Hays CISD middle school teachers (left to right) Christina Milton (Chapa), Aaron Higdon (Dahlstrom), Jerry Camp (Wallace) and Linda Ray (Simon) proudly display the projects they designed and engineered at the intensive two-week Gate way to Technology training they recently attended at the University of Texas at Tyler. Each of the four returned certified to teach the new GTT course at their respective campuses. Barton Middle School’s Kathryn Campbell will enjoy the same challenging process this month. (Courtesy photo)
by JIM CULLEN
Four Hays CISD middle school teachers returned recently from the Project Lead the Way Summer Training Institute at the University of Texas at Tyler. Wallace Middle School teacher Jerry Camp, Dahlstrom’s Aaron Higdon, Simon’s Linda Ray, and Chapa’s Christina Milton worked diligently in the two-week intensive certification training for the Gateway to Technology program. Barton Middle School’s Kathryn Campbell attends the training this month.
In the coming school year, Hays CISD middle school students will be offered a new elective called Gateway to Technology or “GTT,” an introduction to engineering that is part of the district’s growing Science-Technology-Engineering-Math (STEM) program. Beginning in the 6th grade, students will learn principles of engineering sketch and design, robotic fabrication and programming, and will be able to investigate alternate energy solutions. Additionally, they’ll explore many other topics in an available total of three years.
The foursome, just back from Tyler, all certified for the GTT program, their culminating activity the design of a revolving bridge by Ray and Milton and the design and programming of miniature tanks by Camp and Higdon. The Hays teachers stayed in dormitories, collaborated with other Texas teachers and designed, built and programmed robots. Finally, they prepared a digital portfolio. They will return to UT-Tyler next summer for advanced GTT certification training.
Chapa Middle School’s Christina Milton said she is “excited to begin our engineering courses” on her campus. She termed the certification process “amazing” and says, “I hope my students will find the courses as challenging and fulfilling as I did.”
Milton adds that Project Lead the Way (PLTW) courses “will open up vast opportunities for our children to pursue innovative careers in science and engineering!”
Dr. Ellen Lyon, who serves as the district’s STEM programming strategist, notes that both Lehman and Hays high schools have nationally-certified PLTW programs, each offering a full complement of related courses to students. “Through creative problem-solving, students in these courses learn skills used by engineers and they will benefit from the project-based curriculum, regardless of the career path they follow and the engaging experiences that middle school students have in GTT will springboard them into the high school programs,” she says.
District PLTW teachers know that all students can benefit from programs engaging them in creative problem solving and providing them with skills used by engineers. Lyon says that for young people wanting to make a difference in their communities and the world, programs focusing on these practices for solving challenges in communications, entertainment, energy, health care, and transportation can also expose them to “a highly-rewarding engineering career.”
“We are very lucky to have a community that supports STEM education,” Lyon says. Noting the fact that the district started its “Saturn V” STEM magnet program for 4th and 5th-graders last year, Lyon adds that she and others at the district “are happy these students, along with others interested in STEM, will have this new, rewarding class to take in middle school.”
“Five excellent teachers will be leading these courses,” she says, concluding, “I can’t wait to see the work of our students.”
