Southern Belle Farm is one of the partners at Ashford Park. Our annual visits to Southern Belle Farm exposes students to adult-world connections, while also extending their learning.
Response We support our students in a number of ways outside of the classroom. First, Ashford Park operates an after school extended day program which incorporates clubs and STEM opportunities so that students are provided with adult-world connections. The after school extended day program offers extracurricular opportunities such as the Big Thinkers Science Club, Imagine That!, Championship Chess, Art Projects, and Cooking to all students that are enrolled in the program. Further, all of these enrichment activities support our STEM initiative and extend our outreach beyond the school day to students who normally miss out on STEM opportunities due to the work schedule of their parents.
STEM learning is also supported through after school clubs and academic competitions such as Science Olympiad, Lego League, Odyssey of the Mind, and the DeKalb Regional Science Fair. Ashford Park is proud of its Eagle News Crew that produces and broadcasts the morning announcements using various types of technology. Additionally, the Green Team works to promote and encourage recycling throughout the school. Finally, we have eight Girl Scout troops and two Boy Scout troops that promote and encourage STEM learning.
Field trips are an indispensable resource for STEM learning. Ashford Park teachers are able to guide the students in making adult-world connections through a wide variety of both off campus and on campus field trips. We are fortunate in that we have been able to make annual trips to the following locations to support our STEM initiative:
The Atlanta Zoo
The Tellus Science Museum
The CNN Center
Fernbank Science Center
Stone Mountain Park
Georgia Capitol
Elachee Nature Center
Georgia Aquarium
The Civil Rights Museum
Vulcan Rock Quarry,
The Tennessee Aquarium
Southern Bell Farms
We were also very fortunate to have a petting zoo, the Black Inventions Expo, the G.A.B.I.E. Science on campus. Also, as a part of our relationship with the German Cultural Center, all of our 3rd grade students had a chance to visit the “Math You Can Touch” traveling exhibit.
Arts based field trips also support the STEM initiative by integrating a real world experience with the arts. Our students have visited Medieval Times, The Alliance Theater, and The Center for Puppetry Arts to gain cross-curricular experiences.
Strengths Adult-world connections and extended day opportunities are invaluable. At Ashford Park, we are very fortunate that we have a history with a number of organizations that help to promote our STEM initiative. Our relationships are ones that allow for collaboration among organizational representatives so that we can tailor the experiences to the needs of our students. We are also very fortunate that we have a strong parent base that supports our efforts with their financial resources, community connections, and levels of expertise among the parents.
Areas of Opportunity We must expand our relationship with our community partners to include classroom visits, planning with the teacher for authentic experiences, and the opportunity for students to engage with experts inside the classroom. While this does occur at Ashford Park, we need to increase the frequency of such incidents at Ashford Park.
Sustainability We will sustain our STEM initiative by continuing to cultivate the relationships that we have with our current partners so that our students will benefit. In addition to taking our students to various venues, we will also work to bring more experts into the classroom. We will also work to increase the use of digital technology to bring experts into the classroom virtually.
Steps to Initiate Improvement We have taken the following steps to improve: 1. At our summer planning retreat, we will plan our units with the inclusion of a field expert in the classroom. Not only will we provide students with the opportunity to go on a STEM field trip, but we will also invite an expert to the classroom to enrich the experience and STEM learning for our students. 2. We distributed a parent survey that collected information relative to the number and types of STEM experts that we have among our parent base. We have already used the STEM parent survey to invite "parent experts" in the building for STEM Career Day. We will also use this list when planning for future STEM lessons and invite the experts back into the classroom for real world connections.
Evidence
The pictures above are of one of our eight Girl Scout Troops.
The pictures above are of our Lego League.
The pictures above are from Family Science Night.
The pictures above are from the annual 4th grade trip to the Elachee Nature Center.
The pictures above is from the DeKalb Regional Science Fair.
Members of our Green Team doing their weekly pickup of recyclable materials.