Knox adds several courses for second year as STEM Academy

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, May 23, 2012

By Sarah Campbell
scampbell@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Rowan-Salisbury School System officials have spent the past year “laying the ground” for the STEM Academy at Knox Middle School.
“We’ve focused on the educational piece, letting our teachers know exactly what STEM stands for and what encompasses Science, Technology, Engineering and Math,” Principal Dr. James Davis told the Board of Education on Monday.
Davis said teachers have participated in a variety of staff development opportunities that have allowed them to “get their feet wet.”
As the school prepares to enter its second year with the designation, Davis said some changes are on the horizon.
The school will add three courses to its eighth-grade curriculum, including honors earth and environmental science, integrated math I and a foreign language next school year. All three will give students a chance to earn high school credit.
The school is still nailing down which foreign language it will offer.
“We are working in partnership with two high schools to offer a foreign language component outside of Latin or a Latin component for certain groups of eighth-graders,” Davis said.
The school has also “revamped” its exploratory classes so that it can offer biotechnology to all sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, said Davis.
Davis said the second “big focus” for the school has been on staff development, primarily for science teachers.
All of the school’s science teachers have been accepted into the Math-Science Partnership with Horizons Unlimited, he said.
“They’ll have two weeks over the summer where they go and learn everything about effective, engaging science classrooms and taking it to the next level,” he said.
This year, the school started its first Science Olympiad, Math 24 and Lego Robotics teams. Davis said a science book club will be added to the list of extracurricular actives for the upcoming year.
Through a $20,000 grant from the Blanche and Julian Robertson Family Foundation, Davis said new equipment, lab materials and consumables will be purchased to strengthen STEM initiatives. The money will also be used for teacher field studies.
Davis said Rowan-Regional Medical Center plans to continue sponsoring the STEM student award, which is given to two seventh- and eighth-graders each nine weeks.
Winners are required to have at least a 93 overall average in their classes, a 95 or higher average in science, a teacher recommendation, a “strong natural curiosity in a STEM component,” zero behavior referrals and an attendance rate of 95 percent of higher, Davis said. They receive a certificate, cash prize and a chance to attend a STEM summer camp free of cost.
School board Chairman Dr. Jim Emerson called it an “attractive program.”
“What are we going to do as a board about people wanting to transfer there?” he asked.
Board member Kay Wright Norman said that would be a “good problem to have.”
“I think it is a good problem because that hasn’t always been the case,” she said. “But at the same time, I hope it forces all of our middle schools to look at what they’re doing to make it much more engaging to youngsters.
“We can lose them in a heartbeat, so we have to focus on engagement.”
Tina Mashburn, the district’s director of middle grades education, said teachers at all schools can apply to participate in the Math-Science Partnership at Horizons Unlimited.
She said biotechnology, robotics and additional math components are also being implemented throughout the school system.
Davis said he’s ready to see the STEM initiatives move to the next level.
“We’re moving strongly from year one to year two as a STEM school,” he said.
Contact reporter Sarah Campbell at 704-797-7683.
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