Washington High School uses a variety of performance-based assessments and real-world application activities to engage students in authentic and engaging learning experiences. Our STEM vision is rooted in providing a challenging learning environment which maximizes individual potential and equips students to be STEM contributors for their community and the world around them. Our teachers receive continuous professional learning on effective ways to be facilitators of inquiry-based learning. This type of instruction encourages students to be curious and experiment as lifelong learners. What this looks like is that when a topic triggers curiosity, the first step is to get students to begin the “driving” process through the questions that they ask and helping them be comfortable with discovering the answers on their own.

Throughout the process students also share and reflect on what they learned. This type of self-guided learning allows the teacher to serve as an educational guide. Teachers are there to monitor students’ progress, provide structural support when needed, and ensure that the focus remains on students’ questions and observations. This approach to teaching relies on our teachers recognizing the importance of presenting problems to students that will challenge their current conceptual understandings. This in turn forces students to reconcile anomalous thinking and construct new understandings. The products of student performance assessments can be seen throughout teacher’s classroom and on various social media platforms (Twitter and Facebook). Our students are also asked to share their products with our partners and various stakeholders at different events such as local/national competitions, local school and district STEM showcases, as well as other STEM focused competitions (robotics, FBLA, HOSA, FCCLA, United Way, Verizon, Lexus, etc.)  that they attend throughout the school year. 

Performance based learning is an on-going process for our students that allows student-centered learning and progress monitoring where teachers and students collaborate and adjust their learning where needed. During the process of STEM instruction or PBL’s, students focus on the discussion surrounding their solutions and the testing of these solutions. This discussion is focused on analyzing and evaluating the successes but also the areas for improvement. We encourage students to share feedback on their own solutions as well as those of their peers. Students are also taught strategies in which they can self-assess and provide feedback to others.

Opportunities for Growth

Because performance-based learning models allow students to construct understandings and build twenty-first century skills such as collaboration, problem-solving, critical thinking and communication we want to ensure this type of learning transcends through all content areas even those that do not readily seem STEM applicable. Another area of growth since going whole school with STEM instruction is to continue to provide professional learning on the engineering design models, the 8 essential pillars of PBL, and other STEM engagement instructional strategies for teachers to effective plan for execution. Encouraging proper planning for this type of instruction will help teachers to keep in mind that the content and instruction does not have to change, but instead of assessing of the students’ knowledge from the content. Another area of growth would be to give more widespread opportunities for students to assess themselves using rubrics designed around STEM projects as well as their peers. This portion of performance assessments is often rushed due to time constraints, but we do recognize this is a critical part for students to enhance their learning and show improvement. Lastly, we want to ensure we are providing students with a wide variety of experiences so that this can help them engage additional critical thinking skills when they have different STEM challenges. We find sometimes students may have a goal or solution in mind but struggle to see the real application due to lack of exposure to a variety of STEM infused career options.

By having strategic partnerships with Morehouse School of Medicine, Spelman, Georgia Tech, University of Georgia, Mercedes Benz, The Arthur Blank Foundation, Atlanta Botanical Gardens, Georgia Aquarium, Greenleaf Foundation, Statefarm, Atlanta Watershed Alliance, Truly Living Well, Citrix, Bronner Brothers and even the city of Atlanta our goal is to provide every student with the opportunity to participate in enhanced STEM learning experiences within-school as well as extracurricular activities such as internships and externships with our STEM partner.

Programs such as the Georgia Chief Science Officers offers leadership opportunities for students to be STEM ambassadors. The Georgia Chief Science Officers (CSO) initiative cultivates a cadre of student leaders across the state, enhancing their leadership, communication, and advocacy skills to meet the growing demand for these soft skills in STEM careers. The CSO program empowers students with a voice in STEM programming at their schools and in their communities. CSOs meet with legislators, school board members, and policymakers to lend their voices to conversations about STEM education and workforce development in our state.

Another program Hope for Youth, Inc.'s (HYPE) mission is to empower minority, high school girls to become leaders in tech through programs that offer computer science education, technology career exposure, and opportunities to lead coding workshops both domestically and internationally. HYPE has a yearly signature International Experience that gives participants a once-In-a-lifetime opportunity to travel  abroad and teach coding skills to youth in an international developing country or urban city center. Our students had the opportunity to apply the programming skills they learned in The HYPE Project and facilitated a 1-week coding workshop abroad. This train-the-trainer model allowed our students to go from being a student to a teacher and gain critical leadership skills that prepare them for future careers in tech, all while gaining a global perspective with exposure to new countries, cultures and ways of life. Additional STEM extra -curricular programs will be detailed below.

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