Phoenixville - The Center for Arts & Technology (CAT) Pickering Campus is offering a new slate of honors courses that extend into the summer. Students in the honors algebra and honors pre-calculus classes participate in an extended year learning program that starts in the beginning of August. In its third year, the program has grown in popularity among students and applications have doubled.
Mathematics instructor Christine DiPaulo developed and teaches the honors level math classes.
“I was just finishing up my masters in instructional technology and was taking a course where I had to help design a technology program for a school district,” said DiPaulo. “At CAT Pickering, all of our full-time students are given laptops as part of the one-to-one laptop initiative. And I started wondering why the students don’t take their laptops home with them.”
DiPaulo turned her questioning into action and three years ago, she submitted a proposal to the school administration and was given the opportunity to develop and teach an honors algebra class on an extended-year plan.
“Since the kids were going to be learning during the summer, we decided to develop it as an honors class with weighted grades, and a revamped curriculum that would incorporate laptops and other technology.”
The program began with a selection process, where DiPaulo and other CAT Pickering administrators identified students they thought would do favorably and asked them to participate.
In its very first summer, Honors Algebra II had about fifteen participants, all of whom were very willing to take part. The program was a success and in the second year, they had twice as many students applying and expanded the course offerings to include an honors pre-calculus class and now have 30 students participating in the extended year program.
The summer portion of the class is almost exclusively online with a distinct focus on technology, although there is a laptop drop in day where students who are having trouble with their laptop can come in and get help from DiPaulo and members of the school’s IT staff.
“Our goal was to have the kids be able to get their course material for the entire year during the summer. They could download a PDF version of the first lecture as well as the syllabus and their book would be on a CD that they download.”
“We also wanted them to be able to introduce themselves and to continue to interact with the rest of the class through Moodle and a blog.”
“They were asked to have their book read by the time school starts, and to write about that and about the syllabus and the first lesson in their blog, which they were graded on.”
Now that has begun, the focus has shifted from the technology to the math content of the course.
“We just want students to learn how to analyze and synthesize the subject matter, and we want to create a collaborative environment for them.”
DiPaulo also wants to help the kids realize the real world potential for everything they’re learning by asking the two classes to do different projects that show the benefit of this particular knowledge.
“The Honors Algebra II kids will do a project during the school year demonstrating and describing how math is relevant to computer technology education. And the Honors Pre-calc kids will either develop a plan to help computer technology education go green, or they can invent something.”
According to the course program description, students are also required to produce a video that demonstrates the relationship of mathematical concepts to a students career and technical program of study. As a career and technical high school, students are enrolled one of the school’s 16 occupational programs such as animal science, criminal justice, culinary arts or electronic systems technology.
Debbie Noel, the school’s principal, sees the immense potential for these classes.
“It’s really just been an attempt on the part of Mrs. DiPaulo and our school to raise the levels of expectations for student performance,” said Noel. “We want students to better understand technology, like Moodle and blogging at the same time that they’re learning the math portion of the curriculum.”
“The hope is that once they’re involved in the class in the summer, by the time the fall rolls around they’ll have mastered the skills necessary to incorporate the technology into the class.”
DiPaulo sees the classes as a stepping-stone for these students and is very appreciative of both the wonderful response she’s gotten from them, and their innate ability to adapt and synthesize information so quickly.
“When we did it the first year it went really well,” said DiPaulo. “The kids loved it and we all had a great experience. What’s amazing though is how savvy these kids are. We asked if they wanted tutorials to figure things out easier and they all said ‘no’ because they knew they could figure it out on their own.”
“They all said they felt prepared, and felt ready for the first day of class, and even felt like they already knew everyone in the class.”
“All in all its just a phenomenal opportunity for these kids. By the time they reach college they’ll be so skillful they won’t have an issue with presentation tools or collaboration.”
The Center for Arts & Technology Pickering Campus is a comprehensive public high school specializing in career and technical education. Its goal is to provide students with the academic and technical preparation necessary to continue their education, launch their careers and become lifelong learners. The Center for Arts & Technology Pickering Campus offers honors courses in English, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and social studies.
