Persistence Pays: D L Jamerson Elementary School’s Road to Success

FLATE would like to share an impressive engineering technology curriculum success story right here in Tampa Bay.  D. L. Jamerson, Jr. Elementary School (DLJ) in St. Petersburg, FL, opened its doors in 2004 as a U.S. Department of Education neighborhood Magnet School Center for Mathematics and Engineering. The core teachers and school leadership met regularly for six months prior to opening in the fall of 2004 working hard to define their engineering theme and its total integration into every part of the school: the kindergarten classroom, the media center, to the PE fields, the music and art rooms, and, of course, the engineering science lab. With funding from their magnet program grant, the DLJ community went to work designing and developing its integrated curriculum, developing its on-campus outside classrooms, building partnerships and traditions, and screaming the theme of “engineering is everywhere.” Big hurdles for implementation included: the lack of engineering and strong math backgrounds of the teachers; recruiting students from outside the neighborhood; finding the right materials to support the elementary engineering challenges; building laboratory capacity, and learning how to integrate language, math, social sciences, reading with the engineering projects. 

                               

However, we all knew it should work.  Learning in a non-competitive, hands-on contextualized environment is a positive experience for students of all ages.  The total integration of the K-5 curriculum and strong alignment between grade levels are key elements of Jamerson’s students’ success.  What success?  It's amazing – just take a look!  

 (Note a Level 5 score means the student is performing two levels above their current grade level)

Why do these 5^th grade science scores speak to the success of the DLJ integrated engineering education approach?  Science requires both verbal and mathematical skills as well as creative thinking. Linking an engineering challenge to the underlying science and math concepts that govern the principles behind that challenge help students “own” the whole concept—including the math.  Add in the practical aspect that “things don’t always work right so we have to ‘redo’,” using the best of what is available to fix something, starts students down the road to logical thinking, systematic and orderly troubleshooting and defining root causes.  And best of all – it’s habit forming!

Students use the same Jamerson created Engineering Design Process (Plan, Design, Check and Share) from the first day of kindergarten through the last days of 5^th grade.  This approach provides a stable problem solving strategy that students can continue to use with deeper and more complex interpretations as their knowledge of math, science, and language increases over the years.  Mixing in the ‘How, Who, and What’ questions about the impact of a potential new bridge rounds out the engineering of that DLJ 5th grade design project and slides social sciences, reading, and writing into this total learning experience.

Great scores in 5^th grade science are also reflective in the school's “grade”.  DLJ’s State of Florida designated school grade for 2006-07 (two years after DLJ opened their doors) was a "C".  The 2014-15 academic year marked the 4^th year straight that DLJ earned an "A" rating from the state. Add this academic success to the fact that D.L. Jamerson Elementary school has also won a number of magnet school awards as well as had visitors from over 20 other states coming to see and experience this extraordinary elementary school underlines the bottom line message that Persistence pays off and an integrated engineering education approach works. 

The secret is to: keep and continuously improve the strongly integrated hands-on, engineering focused curriculum; continuous

professional development for teachers; weave in new district and state requirements without losing the core content, and strive for success for every child.  D.L. Jamerson does this with no exceptions and that has made Jamerson a great place for learning. FLATE is proud to be part of their warm and nurturing Community of Practice.

Feel free to contact us if you want more information.  Or better still, check out their website http://www.pcsb.org/jamerson-es, and then contact Lucas Hefty at heftyl@pcsb.org, and tell him Marilyn and Richard said to get in touch.

Students at Suncoast Technical College Earn NIMS Credentials

Industry certifications serve as a validation of an individual’s skills set and is a valuable component of one’s professional portfolio. This

Spring students at Suncoast Technical College in Sarasota got a tremendous boost to their educational and professional credentials as they earned their National Institute of Metalworking Skills, or the NIMS credential. NIMS certifies individual skills against the national standards. The NIMS credentialing program requires that the candidate meet both performance and theory requirements, both of which are industry designed and industry-piloted. (Source: NIMS)

The class of 2015 at STC earned 88 NIMS credentials, most of which was in CNC machining. “Our goal is to have every graduate complete six NIMS industry credentials” said Ed Doherty, precision machining and CNC instructor at STC. Doherty hopes to be able to keep up the same great record next year as he stated the certification “will help an apprentice to achieve better jobs and better pay in the manufacturing industry.”

This year STC also received a one year grant for free testing from the Gene Haas Foundation. The grant has helped students earn industry

certification that is considered valuable in the precision machining and metalworking industry, at no cost to the students. STC also recently received the National NIMS accreditation and will fully utilize the power of testing and credentialing to improve students’ apprentice skills. The school also had 19 students, who graduated from the machining program and the FAST Track CNC program at night (for experienced machinists).

Looking ahead, STC plans to include MasterCam Cad-Cam evening training along with an introduction to Solid-works for industry.  “Our goal would be to achieve Associate level credentials for MasterCam” said Doherty. Since the inception of the program two years ago, STC has had 100% employment of students, with local job opening and offerings exceeding the number of graduates from the program.

Classes for 2015-2016 semester started on August 24. For more information about enrolling into the program, or for scholarship opportunities visit http://suncoast.edu, or contact Ed Doherty at edward.doherty@sarasotacountyschools.net, or 941.924.1365. In the upcoming month(s) we will bring you additional stories from Nature Coast High School and North Florida Community College that also boast of high student success in earning the MSSC CPT certification. Do stay tuned for those stories in the upcoming editions of the FLATE Focus. 

Big Bend Power Station: Site of a Big Win for Education

For these students, the power of education adds up to far more than 1,700 megawatts. That’s because along with the up-close look at how

Tampa Electric powers the community with reliable, affordable electricity generated at Big Bend Power Station, they also saw a multitude of career possibilities to pursue. The more than two dozen middle-school students came to TECO on July 1 as part of a program administered by the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center housed at Hillsborough Community College’s Brandon Campus.  Donning their bright orange hard hats at the power station, they had Senior Consulting Engineer Tim Conway as their guide.

“These are middle-school school kids who don’t often get a chance to see something like Big Bend Power Station except off in the

distance, like most people do,” he said. “There’s some pretty cool stuff here; the students are in utter awe on the tour.”Nina Stokes, Florida Energy Systems Consortium  FLATE  Project Manager, praised the opportunity Tampa Electric gave the students – the third such visit in recent years. “These students are from the Ruskin area, so many of them can see Big Bend from their homes,” she said. “TECO seemed like the perfect setting to show them a host of career opportunities.”

Best of all, the students agreed. A sampling of feedback they provided after the visit:

“I learned that many people work at TECO and enjoy working there.”

“The best part of the tour was going to all the units and learning that our lives depend on TECO to live the way we live.”

“I learned a lot of things about transformers and the big machinery inside the building was cool as well as the turbines. It was a fun experience.”

Stokes said that this year’s group of students was the program’s biggest yet. “The TECO tour is an integral component of the camp as it helps students see real-life applications of energy concepts they are learning about in the classroom,” she added. “The tour experience had a significant positive impact.”

For Conway, with his longtime tenure as a youth football coach, the visit was like a game-winning touchdown in the name of education and commitment to the community – even if these students have plenty of time left on the clock to learn, grow … and perhaps find their way to a career at TECO?

Based on his experience, that seems entirely possible. “The kids love it every time,” Conway said of the tours. “I always get raves.” For more information about the FLATE energy camp read our blog story that was posted in the July edition of the FLATE Focus. 

(This story is a reprint from Tampa Electric's Power Blog and was written by Brian Lott, senior coordinator for marketing & customer communications).

Tampa Bay STEM Network is Official!

We are happy to announce that the "Tampa Bay STEM Network" is official!  Together with 26 other communities around the nation we

committed to supporting all students in STEM education.  Anchored by HCPS, Tampa Bay STEM Network (TBSN) partners will work over the upcoming year to improve lines of communication and layers of support for our kids.  We are the only recognized STEM ecosystem in Florida (and the entire southeast).  Larry Plank, director of K-12 Science, Technology Engineering & Mathematics Education will lead this exciting opportunity.

In addition to FLATE at Hillsborough Community College in Brandon, other local partners include MOSI, Jeff Vinik and the Tampa Bay Lightning, The Alliance for Public Schools,  USF College of Education, The Florida Aquarium, The Coalition for Science Literacy, Hillsborough Education Foundation, Tampa Bay Technology Forum and TechStart. Vinik has pledged funding in our effort to secure a matching grant from the STEM Funders Network as a component of our initial plan. “Through the Tampa Bay STEM Network we will continue to prepare our students for life and in the process augment Tampa Bay's STEM portfolio, improving opportunities for business and ultimately improving the lives of those who live, work and play in Tampa Bay” said Vinik.

The initial Community of Practice (CoP) cohort, will meet in Washington D.C. on November 11-12, and will include a kickoff event at the White House! For more information email Dr. Marilyn Barger, executive director of FLATE at barger@fl-ate.org, and visit http://www.stemecosystems.org/first-community-of-practice.