West Branch High enhancing tech with grant dollars
Holly Hines
hhines2@press-citizen.com
Large touchscreen monitors, chairs with wheels and increased collaborating space are features coming to two classrooms at West Branch High School, staff said.
Kelsey Strope and Matt Cain, both staff members, said the school will use a $25,000 grant through the Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council to upgrade classroom space with the aim of increasing students' ability to learn through technology, hands-on learning and team work.
Staff in the coming months plan to add six touchscreen monitors that will link with handheld devices in the classroom, new furniture such as standing desks and mobile seating and more collaboration areas with white boards.
The West Branch Community School District is one of nine Iowa school districts and schools receiving grant dollars to upgrade classrooms using a STEM —science, technology, engineering and math — redesigned learning environment model, according to a STEM Advisory Council news release.
The release reads that the council and 12 schools and school districts across Iowa will spend a total of $630,628 on equipment and teacher training related to redesigned learning environments and connecting teachers and students with businesses.
Cain, a STEM teacher and robotics mentor, said West Branch must spend its share of grant dollars by June 30, 2016, and said staff plan to begin rolling out upgrades next spring. He said West Branch schools will match the grant dollar for dollar with district dollars.
Cain said the upgrades will be an extension of changing teaching practices at the high school aimed at encouraging students to guide their own learning through hands-on projects. He said he anticipates his students will use the white board areas frequently for sharing ideas.
"They will engage in it in a big way," he said.
Cain said the touchscreens will allow students and teachers to take full advantage of technology already in place in classrooms, noting that some districts fail to use devices in the classroom to their full capacities.
Strope, an instructional coach, said the interactive screens will allow students while working on projects to connect via webcams with businesses and universities across the U.S.
"It'll add another component to their collaboration," she said.
Freshman Autumn Kolpin, 15, said hands-on learning and technology tools can help improve learning and that she thinks the planned new features will benefit the school.
Junior Tara Hoffman, 16, said the touchscreens will allow the school's robotics team, of which she is a member, to model and edit their robot and said mobile furniture will be convenient for group work.
"I think the movable chairs would be really helpful for that," Hoffman said.
Reach Holly Hines at hhines2@press- citizen.com or at 319-887-5414 and follow her on Twitter at @HollyJHines.