IN Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall Summer 2019 | Page 70

Brentwood Borough School District Partners
with PPG to Explore STEM-Related Careers
German PenPals
Brentwood’s German II classes were delighted to receive a large brown envelope from Nurnberg (Nuremberg) Germany. It just so
happens that a teacher in Nurnberg’s Sigena Gymnasium (a preparatory school) is a former German language student from Brentwood
and the envelope contained response letters from her Nurnberg students. Victoria Healy who is the Nurnberg teacher and Cindy
Hebestreit, the Brentwood German teacher decided this year to begin a Brieffreund (penpal) activity between the two schools.
The Brentwood students laughed as they learned all about the students from Nurnberg. Most of Victoria’s students come from other
countries such as Bosnia, Turkey, Kosovo and Russia and all the penpal writers
soon learned that each had many similar interests such as rappers, the TV show
Riverdale and Fortnight. Nearly all the students included an Instagram address
with their written letter and with that, opened up even more opportunities to
communicate.
The Educators and Corporations: Partnership for STEM Learning (ECP), funded through the Pennsylvania Department of Labor &
Industry and facilitated by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s Math & Science Collaborative, has allowed a team of Brentwood educators
to witness real-life examples of how mathematics, literacy, science and engineering practices featured in the Common Core State
Standards (CCSS), the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and the International Standards for Technology Education (ISTE) are
utilized in the PPG corporation. To begin our partnership, a group of teachers and administrators traveled to Springdale, PA to tour
the PPG plant and meet with employees of various careers. The Brentwood team learned about the numerous career pathways one
could follow within the PPG organization from the vocational trades of welding, HVAC, and plumbing to the college and graduate
level careers of computer programming, chemistry, and chemical engineering. Following the visit, the Brentwood team interviewed
community and district stakeholders to better understand the perception of STEM learning in the community, the district’s strengths/
needs, and recommendations for future learning opportunities.
Currently, the ECP team of PPG and Brentwood staff are in the planning phase
of creating student-centered activities and job-shadowing opportunities to
be implemented during the next two school years. PPG has stated that their
success is “built on a culture of continuous learning and investment in structured
development of programs that support career advancement. Employees are
encouraged to learn and grow in their current roles and prepare for new challenges
and opportunities.” To that end, our goal is to foster the idea of continuous learning
and growth while simultaneously providing STEM-related career exposure and
exploration for our Brentwood students.
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