Boren at STEM Design Team Meeting

From our friends at the West Seattle Blog, a great round-up of news about who is on the new K-5 STEM at Boren design team and the discussion at their first meeting held last night.  Some interesting comments:

- -What do you want to build? “The sky’s the limit,” declared Thompson, within reason.

I think that's a lovely sentiment but highly unlikely.  This district is cash-poor and, just like STEM at Cleveland, this school is being opened very quickly without building partnerships that could enrich the program.  That said, several of the parents seem to have community connections that may help that process.  It is a lot of work to build a technology-based school.

-They’ll talk about the community partners who have expressed interest – Boeing et al. And Thompson said they don’t just mean those that have come forward; they might actively recruit some.  

- instructional materials?  They are just one piece of what happens in a classroom,” warned Thompson. “The question of whether or not we should go with Singapore Math is one of the things that comes up. No one is opposed to it at this point …” The materials will have to speak to the standards that will be phased in by 2014.

- the district has 141 applications as of Tuesday.  They expect to “max out” at three kindergarten classes and two each for 1st through 5th grades.   

- How are we going to address the needs of our special-needs population? asked one member. Thompson said “special needs” must include advanced-learning students.   

- What will the schedule be? Too soon to say, but it will be tied to the transportation plan, said Thompson. But she mentioned the district’s new provision for “Creative Approach Schools,” describing them as “schools that want to do something drastically different” and said, for this, “It’s something we can think about down the road” if the team wants to.  It seems like being a STEM school at this point in time IS a creative approach.

- What are the good and great models out there, in terms of K-5 STEM? asked Lora – and how will they be investigated (in-person visits, Skype calls, conference calls, or … ?). She noted there’s no budget for out-of-state field trips, but maybe if somebody on the design team is traveling and going to be in the vicinity of a STEM school somewhere, they could bring back a report.

Maybe some of the parents could visit those schools as well as Delta High over in Kennewick.  That school seems to be a good model for a STEM school with many partnerships. 

The report includes meeting dates and times.  They note by the April 10th meeting, the principal of K-5 STEM at Boren, Dr. Shannon McKinney, will be there.

Here's a link to the Washington STEM organization.