Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver, Washington hosted a 2 day “Infusing Math into CTE “ workshop January 21 & 22. There were 28 people in attendance with 7 school districts represented from all over the state of Washington. Below are some of the highlights of the lessons developed by CTE-Math teacher pairs.
At the middle school level, teachers of Project Lead the Way from Evergreen Public Schools developed and engineering project for kids. The students will be designing and building boomerangs, collecting flight data, and then analyzing the results graphically.
In addition, other teachers from Vancouver developed ideas for pulling the rigorous math out of the robotics unit in PLTW by examining gear ratios.
Boat building was the focus of another pair of teachers. Rick Rosenow, Lake Moses High School, and Andy Davis, South Whidbey High School, began developing an intriguing lesson involving cutting of aluminum sheets in building of the custom boats. Discussions of tessellations, nets, reflections as well as collecting data to build data tables to streamline the cutting process ensued.
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Electrical theory was the core of the lessons developed by Dave Kester of Bremerton High School. As an automotive teacher, Dave examined the current flow of parallel circuits in autos. By conducting experiments, students will be collecting data on fuse capacities as additional lighting needs are added to a vehicle. With help from Scott Flanders, Lake Stevens High School, they looked at the linear functions that could be used to predict fuse sizes.
New Market Skills Center teachers Crystal Leigh and Matt Gordon delved into crane capacities. Collecting data, they discovered that the lifting capacities of cranes depends on the location along the boom that the load is placed as well as the angle of the boom. Exponential functions can be used to model the lifting capacities.
Numerous other lessons from the field of construction were developed using rafter lengths, site preparation, shed construction, polygonal vent construction, residential wiring, and structural testing. It was a pleasure to work with all the teachers who participated to bring additional relevance and rigor to their classrooms.
It is increasingly apparent as teachers begin the process of infusing rigorous mathematics into CTE and infusing CTE relevance into the math classroom that the HOW of STEM education is beginning to take flight. Teachers and administrators see the need to reexamine the instructional methods they are using. The high level students need the application of their mathematics while the struggling students need the rigorous math skills. As assistant principal Wes Allen of Mountain View High School in Vancouver Washington said “This just makes too much sense not to do it”.
After reading about the great lessons developed in Vancouver, what are your possibilities for relevance in the math classroom and rigor in the CTE classroom? Workshop planning has already begun for the 2010-2011 school year. As you are budgeting your Karl Perkins allocation, curriculum monies, and stimulus funds, contact us for opportunities to bring a custom workshop to your area. We will work with your group in a variety of CTE areas, customizing the outcomes to meet the needs of ALL students.
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