Attention Community Members!

You are cordially invited to join us in meeting the founding members of the STEM Charter School,(SCA) an innovative school serving students in grades 5-8. SCA seeks to offer a challenging academic curriculum in the arts and sciences. The meeting will held Saturday, December 14, 2013 at Bethel A.M.E Community Center 205 NW 4th St, Milford, DE 19963

Founding members will be on site to share more about SCA & answer questions from interested families and community stakeholders.

A brief summary of the S.T.E.A.M program and Founding Members:

The Stem Charter Academy (SCA) is a ground base breaking charter school serving students grades 5-8. Using a stem inspired model and curriculum. SCA charges is to engage students for high school by introducing them to the problem solving and critical reasoning skills needed to thrive in today’s global society. More over students have the opportunity to explore the interconnectedness of the fields of science technology engineering and mathematics. Through the arts that will expose students to feel that may have been previously unattainable and opportunity once considered beyond their reach.

The curriculum provides an authentic project-based instruction reproach that highlights the uses of science technology engineering and mathematics. Through the arts and solving real world problems. Students will participate in designing and conducting extensive research projects and communicating results through the arts social sciences and or humanity. Instruction will address the various needs of students and challenge them to take control if learning through the use if higher order questions, task and explanations of subject. This innovated and rigorous model prepares students not only for high school but also for close secondary education and beyond.

 

 ·    SCA employees implement the following as part of their curriculum:

 ·        Common core state standards and mathematics and English language arts

·         Next generation science standards

 ·        Projects based learning (PBL)

 ·        Establish Business, community and industry partnership in the geographical area

 ·        Partnering students with mentors and stem advocates

SCA seeks to target students in grades 5-8 living within a ten mile radius if Milford Delaware. The city communal commitment to the arts that includes businesses, non-profit groups, artists, and city governments was the prime location for the academy. Moreover, the opening of the academy will address the cities middle school capacity issues, offering a viable option for family of students interested in and or who excel in the arts and sciences.

Admission preference will be given to students within the Milford school district, children if board members, and siblings if students currently enrolled. A lottery system will be established to insure diverse group of the target population is represented. Visionary leadership Karen Norwood is an associate professor of mathematics education at North Carolina state university (NSCU) and faculty member since 1988.

Ms. Norwood brings to SCA an extensive background in education including teaching mathematics at the elementary, secondary, and college levels as well as serving as director of education for the Ewing Marion Kauffman foundation in Kansas MO. Norwood also co-authored ‘Gender Equity in Mathematics’ and has worked on a number of research initiatives including, the study of the effects of using multiple representations through technology to enhance student learning in mathematics. She is so co-Pi on a 3.2 million National Science Foundation Grant to develop an operations research in mathematics course for high school seniors. Norwood has served on various associations including the Conference Board of, the Mathematical Sciences, the American Educational Research Association and the Psychology of Mathematics In education amongst other noted associations.  Norwood received her Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from Cedar Crest College and her Masters in Mathematics from Kutztown University. Norwood received her Pd.D. in mathematics from Temple University.

Derrick D. Southard is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Youth Enterprise Services, Inc. (YES), a 16-year old, Maryland 501(c)(3) corporation that provides a continuum of community based programs which serve youth in Maryland’s Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice systems.   YES provides individualized services for at-risk, older teenage boys that includes extensive clinical and psychiatric assistance.   These youth have typically have been abused, neglected, or in difficult circumstances as a result of adjudication.   YES is licensed to provide residential services for 22 children by the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services and the Maryland Department of Human Resources.   Y.E.S. has three, corporate owned residential facilities with an annual budget of approximately $1.5 million. 

For eight years prior to establishing Youth Enterprise Services, Inc., Mr. Southard was a Vice President within Bank of American’s commercial real estate lending group.  His 15-year corporate career was spent with Metropolitan Life (commercial Real Estate Division), Westinghouse Credit Corporation’s Real Estate Lending Group, and  Bank of America and its predecessor banks in Maryland.   Mr. Southard holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Alabama and a Masters of Arts degree in City and Regional Planning from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.