STEM Certification

Narrative

Hawthorne Elementary
Hawthorne began its journey into STEM in the 2013-14 school year. We have a large emphasis
on technology integration. We currently have several clubs centered around robotics, coding,
and our Maker Space. Students have the opportunity to work with different technology-based
programs, such as Beebots, Sphero, Little Bits, Dot, and Dash. We have also begun a girl-only
coding club, Girls Coding Collective. In daily classroom activities, teachers have access to our
Captain Planet cooking cart, laptops, tablets, student computers, and document cameras.
We are also focused on agricultural awareness. We have partnered with HATponics, whose
mission is to provide food to 20 million people by 2020. We are also partnered with Captain
Planet, Slow Foods, and various organic seed companies to fulfill the various needs of school
gardening. To that end, our garden and aquaponics systems are dedicated to both learning and
giving to the community. Garden-based learning is backed by evidence-based research.
Gardens develop a sense of wonder about the world, confidence, patience, and the ability to
work well as a team. Gardening also supports the Georgia Standards of Excellence by enabling
students to learn through phenomena. Science educator Brian Moulding (2016) states that
students should regularly interact with phenomena for a deeper understanding of the core
subject matter by using the cross-cutting concepts to construct meaningful explanations. The
science and engineering practices run throughout tending to the needs of a garden, reflecting
on it, and other agricultural impacts globally.
 Areas of Strength
1.1 The STEM school supports non-traditional student participation through outreach to groups
often underrepresented in STEM program areas.
Hawthorne is an inclusion school, which means that special education students are in the same
classes as general education students. These classes have the support of both a general
education teacher and a special education teacher, as well as any other supports our inclusion
students require. Our special education students thrive through the use of technology, but they
also do well in our garden environment. Research shows that special education students can
benefit from the use of the sensory input and calming effect of the garden.
Our school also has a large population of students whose primary language is not English. One
of our teachers did a teacher reflection project on her learners in the garden and found that the
ESOL students gained more vocabulary and interest in garden after her garden-based project.
We are currently at 54% of our students receiving free and reduced lunch. These students could
possibly experience food insecurity- growing our garden can both help them to see new ways to
stabilize their home food life and draw attention to the problem of food deserts.

1.6 The interdisciplinary problem-based curriculum includes a focus on real-world applications.

Real-world applications are at the core of our learning. Gardening and aquaponics bring up the
very serious issue of food inequity and our changing climate. Through these lenses, we look at
how food is grown, packaged, and delivered and how we can improve upon that process.
Design challenges focus on things like wind turbines for energy and composting and recycling
as ways to keep materials out of landfills.
We use student demonstrations to help develop communication skills. Students also get
chances to self-assess their learning.

The Flying Classrooms Barrington Irving came to educate us about a few topics, one of which
was a video on our food problem. His video showed our third through fifth graders that rather
than a food problem, we have a transportation and delivery problem. This excited our students
to look further into this problem. Our first graders actually carried on an investigation of food
waste after their teachers shared Mr. Irvings video.

1.7 STEM educators collaborate as an interdisciplinary team to plan, implement, and improve
integrated learning experiences.

Our STEM Committee meets monthly to plan experiences across the curriculum. We use this
meeting time to collaborate and converse about our trainings as well as choose topics to share
with our grade levels for STEM days. The STEM committee often communicates within the
group as we attend professional developments and trainings so that we can get the most
development across the board.
Using knowledge from the Master Gardeners and Monarch courses, we planned and
implemented a pollinator garden with milkweed to support Monarch butterflies.The journey and
life cycle of the Monarch is used in both Kindergarten and first grade as part of life cycles.
Using the videos and lessons of Captain Irving from the Flying Classroom, we have been able
to plan interactive lessons on food waste, composting, and outdoor cooking.
The STEM committee enjoys these trainings because every one brings us closer to our dream
of bringing STEM to our school in a way that aligns with the Georgia Standards of Excellence
that we will be using next year.

1.9 STEM teachers and leaders participate in a continuous program of STEM-specific

professional learning.

Our teachers consistently participate in professional development for STEM learning.

School Master Gardener Course Jun. 3-13, 2014
Region 2 STEM Conference Sept. 23, 2015
HATponics STEM Educator training Sept. 25-27, 2015
Georgia STEM Forum October 2015
GAETC Oct. 24-25, 2016
GETEA Oct. 1-2, 2015
Atlanta Maker Faire Oct. 3, 2015
Donors Choose training Oct. 5, 2015
Captain Planet Training Nov. 1-2, 2015
Flying Classroom Training Nov. 18, 2015
STEM to STEAM at the High Jan. 28, 2016
SeaPerch/NOAA training Mar. 16-17, 2016
STEM Ready Schools @ Ga. Tech Mar. 22, 2016
NSTA STEM Forum July 27-29, 2016

In school, we provide bi-monthly trainings for the teachers to convey our professional learning to
the staff. These trainings are either done during grade-level planning or during weekly staff
meetings, and often provide redelivery of the professional development our STEM committee
has undertaken, such as the Flying Classroom, Donors Choose, Engineering is Elementary, and
the Captain Planet kitchen cart and the supporting lessons.
The STEM leaders in the school participate in professional developments provided by the
county as well as conferences such as the Georgia STEM Forum in Athens. Our STEM teacher
Ms. Richardson and our Kindergarten teacher Ms. Ledet both presented at the forum. They will
also both be presenting at the Georgia Science Teacher Association conference in February.
Our Assistant Principal Ms. Brown-Bryant is currently completing her dissertation on the
importance of STEM learning.

Room to Grow
1.2 Students work independently and collaboratively in an inquiry-based learning environment
that encourages finding creative solutions to authentic and complex problems.
We are working hard to create learning that is authentic and complex. We are now moving from
the simple activities from last year to authentic problems. Because of our diverse population,
working independently and collaboratively has posed more of a challenge than previously
imagined. Consequently, we are working to create supports that will enable our students to take
ownership of their own learning.

We have taken strides to improve our problem solving skills across the curriculum. Examples of
open-ended problems explored: 3rd grade made solar ovens to investigate heat transfer which
is related to social studies through refugee camp solar cookers; 1st grade made ice cream to
investigate states of matter and understand the concept of food waste (ice cream made from
unused milk from cafeteria) along with conducting a lunchroom milk waste survey. We have
bi-monthly STEM days where students answer a guiding question and propose, create, and
improve a process or design.

1.3 Students are empowered to personalize and self-direct their STEM learning experiences
supported by STEM educators who facilitate their learning.

As with the independent and collaborative learning, we are still working on perfecting students
self-reliance in learning. It is a shift that has been difficult for some of our teachers. Learning to
be a facilitator rather than a knowledge-bringer has required a major shift in the way we perform
as educators. Often teachers believe that this will add more to their already full day. However,
our STEM team is committed to providing the training and support to make all educators feel
valued and empowered to make this important paradigm switch. We provide redelivery of
STEM training to our faculty, resources to foster and encourage STEM learning, and ongoing
support wherever possible. Additionally, many teachers use strategies such as choice boards,
task cards, and interactive notebooks to allow student personalization of learning. Design
challenges undertaken by students during STEM days and in class offer students the
opportunity to plan, create, and improve a product or solution to a relevant problem. Teachers
strive to plan activities and lessons around student interests, and find ways to connect
standards of learning to daily life.

1.4 Students use technology resources to conduct research, demonstrate creative and critical
thinking, and communicate and work collaboratively.
Mac lab with 15 computers
12 PCs available in the library
Laptop cart
iPads
Surface tablets
Nexus tablets
2 3D printers
littleBits
 Lego Robotics
Skype
Document camera for each classroom

These technologies are available to help us integrate STEM across the curriculum. Teachers
often attend professional development for newer technologies such as littleBits and our 3D
printers so that they can keep up to date and pass the knowledge on to students. As a school,
we will facilitate the maintenance of our technologies as well as acquire new technologies as
appropriate.
To grow in this area, we will continue to provide technology and training. We hope to have
enough resources to make our school a one-to-one technology school. Currently, the access
our students have to up-to-date technology in the classroom is limited by tablet and laptop
availability and the age and wear of the student computers and laptops provided by the county.
Each year, however, we encourage our teachers to create a grant on the website Donors
Choose. This allows us to obtain technologies that we need even though we do not have a
budget for them. Examples include document cameras for the school, classroom sets of tablets,
an Osmo coding robot, and MakerKits, which provide engineering practice for young students.
This year we have also acquired a STEM teacher, Alisha Richardson, whose guidance allows
our students to delve further into these technologies. We will continue to provide additional
STEM-based activities in this area; for instance, Hour of Code, Scratch and Scratch Jr, Georgia
Day of Code, conducting research, creation of QR codes and Apps, and IMovies.

1.10 Community, post-secondary, business/industry partners and/or families actively support

and are engaged with teachers and students in the STEM program.

The heart of our STEM program is our threefold support system. The PTA provides support for
STEM by helping organize STEM nights and other STEM-related activities. The School Council
provides an open channel of communication between parents and teachers to plan for the future
of Hawthorne. Our Foundation provides financial support to the STEM program, allowing us to
purchase STEM materials, attend as well as provide professional development, and acquire and
maintain our aquaponics system.

Community partners continue to help us grow our program by helping us keep our garden
maintained as well as helping us construct important structures. We will soon have a chicken
coop, compost container and possibly a little fere food pantry built alongside our community
partners.

We have had support from Mercer University and well as having had a speaker from Emory
speak about nutrition with our Kindergarteners. We are looking to strengthen our university
partnerships, and create new ones.

Captain Planet continues to support us in teacher education and resources. Our teachers have
received seeds for the garden through generous donations from companies such as Johnnys
seeds and Baker Heirloom Seed Company. Gwinnett Heritage Center has supplied outreach
and field trips for our school to learn more about habitats, ecosystems, and gardening. And, of
course, the team at HATponics is always available to answer our questions.

1.11 Students are supported in their STEM learning through adult-world connections and
extended day opportunities.

Students have many opportunities to see the adult-world connections. Our Career Day is
infused with STEM and the STEM teacher, Ms. Richardson, is having the fifth graders present
STEM career options. During the Atlanta Science Festival in March, we have multiple scientists
and teachers come out and present to our students. Students will also attend the Atlanta
Science Festival Expo. Our STEM Ambassadors have made visits to the Atlanta Maker Faire,
the Georgia Tech Robotics Lab, and the HATponics Farm.
Our after school connections include:
STEM Ambassadors- these students participate in service learning projects, complete
independent research, and help their classmates and peers to become more familiar
with STEM
First LEGO and FIRST Lego Jr competition teams
Garden Club
Coding Club for girls

Our extended day program often provides STEM activities for students after school. Many of
our students, however, rely on bus transportation, and this limits their ability to attend after
school activities. In response, we have added clubs before school to increase participation.
STEM Ambassadors meet on Monday mornings twice a month at 7AM, allowing all students the
ability to come to meetings. The parental involvement in the STEM Ambassador group also
affords the opportunity for parents to arrange ride shares for activities that take place outside of
the school day.

Areas of Weakness

1.5 Students demonstrate their learning through performance-based assessments and express
their conclusions through elaborated expressions of their thinking.

While many of our teachers have embraced performance-based assessments in their

classrooms, the overall approach to assessment tends to be a traditional (i.e. written) one.
Even so, students still struggle to express their thinking in a clear or elaborated way. Most
teachers now use some form of interactive notebook in their classes, which we hope will
empower students to both take control of their learning and to express their thinking on a regular
basis, so that it becomes more natural to them. The shift to the new Georgia Standards of
Excellence for science encourages performance-based assessment, and two of our STEM
committee teachers are working as part of a curriculum-writing team that also emphasizes
rigorous and relevant performance tasks as the basis of the curriculum. These changes to the
existing curriculum will encourage a shift to performance-based assessment as well. In
addition, we will continue to seek out professional development that provides a clear foundation
for the use of performance-based assessment.

1.8 STEM learning outcomes demonstrate students STEM literacy for the next level of STEM
learning and for post-secondary and workforce readiness.

We plan to involve our students in more large, real-world projects such as Georgias water wars
with Alabama and Florida, the problem with food deserts, and sustainability in our garden
through composting, growing organically, and raising chickens.
Working with our counselors, PTA, School Council, Foundation and STEM Committee, we will
focus our efforts in making sure our students are ready to continue their work into Middle School
and beyond.
.

Moulding, B. 2016 -Teaching Science is Phenomenal