Thornton Academy Postscripts Alumni Magazine Fall 2013 | Page 9

IN T H E C L A SSR OOM

Room 55:on the stage’ to ‘guide on the side’
From lecture hall to lab
or ‘sage
One component of the Curriculum to
Career Initiative has been the
restructuring of classroom spaces to
better support the kind of student
learning experience that Thornton
Academy wants to ensure.

Lab configuration supports the
“guide on the side” style of teaching.
In other words, students in Everyday
Engineering, Honors Engineering,
and Applied Math and Science
classes have the opportunity for
hands-on creative innovation and

Motivated, engineering-bound
students may challenge themselves
in high school while working to earn
advanced placement in college.

Thanks to a ground-breaking
articulation agreement with the
University of Maine, students who
Room 55 is an excellent example of
successfully complete
Thornton Academy’s
Students in Everyday Engineering, Honors Thornton Academy’s most
retrofitting spaces to match
current teaching initiatives.
Engineering, and Applied Math and Science rigorous STEM sequence
may gain admission to the
Room 55 used to be a lecture
classes have the opportunity for handshall (see above left) in the
on creative innovation and design-testing flagship university’s
Scammon Science Building.
experiences, exactly the skills expected of renowned College of
Engineering program with
That room configuration
21st Century workers.
sophomore standing. This
hosted solely the “sage on
opens the way for students to tailor
the stage” or lecture style of teaching.
design-testing experiences, exactly
their college careers more individually
This summer, the lecture hall was
the skills expected of 21st Century
to their needs. Students who are
gutted, its banked seating removed,
workers.
academically qualified and motivated
and the infrastructure reworked to
can pursue advanced curricular
In conjunction with these classroom
support a Science-Technologyofferings and interaction with
changes, TA has launched a diploma
Engineering-Math (STEM) Laboratory
professionals in related fields.
endorsement program in STEM.
(see above right). The current STEM
POSTSCRIPTS

9