If Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) education is about creating a generation of problem solvers, then the new labs at Chehalem Valley and Mountain View middle schools are about giving the next wave of Newberg students the tools they need to prepare for college and tackle the 21st century job market.

Because STEM emphasizes working cooperatively, simply providing the physical space to coordinate student learning, while easily overlooked, is among the most important of those tools.

The furnishings of the three new science classrooms at CVMS and the lab addition at MVMS are specifically designed to be flexible, therefore promoting collaboration across a variety of activities.

 Specific design features include desks that make it easy for students to work together in groups of two and four, as well as furniture that is not only  moveable, but provides ample storage space for various projects throughout the year.

Andy Byerly, who teaches science part-time at Mountain View and is also on special assignment for the district to implement the STEM program, said that because the labs weren’t completed until midway through the school year, there weren’t any projects students did this year that they couldn’t have done before.

However, that will change next year when teachers have a chance to plan their activities and projects with the labs in mind and he did say every project this year has been better because of the more functional space.

For example, when his students built marshmallow launchers in the past, they would have had to move all the desks around or move into the hallway. This year, all that was required was sliding a few pieces of furniture, which are on wheels, to the side to create a large test-space in the middle of the room.

“Any time you have to transition students from space to space, you get behavior problems, you get loss of focus and instructional time,” Byerly said. “Just the flow of the kids is so much better if you keep them in the same space.”

Among the new technology supplied in the classrooms are desktop computers – one for every two students – which can be connected both to the classroom microscopes and new computerized data collection technology, including hand-held devices that can be used independently.

“Before we had to think about the process by which they get our data and if we’ve got technology that allows us to collect data so cleanly, we can skip the `how do we get our data’ and start looking at what the data  means, which is really what tells the story that we’re interested in,” Byerly said. “In the real world, that’s the way data is collected and we’re looking at what that data tells us.”

The desktop computers also allow for the integration of online content to go along with textbooks, while software now allows teachers to control and monitor all the classroom computers. That in turn gives the teachers the ability manage the class room, such as taking what’s on one student’s screen and sharing it with the whole class via the teacher’s projected display.

The district has also created Google accounts for each student, allowing them to access information from outside the classroom, including home.

Chehalem Valley science teacher Jessica Spang said she’s only seen enthusiasm from the kids so far.
“They were so excited when we came back from winter break to find the new furniture,” Spang said. “It’s novel, so they were just thrilled. A lot of the new equipment, they’re so tech savvy that they’re helping me.”

By Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic