Life at the Start-up -- UPSM!

I am now in my 4th week at UPSM and can see how building a rich learning environment has impacted these students in a positive way.  The students here are respectful and excited to learn.  This week I continued helping students in Mr. Dombro's class learn how to measure.  With rulers, pencil and paper the students took a design layout and re-created it.  I taught the students where to start laying out their deign and how to add mixed fractions to determine the length of a line.  The students listen intently to what I say.  I was grateful when Mr. Dombro said that a student I had worked with previously showed improvement in his measuring skills.  

In Ms. Mylor's class I worked with the students to help create the recipes they had converted quartz the week prior.  Their prepared desserts would be tasted and judged the next day, where a winner would be selected.  We had alot of fun figuring things out.  The students did a really good job of following the recipes.  

I am working now to bring the students up to the engineering expo here at U of M on Dec 4th as well as participating in a few of their field trips.  These experiences will help the students see what they can do with their engineering skills in the future.  Plus U of M's campus is amazing so hopefully we can convince these great students early to attend our school;-)

My First Week at UPSM!

Located temporarily on the 11th floor of the Compuware building in downtown Detroit is UPSM, a Science and Math middle school.  What an amazing rich learning environment for the students.  The school space is open and bright with windows circling the floor.  In Mr. Dombro's room plays classical music, I almost feel as if I am in a fantasy.  Students in there little uniforms working diligently on their homework, labtops and other types of technology are in each room for students to use as necessary.

Mr Dombro's class is working on parachutes with plastic material and dixie cups which they will drop from the second floor with pennies in the inside as weight.  He teaches curriculum from Project Lead The Way (PLTW).  The prior week students had to create paper dragsters that they launched with rubber bands in the hallways.  These intelligent students are so eager to learn and participate in their classes.  

The class is split into sections of 54 students where the teachers act as counselors to the students as well.  There are no formal grades at this school, instead students are given detailed feedback to determine their strengths and areas in need of improvement.  I also helped out Ms. Mylor's class, with converting certain measuring units to quartz.  The students had to find a dessert recipe and convert all ingredients to quartz to determine which size bowl they need to do make the recipe.  She introduces me to the class and the hands shoot up immediately.  They were all so eager to learn more about my college experiences.  They mostly wanted to know about the dorms and which schools were good for what.  As a U of M student I made sure to insist they all come here:-) (Go Blue!).

In Mr. Pickens class they are making bottle rockets from scratch.  He has sent me the video which he is using to make the set-up.  Time permitting I would like to help him with this project.  

We are still determining how I will fit into the UPSM picture.  During this week I tutored some students on how to measure.  We completed quizzes online and then they utilized rulers to measure lines and other items in both cm and in.  So that's it for this week, can't wait to share my next experiences with this wonderful program!