“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”
– Norman Vincent Peale

Audio interviews with 7th grade students in real time – working on a STEM science lab:

New labs generate collaboration, creativity in District 109 Published in the Deerfield Review September 22, 2014 by Steve Sadin

A $2.7 million investment in new laboratories at Deerfield Public Schools District 109 is already generating enhanced creativity a few weeks into the new term.

Six new labs, four for science, one for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and another for communications media arts built over the summer will be on display to the public at 6 p.m. Oct. 6 at Shepard Middle School.

Both Shepard and Caruso Middle School got STEM and communications media arts facilities while the four new science labs were built at Shepard. Six labs will be built at Caruso and two more at Shepard next summer.

It did not take long for the children to dig in and start learning. Some have already been asking parents for equipment to do projects outside school while others are learning the life skills of working with each other as they use the new equipment.

“We’re teaching problem solving and life skills so they can apply for jobs (in the future) that don’t even exist yet,” Julie Witczak, the Caruso media arts teacher, said. Both her class and the STEM offering are new this year.

Students in Witzcak’s class, just like Shepard STEM instructor Linda Hruby’s room, work in pairs designing projects together. Students Hailey Abramovitch and Brody Criz, who were assigned to work together, designed a game that any of their classmates can play with a computer link.

“It’s fun because you have to learn to work together,” Abramovitch said. “When we started we had to learn that. Now I explain the game and he keeps the records. And, the game is a hit.”

Their design requires players to navigate a maze using a computer mouse.

Collaboration among students is what the new facilities and exposure to the latest technology is supposed to foster. Superintendent Michael Lubelfeld has been trying to create this environment throughout the district and particularly at the middle school level since he took over just over a year ago.

“This is how education is evolving,” Shepard Principal John Filippi said. “It is very different from what we used to do. The teacher is more of a facilitator instead of the keeper of all the knowledge.”

During a 15 minute stint in Hruby’s class Sept. 19, Hruby did not address the students as a group once while they built robots and bridges and developed flight simulators. She walked among them instead, looking over their shoulders and offering her thoughts as they worked.

The new science laboratories are designed not only for today’s students but also for the children of the future, using Next Generation Science Standards, according to Shepard science teacher Christian Ball. Next Generation Science Standards are a framework for educators that originated with The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences.

The four new rooms are shaped like an L, with the students sitting at tables in one section working on their computers. In the other area, they use lab tables complete with gas, air and vacuum hookups on the table and water overhead as well as multiple computer screens. There is a movable wall so two classes can work together on a project, according to Ball.

“These are great,” said Ball, who has taught at Shepard for eight years. “Before what we had was just a classroom. We can now work closely with group stuff and individual stuff. The TV (computer) screens let them get help to understand what they are doing.”

There is more than collaboration in Ball’s seventh grade science class. He wants the children to learn how to use what he teaches in everyday life. His current project, helping them study the monarch butterfly, is succeeding.

“Some of the kids are asking their parents for butterfly nets so they can help protect the monarchs,” Ball said. “They are taking what we do in class outside the walls of Shepard.”

While children in Witzcak’s media class have a week to do a project, pretty much on their own, the students in Hruby’s STEM course get two weeks to determine a project to their liking and complete it. The effort, like three students making a robot, is a hit.

“We’re going to be able to operate it from the computer,” Zach Willem said as he assembled tiny parts with partners Dylen Rosenbloom and Danny Leggett. “We’re doing this (project) because it’s going to be very cool to build and see it move.”

Both STEM and media arts are new this year, which required seasoned teachers like Hruby and Witzcak to go from teaching a cooking class to sophisticated computer technology. They are thrilled with the opportunity.

“It’s exciting and fun,” Hruby said. “I learn and learn and learn every day. The students feel the same way.”

“We had training over the summer,” Witzcak added. “We’re learning with the kids which is so cool.”

Creative Learning Systems, a Colorado company, developed the curriculum and trained the teachers for both STEM and media arts, according to district Communications Director Cathy Kedjidjian.

Short video clip of STEM creations: