Capabilities of innovative thought leaders are not reflected on standardized tests. These abilities are demonstrated through our students’ abilities to design and create both within the curriculum and in after-school connected learning opportunities. We have confidence that the STEAM Studio Model for Innovation is working based on the products and design thinking demonstrated by our students. Our students initiate and lead experiences they are passionate about.
For example, the BusBudE Team is in its third year of creating and beta testing an app that helps keep students safe while traveling to and from school on the bus. During beta tests, young children scan their tag when entering the bus and an alert is sent to their parent’s letting them know the time and place their children enter and leave the bus. Students presented their app to MIT Media Lab App Inventor team and are guest bloggers for their Media Lab site. They won the Infosys Maker Award for their design and with the $10,000 grant award the high school is built a makerspace and trained teachers to bring the maker movement to high school. Now in its third iteration the team has added GPS to the product to track where buses are at all times during their route.
The MyEduDecks Team spent four years designing and beta testing a pen-based software flashcard application to be used for personalized learning and assessments. Students designed and managed this educational research project with the hope of taking their product to maturity. Each of their research projects have been published in the Impact of Pen and Touch Technology on Education Human-Computer interaction series in in the following books: The Impact of Pen and Touch Technology on Education, Revolutionizing Education with Digital Ink, and Frontiers in Pen and Touch. The team has presented their work at WIPTTE & CPTTE conferences at Pepperdine University, Microsoft Research in Seattle, Brown University, and Northwestern University.
MIT Media Lab App Inventor Team and the South Fayette student App Inventor Team connect in the Future of Work Kentucky project. The South Fayette team designed a curriculum and taught sessions to teachers at the 2018 STEAM Innovation Summer Institute to help teachers expand student interest in computer science. Teachers at the institute were provided with a curriculum to assist in teaching students to make apps for their mobile devices. The team also provided training to city policemen on an initiative to help build positive relationships in their community by learning App Inventor and becoming mentors for their youth. Continuing forward, a team of miners turned software developers from Bit Source, from Pikeville Kentucky and their outreach coordinator traveled to MIT Media Lab to receive training in App Inventor. After training the South Fayette team provided their curriculum to the team so they could provide this to teachers in their region. The curriculum includes app, game, and product design using advanced technologies for an invention unit. MIT’s App Inventor team met through Google hangout to discuss their work and are now working with the MIT team as play testers and evaluators of the Media Lab’s new programs.
Beginning in 2013 Python student teams began creating their own unique Python courses and teaching the six-week courses as outreach to students and teachers from South Fayette and visiting schools. Each year new students would create and test their ideas on high school students. This program became the precursor to the current 8th grade Python course that all 8th graders are enrolled in as part of the computer science pathway K-12 at South Fayette.
To learn more about this initiative see this link: <https://home.edweb.net/webinar/research20181114/>