“Preparing Our Students for the World and Beyond"
What is an Academy?
Academies are a small learning community, comprising a group of students within the larger high school who take classes together, taught by a team of teachers from different disciplines who work as a team to integrate curriculum and personalized instruction. Academies are specialized programs that have a specific career based focus and serve students based on their interests and abilities. They also provide opportunities for students who are still identifying interest areas. The programs give them a jump-start in terms of understanding the relevance of all courses they take in high school to their life goals and career interests. These learning opportunities include real-world experiences with community partners and are intended for all students, whether they pursue collegiate courses of study leading to professional degrees, as well as those who transition to the workforce upon graduation from high school. All academy programs are designed around skill building sequences with the goal of career preparation. Northside's STEM Academy provides a college preparatory curriculum with a career theme, enabling students to see relationships among academic subjects and their application to a broad field of work. Partnerships with employers, the community, and local colleges bring resources from outside the high school to improve student motivation and achievement. Opportunities for internships, mentoring, and involvement in career related student organizations foster college and career readiness for all students. Contact Information Kari Cobb Director, NHS Adv App STEM Academy (910) 382-2188 [email protected] |
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Program Overview: Founded at Northside High School, Onslow County Schools in 2013, the Advanced Applied STEM Academy prepares students for challenging, college-preparatory science, math, and engineering courses and recruits diverse educators to teach these subjects. Northside High School students are primarily low-income students of color who dream of college diplomas. Through project-based learning to understand complex problems and to prepare our next generation of innovators, our mission is to facilitate creative thinking through collaborative innovation.
Reach/Target Student Population: Advanced Applied STEM Academy helps children everywhere experience success in science, technology, engineering and math with a special focus on making STEM concepts accessible to females, students of color and children from bilingual and low-income families. The program currently has an impact on 11% of Northside High School's student population, growing at a rate of approximately 50% per year. Advanced Applied STEM Academy recruits high-potential students, most of whom are low-income and of color. All Advanced Applied STEM Academy students demonstrate academic motivation and potential, and all face significant obstacles to realizing their aspirations.
Learning Environment: Northside's Advanced Applied STEM Academy program emphasize cooperative group interaction reflecting a dynamic and active approach to learning and discovery through hands-on activities. The environment is filled with energy and excitement and ongoing interaction between teachers and students. This results in students developing skills ranging from high-level thinking and creative problem solving to project planning and solution communicating. Northside's Advanced Applied STEM Academy classes have a student-to-teacher ratio of 20:1 but no more than 30:1. In the small classes, there is no “back of the room,” and all students are engaged every day in every class. All classes are held in outstanding, state-of-the-art labs and classrooms. Typical Northside's Advanced Applied STEM Academy classes include building toothpick bridges to learn physics; dissecting cats to study anatomy; building models of cells to learn biology; burning, compressing and stretching metals to study chemistry; and, making scaled replicas of a lake house to examine structural engineering.
Program Results Highlights: Northside's Advanced Applied STEM Academy students are provided opportunities to complete modules to include: Alternative Energy, Architectural Design, Communication Technology, Construction Technology, Environmental Technology, Materials Science, Multimedia Production, Manufacturing Technology, Robotics and Automation, and Transportation Technology. STEM’s philosophy holds students accountable to the highest academic standards. This academy prepares technological pioneers for tomorrow’s careers, college eligibility and success. Students have the potential to graduate from high school with professional industry-standard certifications in: Auto Desk AutoCAD Design, and/or SolidWorks. NSHS’s STEM Academy has demonstrated intent to apply for potential STEM recognition for the 2015-16 school year through NCDPI by demonstrating NSHS’s STEM Academy’s connection of education programs, post-secondary education, policy-makers, business/industry, and other state agencies to STEM initiatives to the Department of Public Instruction, Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and schools to ensure our citizens are learning the skills that will keep their communities globally competitive. NSHS’s STEM Academy is also in the process of applying to the NCAC (National Career Academy Coalition). The NCAC performs academy review against the National (Career Academy) Standards of Practice which leads to a national recognition. Academies can be recognized as model, certified or in progress. NSHS's STEM Academy hopes to achieve certification by 2016-2017.
This school year, the Advanced Applied STEM Academy will begin completing multiple assessments of the program’s effectiveness, examining qualitatively and quantitatively the impact of student and teacher services, measuring entrance into college-preparatory high schools, successful completion of college preparatory curricula, college matriculation, and for teachers, entrance into the field of engineering or other STEM-based careers.
Reach/Target Student Population: Advanced Applied STEM Academy helps children everywhere experience success in science, technology, engineering and math with a special focus on making STEM concepts accessible to females, students of color and children from bilingual and low-income families. The program currently has an impact on 11% of Northside High School's student population, growing at a rate of approximately 50% per year. Advanced Applied STEM Academy recruits high-potential students, most of whom are low-income and of color. All Advanced Applied STEM Academy students demonstrate academic motivation and potential, and all face significant obstacles to realizing their aspirations.
Learning Environment: Northside's Advanced Applied STEM Academy program emphasize cooperative group interaction reflecting a dynamic and active approach to learning and discovery through hands-on activities. The environment is filled with energy and excitement and ongoing interaction between teachers and students. This results in students developing skills ranging from high-level thinking and creative problem solving to project planning and solution communicating. Northside's Advanced Applied STEM Academy classes have a student-to-teacher ratio of 20:1 but no more than 30:1. In the small classes, there is no “back of the room,” and all students are engaged every day in every class. All classes are held in outstanding, state-of-the-art labs and classrooms. Typical Northside's Advanced Applied STEM Academy classes include building toothpick bridges to learn physics; dissecting cats to study anatomy; building models of cells to learn biology; burning, compressing and stretching metals to study chemistry; and, making scaled replicas of a lake house to examine structural engineering.
Program Results Highlights: Northside's Advanced Applied STEM Academy students are provided opportunities to complete modules to include: Alternative Energy, Architectural Design, Communication Technology, Construction Technology, Environmental Technology, Materials Science, Multimedia Production, Manufacturing Technology, Robotics and Automation, and Transportation Technology. STEM’s philosophy holds students accountable to the highest academic standards. This academy prepares technological pioneers for tomorrow’s careers, college eligibility and success. Students have the potential to graduate from high school with professional industry-standard certifications in: Auto Desk AutoCAD Design, and/or SolidWorks. NSHS’s STEM Academy has demonstrated intent to apply for potential STEM recognition for the 2015-16 school year through NCDPI by demonstrating NSHS’s STEM Academy’s connection of education programs, post-secondary education, policy-makers, business/industry, and other state agencies to STEM initiatives to the Department of Public Instruction, Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and schools to ensure our citizens are learning the skills that will keep their communities globally competitive. NSHS’s STEM Academy is also in the process of applying to the NCAC (National Career Academy Coalition). The NCAC performs academy review against the National (Career Academy) Standards of Practice which leads to a national recognition. Academies can be recognized as model, certified or in progress. NSHS's STEM Academy hopes to achieve certification by 2016-2017.
This school year, the Advanced Applied STEM Academy will begin completing multiple assessments of the program’s effectiveness, examining qualitatively and quantitatively the impact of student and teacher services, measuring entrance into college-preparatory high schools, successful completion of college preparatory curricula, college matriculation, and for teachers, entrance into the field of engineering or other STEM-based careers.
Designed by Kari Cobb * Updated 11/2016 * All images are property of Northside's Advanced Applied STEM Academy * Any use of images on this web site are prohibited without permission from the site owner * [email protected].
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