When asked what his favorite part of an engineering program at Lake Avenue Elementary School in Saratoga Springs was, fifth-grader Paulie Endres, 11, knew his answer right away. “Easy,” he said, “making a robot — it’s just awesome.” His classmates agreed.
“I like knowing I’m able to do something like building a robot you wouldn’t think a fifth-grader could do,” said Ciara Meyer, 10. “You feel you are really achieving something big and exceeding expectations when you build a robot. It just sounds cool — I mean building a robot.”
Paulie, Ciara and a panel of other students and teachers shared their insights into the school’s special STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — curriculum with state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia and other visiting dignitaries on Thursday. Elia was joined on her visit by Regent Beverly Ouderkirk of Morristown and Assembly- woman Carrie Woerner, DRound Lake.
The Saratoga swing started at Maple Avenue Middle School, where Elia observed a sixth-grade computer coding class before heading to Lake Avenue. Later in the day, Elia and the other offi cials were scheduled to visit the SUNY Adirondack Early College Career Academy in Queensbury and a pair of schools in Glens Falls.
The trip to the Saratoga schools was the latest stop in a monthslong listening tour that has taken Elia, who started as state commissioner last summer, to schools across the state. She has racked up over 20,000 road miles as she meets with students, teachers and school administrators, Elia recently told a panel of state lawmakers.
The Saratoga Springs School District was showing off its Project Lead the Way program — a K-12 plan for incorporating cross-disciplinary technology and engineering lessons into the curriculum — as Elia visited around a half-dozen classes working on projects ranging from egg holders to autonomous cars.
Lake Avenue Elementary was one of 38 elementary schools around the country that helped pilot the program as it expanded to elementary schools in 2013. This is the third year that Lake Avenue students have worked their way through the program. By next year, the Saratoga district plans to have the program up and running at all six of its elementary schools, Instructional Technologist James Nair said.
Nair said the biggest investment in the program is building the wireless infrastructure and outfitting classes with iPads to support the curriculum. The district has two wireless devices for every student in the program, he added. The students work through two engineering modules in each grade level, building on the lessons that came before.
“It’s nerve-wracking at first, because it’s a topic I’m not familiar with,” teacher Andrea Blair said of the program. “But the kids come in and are so excited to do these things it makes you want to learn more and answer their questions and gain more knowledge.”
Elia said programs like the one she observed in Saratoga Springs on Thursday can serve as models for other schools across the state, touching on a point she has made with lawmakers and the Board of Regents.
“We have to expose other districts to some of the other models going on,” she said.
Woerner, who represents the area, said it was important to provide enough education funding each year so that other districts had the opportunity to adopt similar programs.
“We need to make sure all schools have sufficient resources to be able to invest in programs like this,” she said. “We make sure they have the resources and then get out of the way.”
During a stop at a kindergarten class, Elia kneeled between Aleksandra Sherman, 6, and Parker Gallagher, 6. The students were making egg holders out of pipe cleaner, and Aleksandra was busy weaving two pipe cleaners together.
“Why are you doing two together?” Elia asked.
“To make it bigger,” Aleksandra answered. “Make it bigger? Do you think it will make it stronger?” “I don’t know,” Aleksandra said with a shrug. “We’ll see,” Elia said knowingly.
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