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By John Higgins
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 09:40 p.m. EST, Nov 12, 2009
International government and business professionals visited Akron today to learn more about how private and public interests worked together to create the district's new math and science middle school.
The delegation, organized under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, includes representatives from Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain and Turkey.
Akron International Friendship, a nonprofit organization that links foreign visitors with local volunteer families, is hosting the group, which will be in the area until Sunday.
Their first stop: The National Inventors Hall of Fame School ...Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning.
The new school opened in August in its temporary home at 400 W. Market St. with about 210 students in fifth and sixth grades selected by geographic lottery.
The school will move to its permanent home on South Broadway next fall.
Mark Shermis, the dean of the University of Akron's College of Education, told the delegation why the university became one of the primary partners when planning for the school began in 2004.
''For many, many years, this university and other universities throughout the United States have been training scientists who oftentimes would stay in the United States, even though an increasing proportion of them were coming from other countries,'' Shermis said.
''Now what we find in the U.S. is that these scientists are going back to their home countries rather than staying in the United States. So the concern about STEM was to have a domestic pool of students who would remain globally competitive in the world market.''
Akron schools Superintendent David James explained how Ohio and the city of Akron are contributing to the district's $800 million school construction program, which made the new STEM school possible.
The state is paying for 59 percent of the basic cost of the projects, with a voter-approved city income tax hike covering the rest in return for use of the schools after hours as community centers.
Several local businesses also have been involved in the school under the auspices of the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce and Akron Tomorrow.
''How do you provide sustainability?'' asked Georgi Atanasov Prangov of Bulgaria, a department chief in the government agency for information technology and communications.
Maryann Wolowiec, the school's project manager, explained that aside from grants, the STEM middle school will have the same number of teachers as Akron's other middle schools, so the key to making the school sustainable is to change how those teachers are used.
Instead of offering several electives in 42-minute blocks of time, the school encourages team teaching that goes into greater depth during 60- and 70-minute blocks.
''We're narrowing down and saying, 'You're not going to have as many choices. You're going to get longer time in your content-area lessons,' '' Wolowiec said.
The delegation also planned to meet with the University of Akron Research Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce, the Cascade Locks Park Association, and the Ohio & Erie Canal Corridor Coalition while in Akron.
John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com.
International government and business professionals visited Akron today to learn more about how private and public interests worked together to create the district's new math and science middle school.
The delegation, organized under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, includes representatives from Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain and Turkey.
Akron International Friendship, a nonprofit organization that links foreign visitors with local volunteer families, is hosting the group, which will be in the area until Sunday.
Their first stop: The National Inventors Hall of Fame School ...Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning.
The new school opened in August in its temporary home at 400 W. Market St. with about 210 students in fifth and sixth grades selected by geographic lottery.
The school will move to its permanent home on South Broadway next fall.
Mark Shermis, the dean of the University of Akron's College of Education, told the delegation why the university became one of the primary partners when planning for the school began in 2004.
''For many, many years, this university and other universities throughout the United States have been training scientists who oftentimes would stay in the United States, even though an increasing proportion of them were coming from other countries,'' Shermis said.
''Now what we find in the U.S. is that these scientists are going back to their home countries rather than staying in the United States. So the concern about STEM was to have a domestic pool of students who would remain globally competitive in the world market.''
Akron schools Superintendent David James explained how Ohio and the city of Akron are contributing to the district's $800 million school construction program, which made the new STEM school possible.
The state is paying for 59 percent of the basic cost of the projects, with a voter-approved city income tax hike covering the rest in return for use of the schools after hours as community centers.
Several local businesses also have been involved in the school under the auspices of the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce and Akron Tomorrow.
''How do you provide sustainability?'' asked Georgi Atanasov Prangov of Bulgaria, a department chief in the government agency for information technology and communications.
Maryann Wolowiec, the school's project manager, explained that aside from grants, the STEM middle school will have the same number of teachers as Akron's other middle schools, so the key to making the school sustainable is to change how those teachers are used.
Instead of offering several electives in 42-minute blocks of time, the school encourages team teaching that goes into greater depth during 60- and 70-minute blocks.
''We're narrowing down and saying, 'You're not going to have as many choices. You're going to get longer time in your content-area lessons,' '' Wolowiec said.
The delegation also planned to meet with the University of Akron Research Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce, the Cascade Locks Park Association, and the Ohio & Erie Canal Corridor Coalition while in Akron.
John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 07:23 AM, 11/15/2009
I hope the school is a rousing success. Good luck to the students and teachers. I am happy to see (and pay for) an APS school innovating and attracting positive attention.
