Week 5 ~ Getting ready for the school year ...

My business ― Wickiup Hills Learning Center ― is conveniently only about 20 minutes away from school. The naturalists do a lot of programs for preschool and elementary age kids. Some of the fun programs have been viewing and touching live ‘critters’ and skins, fishing, ice cube painting, and archaeology. They could do some of these programs for the older students. As Angie, my summer cohort says ‘everyone loves live animals.’ I plan to use recycling in a statistics PBL. So I may ask one of the naturalists to be an ‘expert’ and talk about recycling. I have always given my students my ‘speal,’ but hearing from someone who really knows what they’re talking about will carry more weight! One thing that Ted told us during a class as he talked about PBL’s was bring in experts!

What my school and I can do to engage students with the real world is bring in ‘experts’ and do more PBLs and STEM PBLs. I have only had a couple of guest speakers during the last couple of years. I really need to change that. They bring in so much knowledge – far more than I can bring to the table on topics that I have limited knowledge on. I would also like to give my students, especially the juniors and seniors, more information on colleges and degrees offered. Our high school had to downgrade our guidance counselor to half time. I plan to make part of a wall in my room a college wall. Information will include possible career paths and degrees and which colleges offer those programs. It will also include entrance requirements such as ACT scores, GPAs, and costs. I have also been collecting data on AP scores and requirements for college credit. I have talked to my students about different jobs and careers in math and science, especially those I’ve learned about during my two summers with IMSEP and the businesses. But creating a data base and a visual display will be much more attractive and effective for my students.

What the real world can do is to volunteer their time for our schools. Bringing in guest speakers to talk about how they use math in their jobs or careers using math and science would be great also, not just guest speakers for PBLs. I can tell the boys in my Algebra Concepts class that my last summer’s business, CIVCO, and a guest speaker at this spring’s STEM Summit both commented on the big need for good, experienced welders. But having someone else there would make so much more of an impact. I don’t have enough knowledge to get them excited about welding, but others could. So many places offer field trips. But in today’s schools, the logistics of getting kids to sites is so tough. Having businesses offer to transport, etc., would be a huge help to us. At Alburnett so many of our kids love to hunt and fish, so having one of the naturalists talk about careers for those students would also be beneficial.