Reality, and computer labs, the Journeys Program now not only extends learning into the home but also allows the whole family to become involved in what their child is learning at school, regardless of education or economic status. It affords parents the opportunity not only to see and be informed about what is transpiring at school but also to participate in the educational process.

FAWN

For many years now, the 6^th grade students have participated in a Forestry Awareness Week Now (FAWN) field trip during the month of October. This field trip provides the students with the hands on opportunity to learn about forestry awareness and the different categories that this topic relates to. The field trip had different stations set up around a local park, and each station has a professional to help the students learn about their particular job. The stations teach a variety of subjects, while also teaching the students skills of forestry awareness. There was a station that involved the history of our county. They had a variety of Indian artifacts that have been found around Marion County, and they shared them with the students as they told the students interesting facts about Marion. Another station had a professional honey bee keeper that shared with the students the profession of keeping bees, why it is important, and how to actually do it. The bee keeper had a variety of his own materials for bee keeping, and he allowed the students to explore them. Then, the students traveled to a GPS station. The students paired up into groups of two, and they were given a GPS to participate in a scavenger hunt. The students had to put their skills of using a GPS to the test in order to find the exact locations that the professionals had marked around the park. The students then moved on to learn about ATV safety. While at the ATV station, the students were able to simulate an ATV ride to show the importance of ATV safety. One of the students’ favorite stations was the fire safety station. During this station, a firefighter shared his experiences that he has had on the job. He also demonstrated how to use all of the firefighter gear. Then, the students were able to dress like a firefighter and put out a fire! The students traveled to many more stations during the day and some of the stations sparked an interest in many students. The sixth grade students were very lucky to be able to participate in activities that expose them to different professions. After the field trip, the students broke into groups based on their favorite station and gave a PowerPoint presentation on the station. The students then took a survey on what improvements could be made to make the field trip better.

21 Flyer for App Challenge.pdf

App Rubric 2021-2022.pdf

Robotics/Coding

The earlier we introduce children to coding, the more comfortable they will be when presented with more in-depth learning opportunities in middle and high school. Also, early exposure to coding helps teach children how important it is to understand computers as the valuable tools that they are rather than merely fun playthings. Learning the fundamentals of coding provides students with skills that will serve them well in virtually any career they choose. Plus, there are few things that ignite and excite a room full of learners like a coding class, especially when the coding is used in conjunction with robotics.

Children learn with all of their senses, and robotics aligns more naturally with the active, hands-on development of young students. Studies have shown that a multi-sensory approach activates a larger number of cognitive connections. When working with robotics, students are emotionally and physically engaged, which results in active learning and enhanced long-term experiential recall.

In Grade 5, WMS students continue to use and build on the fundamentals of robotics and coding. With each grade level, there is a development of exposure to coding and robotics. The focus is tow-fold. First, the use of coding and robotics reinforces curriculum standards. Second, students learn skill sets that will enhance learning and prepare them for college and their careers. Children want to learn how to code and the lasting benefits building these skill sets include logical thinking, problem-solving, persistence, collaboration, and communication.

Students arrive at the middle school well versed in coding and ready to program Bee-Bots and Dash and Dots. Those students who have a desire to pursue coding can join the middle school robotics team, which competes in VEX Robotics Competitions. We give credit to this coding and robotic knowledge to the fact that coding begins in our Pre-K classes as they learn with "Code-N-Go Mouse." The progression flows from grade to grade at the elementary level as students learn to code using the Blockly language to program the Code-N-Go Mouse, Bee-Bots, and Dash-N-Dots.

Communication and collaboration are critical skills to prepare young people for the world outside the classroom doors. Robotics challenges offer students opportunities in all forms of socialization, including listening skills, and considering and evaluating alternative perspectives. Robotic challenges offer students exciting opportunities to build and express their imaginations. There is an authenticity of purpose inherent in bringing the seed of an idea to fruition: from the brainstorming phase to the construction of artifacts that have real-world value. The desire to create is nothing new. A combination of hearts, minds, and bodies has always contributed to the betterment of our world. Robotics values ingenuity and the limitless possibilities of creation.

WOW!

Winfield Middle School eighth grade students attend the World of Work career expo at Shelton State Community College. The purpose of the Expo was to create awareness about exciting career options among students and educators while addressing workforce needs in the region. Existing employers in the region continue to have unfilled job openings due to a shortage of skilled workers. In addition, employers face shortages over the next few years due to the retirement of up to fifty percent of their workforce.

Eighth graders visited the event during school hours. The students took part in a fun and educational hands-on experience to become familiar with our area's high-demand, high-wage career opportunities. Industry sectors represented were: agriculture, construction, energy and utilities, engineering and environment, healthcare, hospitality, tourism, manufacturing and logistics, public safety, and transportation.

Colored - Simple Flyer.pdf

Computer Science

Winfield Middle School has a Computer Science class for all eight grade students. During this class, the students participate in coding, creating websites, building applications, and large-scale projects/competitions. For example, the students participate in the Governor's App Challenge is a statewide computer programming competition for Alabama students. The goal of the Challenge is to allow more students to gain recognition for their mastery and application of computer programing and design.

During computer science, students also work on presentation skills as they present all content that they have created. In addition, the students work throughout the year to gain knowledge about technology in the past, present, and future. The students are being set up to gain the skills and knowledge needed in the future work industry while completing computer science in eighth grade.

4 year plan - Charlee Kate Aldridge.pdf

8th Grade Transition Plan

8th Grade students have individual career conferences with our WMS guidance counselor and also participate in a career/pathway assessment that will help create the student's four-year plan.

Math Standards

Using the State Math Content Standards, teachers create lessons plans that simultaneously incorporate necessary math skills and STE(A)M concepts.

Math Standards

Science Standards

Teachers use the State Science Content Standards to create meaningful lessons. AMSTI curriculum is a resource used by teachers to engage students in hands-on and discovery learning experiences.

Science Standards