Standard 1.1
The STEM school/program supports non-traditional student participation through outreach to groups often underrepresented in STEM program areas.
Standard 1.1 Narrative
Strengths
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Fayetteville School strives to support all students but makes an exalted effort to encourage underrepresented groups in STEAM areas. Fayetteville School participates in the American Association of University Women (AAUW). The AAUW supports the advancement of gender equality for women and girls through research, education and advocacy. Female students from Fayetteville School have the task to: 1) advise branch on topics of interest of high school female students, 2) assist in the development of high school female student leadership, 3) serve as leaders or counselors for future STEAM programs, and 4) develop and implement one project per year.
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The World of Work is an opportunity for thousands of students from seven area counties a hands-on look at more than 100 different career options available where they live. Students learn how robots are used in manufacturing and the tools needed to change electrical power lines . Students were shown how a pharmacist handles drugs and how a filmmaker creates a video.
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The Gifted Program allows students to be challenged in areas outside the regular curriculum. Students in grades 3rd -6th are provided with a certified teacher once a week for two hours to explore STEAM challenges and real life experiences. Students will participate in Osmo Coding Jam and Duo and Oslo Detective Agency game. Our lessons are Math, Myths, and Mysteries. We will be doing an entire crime scene experience. We will also use the Artie 3000 coding robots, Rubik's cubes, 3D pens, and possibly Ozobots.
Sustain
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Fayetteville School will sustain STEAM with underrepresented groups by continuing open lines of communication and collaboration with Central Alabama Community College (CACC). Our goal, with the AAUW partnership, is that more females will increase their interest in STEAM related careers. Students will continue to participate in the World of Work to increase students knowledge of local careers. Fayetteville School will continue to screen and select students to participate in the Gifted Program
Area of Focus
Fayetteville School is located outside town or city limits and has very few corporate businesses to support learning. One weakness is the amount of students involved in Career Tech. Fayetteville School wants to increase student knowledge of the different fields of career tech in the middle school. Lastly, the school is located 50 miles away from the closest major city, Birmingham, Alabama. Because of this distance, it is not always financially sound for students to travel on field trips or have the convenience of multiple guest speakers.
Plans to Improve Area of Need
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Fayetteville School will increase the number of girls in Career Tech by spotlighting girls in Career Technical Programs world-wide. We will include more guest speakers in our PBLs and STEAM Challenges through Google Hangouts, Virtual Field Trips, and other online resources to communicate throughout the world. Fayetteville wants to increase student knowledge of the different fields of career tech in the middle school through World of Work, Career Exploration Days, and guest speakers.
Key Exemplars
Elementary
E3 Science Festival
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In an effort to provide authentic and engaging STEAM experiences, both male and female students were encouraged to participate in the E3 Science Festival. The E3 experience fully embraced the 3 scientific dimensions: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Students worked in collaborative teams to design, construct, and test a previously assigned engineering task, without ANY outside assistance. A set of materials, instructions, and rubric were provided the day of E3, but not before. This was important to the nature of the challenge and accessing the students’ ability to apply their knowledge in new situations. This past year, one of our teams placed second in the Downhill Dash competition.
Gifted Education​
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The Gifted Program supports non traditional student participation by allowing students to be challenged in areas outside the regular curriculum. Students in grades 3rd -6th are provided with a certified teacher once a week for two hours to explore STEAM challenges and real life experiences. Students in the gifted program participate in creative and engaging STEAM lessons using programs such as: Osmo Coding Jam and Duo, Oslo Detective Agency, Artie 3000 coding robots, Rubik's cubes, 3D pens, and Ozobots.
STEAM for All
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Fayetteville School works to support each other during classroom learning activities. We have a second and a third grade student that need extensive encouragement and reassurance in order to participate in general classrooms. While in the classroom, these students have peers that aide them in collecting needed materials, using technology, constructing models and the understanding of critical content. These special need students bring new strengths and added diversity to the classroom so to enrich the lives of all. By including these underrepresented students in STEAM activities, they are inspired by the positive performances of their peers and they rise to higher expectations. With this inclusion, all students form attitudes of acceptance, tolerance, generosity, and human possibility that will resound for generations to come.
In the photographs students are helping the special need students with task that are difficult for them so they can participate in the designed activities.
At Fayetteville School, we believe that children with disabilities have the right to be part of a regular classroom that maximizes their academic and social growth.
Middle School
Daily Howl
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Four years ago Fayetteville School began to explore ways to update the traditional morning announcements. After leaders visited other schools, the Daily Howl was created. Being a totally student led program, the Daily Howl gives students a voice in the daily life of the school. Elementary, middle, and high school students apply to be apart of the Daily Howl each school year. This STEAM program allows students of all grade and academic levels to come together and be the leaders of the program. Students devote time before and after class to create this digital daily show to educate fellow students of important dates, sports, clubs, motivational thoughts, weather, and highlight accomplishments in the student body.
4-H
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Established in 1994, the Alabama 4-H Science School prides itself in providing quality experiential environmental education through adventure, outdoor and science classes. The Science School is proud to serve a wide variety of students whether K through 12 school groups, college students, or private groups. The Alabama 4-H Science School outreach program, Herp Journey and Raptor Trek, reaches about 17,000 students a year. The outreach program travels to Fayetteville school once a month to provide opportunities in the area of environmental education to all middle school students.
4-H Officers and Division Winners
Girls in STEAM
In the US, women represent 48% of the workforce. However, only 24% of these women are working in STEAM careers. The lack of women within these careers can be attributed to several factors including social factors, lack of opportunities, and gender based stereotypes. Therefore, in order to #breakthebarrier for Girls in STEAM, girls must be provided with opportunities to explore STEAM in real world context and to foster their curiosity through hands on learning. This ideology represents the foundational values and overall purpose of our Girls in STEAM initiative. Within this initiative, girls in grades 7 and 8 came together to explore the concept of Girls in STEAM in order to create a positive representation of the importance and impact of girls in STEAM that was shared with the community.
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During the 2016-2017 school year, the Girls in STEAM Initiative partnered with the Comer Museum and Art Center to focus on the A in STEAM: art. The STEAM challenge that was posed centered around the utilization of STEAM in order to make art more engaging. In order to rise to this challenge, female students not only participated in a variety of art lessons but also explored engineering and computer programming through the use of Hummingbird Robotics kits. Students then combined these elements as they created original works of art that were brought to life through the use of lights, sounds, and movements. Videos of the artwork coming to life were recorded and were “aurasmatized” so that when the artwork was scanned with the Aurasma app, the videos became active. This allowed the artwork to be provided to the Comer Museum and Arts Center, where visitors were able to use the app in order to see the art come to life.
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During the 2017-2018 school year, the Girls in STEAM Initiative focused on utilizing CAD and 3D printing in order to engage the community in learning more about Girls in STEAM. The first step in the process was for the girls to meet and explore STEAM careers and degrees that are currently available. Based on these explorations, the girls worked collaboratively to identify words and phrases that symbolized women in STEAM. These words and phrases were then used to inspire the creation of visual representations focused on Girls in STEAM. In order to bring these visual representations to life, the Girls in STEAM Design Team used TinkerCAD to create 3D models. Once the designs were complete, the Girls in STEAM icons were 3D printed and were spread throughout the community as part of a Geocaching Challenge aimed at educating others about Girls in STEAM.
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During the 2018-2019 school year, the Girls in STEAM Initiative focused on making an interactive display to educate others about STEAM careers using Scratch and circuitry. The students created a Scratch project educates others about a STEAM career. Scratch enabled the girls to collaborate to create projects that expressed their ideas. The Scratch coding blocks also allowed the students to imagine, create and share the research on their given. After completing their products the girls participated in a Gallery Walk to share and learn from one another. One of the great things about this year's event was that the project was lead by previous girls who have participated and wanted to come back to lead this experience for the younger girls.
High School
Student Advisory Council
The AAUW Talladega County Branch High School Student Advisory Council (SAC), Fayetteville School, is a branch coalition of student leaders that advises AAUW on strategies for the future of young women and girls. Responsibilities decided at the August 8, 2018 SAC meeting include: 1) advise branch on topics of interest of high school female students, 2) assist in the development of high school female student leadership, 3) serve as leaders or counselors for future STEAM programs, and 4) develop and implement one project per year. Based on the input of the SAC and with the approval of the high school sponsor, Mrs. Stephanie Brooks, Fayetteville School, the AAUW Talladega County Branch develops and implements a branch K-12 strategic plan with an action plan to support the interests, needs, and wants of the SAC. Ms. Audrey Salgado serves as the SAC advisor.
The mission of AAUW is to advance gender equity for women and girls through research, education, and advocacy. The vision is equity for all. AAUW Talladega County Branch adopts AAUW’s mission and vision with an extension of the vision “to empower women and girls to achieve their highest potential.” AAUW Talladega County Branch’s three priorities are 1)education and training, 2) economic security, and 3) leadership. The AAUW of Alabama College/University Student Advisory Council (SAC) was founded in 2004 under the leadership of Ms. Audrey Salgado, Program Vice President. After 15 years of service as AAUW of Alabama College/University Relations Chair and SAC Advisor, she resigned on June 30, 2019. This College/University Student Advisory Council developed and implemented their 15th annual women student leader conference in March 2019 with over 300 Alabama College/University students in attendance. There were 169 Applications for the forty 2019-20
SAC leadership roles.
The AAUW Talladega County Branch High School SAC is the first High School SAC in the nation. B. B. Comer High School established a High School SAC this year. The AAUW Birmingham Branch and AAUW Talladega County Branch have conducted Girls STEAM or Girls STEAM events in Talladega County Public and Sylacauga City Schools since 2015. The first one-day event, Expanding Your Horizons, was for 6th – 9th grade girls at Fayetteville School. Guidance Counselor, Mrs. Rachael Sherbert, worked with Ms. Audrey Salgado to implement this event. The hands on workshops were taught by Mrs. Shelley Bailey, Science Professor, Central
Alabama Community College (CACC), and other CACC STEAM students. One science teacher for each 6th – 9th grade attended and were responsible for the students. A special guest was Mrs. Maggie Amsler, a UAB Biologist, who has made 27 expeditions to Palmer Station in Antarctica. Amsler Island in Antarctica was named after her and her husband. She shared her krill research.
Career Tech Engineering
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During career tech class students created 3-D models of a corn hole game, an American Flag, and an iPhone on Autodesk Software. Later, they printed the models on a 3-D printer. Students will earn a Geometric certification with this project. The goal of the program is to maintain and broaden all students’ interests, specifically girls, in the area of engineering by providing hands on activities.
Peer Tutor
To enhance the success of underrepresented groups in STEAM education, Fayetteville School developed a peer tutor program to assist students that are cognitively challenged. These tutors were paired with special need students in order to increase their academic and social success in the classroom. The peer tutor sits beside the student, keeps them focused and on task, explains required assignments, reads for the student and help to complete activities that might be difficult. This program has been successful in the secondary level. Both students have found great benefits through this program that will impact their future. By including these underrepresented students in STEAM activities, they are inspired and feel successful in their abilities.
Girls in Machine
Girls earn a machining certification after successfully completing two years of training in Career Tech. Currently, students are creating a “C Clamp” for carpentry, woodworking, furniture making, welding, construction and metal working. This student wants to earn a machine certification to earn money to go to college to be a surgeon. At Fayetteville School we provide support and encouragement of girls in vertical and technical training. Girls are not limited in subject areas, such as nursing assistant or food service, they may choose to enter classes in machining, welding or engineering if they desire. These vocational and technical programs provide these underrepresented groups of students with practical learning opportunities and ands-on experiences to prepare them for a career following high school.