Archives2012-2013

2013 STEM Center Application Process Timeline:

March 1, 2013
Teacher Recommendations DUE
March 1-31, 2013
Committee Meetings and Student Placement Decisions will be conducted during the month of March.
April 1 - 5, 2013
Notification of STEM Center Placement Decision: by letter of acceptance, decline or waiting list.
April 12, 2013
Student acceptance or decline of placement

English Students Create Public Service Announcements

November 6, 2012

English STEM Teacher Tani Caudle, along with student teacher Brianne Calhoun, recently challenged students to
work together to identify and address a social injustice present in our
society.

The students engaged in the Common Instructional Framework model

of collaborative group work, scaffolding and questioning to achieve a
project-based learning activity. The project, a PSA based on social
injustices brought up in the House on Mango Street, forced the
students to read beyond the story and delve into the social injustices
that plague our society. Through careful reading and questioning, the
students engaged in the novel on a whole new level. Each member
had a different role to fulfill on the project, much like the professional
collaboration they will encounter in their future careers.

This project necessitated the students use their math skills for
understanding the statistics of the injustices' frequency, research skills with Ipads to delve deeper into the
injustice, and writing skills to create concise statements for a clear message. In one lesson, students used skills
acquired in different courses to complete the PSA, thus making the lesson more meaningful.

Geometry Students Build Roman Arches

October 12, 2012
STEM Center Teacher, Ashley Bordner, challenged her geometry
students to design and build a Roman arch out of styrofoam. Students
worked collaboratively in groups of three or four to design and build
the Roman arches while using knowledge gained through the study of
geometric principals. The challenge was to use mathematics to
determine the curve of the arch.

If you want to try to build your own interactive arch, visit the pbs site by
clicking arch-physics.

When the Romans made

an arch, the architect stood
beneath the arch while the wooden support was removed. This was one way to be sure architects carefully
designed arches that would not fall. Students were asked to research the basic components of an arch, then
develop and choose a design before building a model. Most students found a flaw in their first design when time
came to build the model and were forced to redesign their arch taking into account what they learned. As a result,
students were able to make the connection between their design and the Roman architects' use of isosceles
trapezoids.

STEM Center Launches at Davie High School

September 15, 2012

Check out the article about the STEM Center in the August Edition of Davie Life

Sprint into STEM (End of Summer 2012)

August 20, 2012
Six Straws and a Paper Cup
How can we design a boat from six drinking straws, unlimited tape, one paper cup and a piece of plastic wrap so
that it will not only float, but also bear the weight of at least 30 pennies? And when our design fails, how can we
redesign our boat so that we succeed? And in the end, can our team be the one to design a boat that holds not
only 30 pennies, but 100 or more pennies?

On August 14th, on the campus of Davie High School, the rising freshman of the STEM Class of 2016 tackled
this design process along with two other activities at the Sprint into STEM summer event. The purpose of the
evening was to focus on Common Instructional Framework procedures (Write to Learn, Collaborative Group Work
and Questioning) that students will use on a daily basis in their STEM Classes.
Participating in the event were 127 rising freshman and their soon-to-be teachers. The evening kicked off with a
pizza dinner and a chance to meet and greet their fellow STEM classmates. In order to meet their teachers,
students participated in a "speed dating" activity. Students visited each teacher seated at different tables and
engaged in a 5 minute question and answer session before moving to the next table.

After dinner, students challenged themselves and each other to design

unique solutions using the design process. Ms. Dunn (STEM Center
English Teacher) said, "The evening was filled with great energy from
a talented group of students." The STEM Center teachers are please
to welcome the first cohort to the high school!