New to the Middle School this year is the HUB of Imagination – a technology rich environment that encourages creativity on a number of fronts. On hand in the HUB are not only computers, but virtual reality headsets, video cameras and green screen, NAO robots and a vinyl cutter and heat press.

So far this year, the HUB has been used to complete and present research for Health class, virtual tours of Paris for 8th grade French students, election prediction mapping, t-shirt design and production, and programming projects for the NAO robots. Students at PTMS also took part in a week long effort around coding as part of National Computer Science week.

Teachers Brian Griffin and Stephanie Van Balen planned the week of events for students to use their homeroom and study lab time to explore computer programing. A team of students were trained as“ Leaders

4th Grade Derby Cars of Coding” to help their peers through the

daily activities. Overall, the effort gave more than 700 students the opportunity to try their hand at coding during the event.

“ Our students learned so many skills from the programming lessons – problem solving being perhaps the most important,” said Principal Adam Sikorski.“ No matter what field they pursue down the road, it is an invaluable skill.”

The effort to infuse the curriculum with STEM learning begins with our youngest students in the District. STEM projects were given a jumpstart last year when the District received the Project Lead the Way Grant. The grant funds provided teacher training and modules for use in the classroom that build student knowledge in the areas of computer science, biomedical science and engineering. The hands on classroom projects not only teach problem solving and critical thinking, but collaboration and creativity as well.

“ The biggest benefit we see from the kits at the elementary level is student engagement,” said Michael Fisher, Assistant to the Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment. At each grade level the kits supplement lessons that were already taking place, with the added dimension of learning cooperation and problem solving.

The elementary kits and STEM lessons typically take on real life problems and challenge the students to create a solution. After learning about the structure and function of the human body, kindergarten students are presented with a problem of designing and building a cast for a young girl who broke her arm on the playground. Following a unit studying properties of matter, including insulators and conductors, 2nd grade students are asked to create a way to keep ice pops cool during a soccer game without the use of a cooler. In 5th grade, they take on the role of roller coaster designers when they study energy storage and transformations.

“ The cooperation they learn and the ability to brain-storm solutions and work through issues that arise is the real lesson,” added Fisher.

“ These are the skills we all need,” said Dr. Murphy.“ You have to be able to work with people. We are preparing these students for jobs that don’ t even exist yet, but we know that these skills will be critical.”

Peters Township High School junior Shruthi Shivkumar will breathe a little easier this school year now that her college exams are behind her. While most students take the exams multiple times to increase their chances of getting into the college of their choice, in Shruthi’ s case the first time was the charm. The talented PTHS student earned perfect scores on both the SAT exam and the ACT exam on her first try.

She has also been recognized as a second place winner in the 2017 Creative Minds Essay Contest from Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth. Shruthi’ s creative essay that centers on the scientific topic of epigenetics will be published and she will receive an Amazon Gift Card for her efforts.

A complete list of District events, as well as more details on the items listed above can be found on the District website at www. ptsd. k12. pa. us

Photo courtesy of The Almanac

PETERS TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS

Peters Township | February / March 2017 | icmags. com 75