Dunwoody Nature Center (DNC)
The Nature Center has embarked on a major initiative to help protect the monarch butterfly and raise awareness of the troubling decline of the monarch population. This year we began a partnership with DNC to help the plight of the Monarch butterfly by planting and harvesting Milkweed. Our school has offered curriculum feedback on newly designed lessons and planted milkweed around our campus. We also began an initiative in February with our 1st grade classes to germinate additional milkweed plants to be distributed throughout our building. A data collection chart is located near our newly revived butterfly garden where students can tally the number of Monarch butterflies they see around our campus space. We want to know if increasing the food source for Monarchs will increase their visibility. The DNC has also come to our school to support our teachers by creating curriculum for our teachers and conducting classes as well as participating in our family and community STEM night in February. GA Tech Biomedical Engineering Department (BME) BME Healthreach program began by developing hands on math and science lessons for chronically ill hospitalized children. The purpose of these lessonsm were to teach the children about the math and science behind their disease. The program now focuses more on the math and science behind human physiology. BME Healthreach is made up of Biomedical Engineering undergraduate students that attend Georgia Tech. They are learning how to explain complex concepts and words in simple ways. BME students work with our STEM coordinator and 5th grade teachers to design lessons that support our 5th grade curriculum while integrating math and science. The BME students work with all 5th grade classes a minimum of once a month to implement their lessons and share their expertise with our students and teachers. In addition, they created a place that students can go to post questions that they have about lessons or specifically about the world of biomedical engineering. BME recently began working with a digital gaming company (Thrust Interactive) on turning their lessons/activities into a digital game/platform specifically targeting hospital patients. Our students will be working with the BME group, answering survey questions and providing feedback to help develop this new platform. In addition BME students are working to create a career fair for our 5th graders that focuses on healthcare careers. The career fair will be held in April and serve as a resource to our fifth graders as they research and design their own career fair for third and fourth grade students. United Postal Service (UPS) UPS has supported our school through hands-on participation in very important ways that have inspired other businesses and community members to get involved. Our relationship began with a $10,000.00 donation for a sustainable community garden last December and it has grown well beyond that. They also donated four solar panels and the equipment to power our irrigation system. They donated auction items for a school event raising nearly $2,000.00 more for the gardens. UPS has already provided volunteers for 5 workdays and will continue to schedule workdays to support our programs. We have a UPS employee on our School Governance Board to help guide policy and promote best practices. Also, UPS employees mentor students in our Partners in Literacy Program. These volunteers read to a student that has been recognized as below grade level once a week throughout the school year. The special bond this creates makes learning fun and successful. At the end of the year, most students are at or above grade level. Thanks to UPS’s investment in our community gardens, we were able to bring in new business partners: Walmart on Ashford Dunwoody, the Whole Foods Kids Foundation, Old Castle, Garrick, Ewing, The High Museum of Art, Priluck and Nordone, Handy Andy Outdoors, Georgia Tech, Equifax, The Dunwoody Nature Center, Boy Scout Troop 266, The Edible School Yard in Berkley, California, and The Home Depot in Sandy Springs. This also gives us a wonderful opportunity to reach students and their families after school. (Explain how the new business partners reach students and families after school.) During summer months, we will also be donating produce to the Community Assistance in order to help families in the Sandy Springs area that are in need of food. Additionally, we have a new outreach program that invites volunteers to join us on campus every Tuesday throughout the school year. Together, the volunteers and Woodland staff members work on a variety of projects in the gardens and in the STEAM Lab. We also started our UPS Gardening and Culinary Kids Club. Students in 3rd through 5th grade meet for 10 sessions each to solve real world problems through STEAM lessons in a relaxed and collaborative classroom with monthly guest speakers on a variety of different subjects. Leadership Sandy Springs (LSS) LSS is a professional organization that provides strategic leadership development and collaborative civic engagement in metro-Atlanta’s Central Perimeter area. They focus on developing leadership skills among various individuals and guide them in using those skills to build community relationships while supporting the diversity of Sandy Springs. We are currently working with them to develop community gardens throughout the Sandy Springs area to support our families and provide fresh, organic produce. Sandy Springs Education Force (SSEF) The Sandy Springs Education Force is a driving force in our community and received a TagEd award for the last two years in recognition of their work to support STEM. They supply funding for our after school STEM programs so that we can offer them free of charge to our diverse, Title 1 population. More importantly, they help us to connect with experts in various fields to support our efforts. We also support their STEM initiative by showcasing our STEM work at various events that they host throughout the year. While supporting SSEF, we are also able to share STEM and our school efforts with the community. US Navy Chief Reilly of the The U.S. Navy provided SeaPerch training for teachers in order to assist our robotics students in competitions. He also met with students during their build to guide them through the process. SeaPerch is an innovative underwater robotics program that equips teachers and students with the resources they need to build an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) in an in-school or out-of-school setting. Students build the ROV from a kit comprised of low-cost, easily accessible parts, following a curriculum that teaches basic engineering and science concepts with a marine engineering theme. The SeaPerch Program provides students with the opportunity to learn about robotics, engineering, science, and mathematics (STEM) while building an underwater ROV as part of a science and engineering technology curriculum. Throughout the project, students learn engineering concepts, problem solving, teamwork, and technical applications. |