One of the main tenets of the Empowerment Academy initiative is to afford students opportunities to dive deep into career exploration.   The 6th grade Enrichment Classes have been studying career possibilities by considering the 16 National Career Clusters.  The classes have been reorganized so students can work alongside students with similar interests.  A career fair will give students the opportunity to share their learning with local community members, parents and 5th grade students from the adjacent elementary school.

In preparation for their career fair display, students have been busy writing interview questions and surveying local professionals in their chosen field of study.  After refining questions, students are conducting interviews through email and by phone with contagious excitement with each successful reply.  Students are learning about job demands, necessary schooling and/or training required for the job and various perks like company cars, all while working on soft skills like listening and speaking. The 6th grade career fair will be held ????

One of the other main tenets of the Empowerment Academy initiative is to offer students rich learning opportunities through the use of project-based learning.  I witnessed several PBL examples in various stages of development during this school visit.  Mrs. Smith’s 6th grade students are designing their own country and learning about governments in the process.  Mrs. Smalls science classes recently completed a project on designing structures to withstand earthquakes. Select students shared their structures with me and explained the process used to simulate an earthquake.  This project had the added bonus of being launched with the help of engineering professionals from the community. Great ideas are being implemented in several classes!!

So how does Edgar Allan Poe fit into science class? Eighth grade teachers Angie Johnson (English) and Suha Beck (Science) spontaneously collaborated on a unique project that I am hopeful they will elaborate on with their own comments.  Mrs. Johnson’s students explored the writings of Poe and hypothesized his cause of death based on the undertones of his writings and known facts about his life.  Students created visual displays of their conclusion and generated a list of possible causes of death.    Mrs. Beck extended the project by creating forensic science labs for students to examine the validity of the proposed causes of death.  Equipped with pig body parts, Mrs. Beck simulated various illnesses and diseases for students to reach their own conclusions on the cause of death.  I mean talk about critical thinking skills!!!!

Picture to the left below is from Mrs. Johnson’s class.  The picture to the right is from Mrs. Beck’s class showing the result of a class vote on the cause of death. 

Have I mentioned how lucky I am to be involved with this work?

–Steve