NCPN is an organization of CORD (cord.org), ©2013 CORD. 

Connections is published by the National Career Pathways Network, an organization of educators and employers dedicated to the advancement of Career Pathways, Tech Prep, and other CTE initiatives. NCPN assists its members in planning, implementing, evaluating, and improving workforce education programs. NCPN was founded by CORD, a national nonprofit organization that has been leading change in education for over thirty years.

Questions?
Mark Whitney
254-772-8756 ext. 315
mwhitney@cord.org

Visit NCPN on the web atwww.ncpn.info. 

Christina Elmore wrote about art teacher and cartoonist Daniel Bryant in "Boys of Valor," published in Your Lowcountry on March 19, 2012. 

Read more about Cartoonist Daniel Bryant's transformative work in STEM+ARTS. 

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Boys of Valor and Karate Dawgs

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In the sleepy hills of Glendale, California, near the Los Angeles Zoo, a pioneering high school founded in 1998 is challenging everything we know and accept about the American high school experience: Clark STEM Magnet High School, home of the Panthers. At Clark, students make movies, build robots, conduct chemistry experiments, and do all of the things anyone would expect in a STEM Magnet School-with one exception-the emphasis on STEM is met with balanced emphasis on arts, humanities, careers, health/physical education and an emphasis on character development.

"Constructionism-the N word as opposed to the V word- shares contructivism's view of learning as "building knowledge structures"through progressive internalization of actions... It then adds the idea that this happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity, whether it's a sand castle on the beach or a theory of the universe ( Papert, 1991, p.1 in Ackermann, n.d.)

The culture of innovation is a reflection of the school's participatory leadership style. At Clark, every stakeholder in the school is involved in the design, execution, and sustainability of the school, its story, and its future. Clark is about innovation at its core. Clark is recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School (2006), California Distinguished School (2005 and 2009), and has received a California Exemplary Career Technical Education Program Award (2005), and a California Title I Academic Achievement Award (2010, 2009, 2008).

Clark serves an ethnically diverse population of students, offering programs at the same cost per pupil as other district schools, plus some additional funding from grants. About one-half of the school's students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Eighty-five percent of the school's population speaks a language other than English at home, primarily Armenian, Korean, or Spanish.

An urgent statement for success was created and is sustained by Doug Dall's instructional leadership team in collaboration with the staff. Of celebrating achievement and areas of needs simultaneously Dall quips, "If you don't acknowledge what needs improvement, it's hard to fix. 

Dall always reminds me of the school's urgent statement: "Did you know?  While Clark Magnet High School is a nationally recognized Blue Ribbon School, 14.3% of our students are not yet proficient in language arts and 46% are not yet proficient in math.  Together we will meet this challenge and 'Make it Happen.'" 

A senior class project is required for every student and is a big part of the way Clark maintains a conversation with the community. If expensive tools are not available, the students will grab a card board box and cut it into a prototype. It's an "Apollo duct tape" culture that schools can learn from. Like the arts, innovation only requires an empty room, and able bodies and minds willing to go there.

The mission of Clark Magnet High School is to provide ethnically diverse students with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in a highly competitive technological world. Clark graduates will posses the knowledge and skills necessary to pursue their academic and career goals, to compete successfully in the world market, and to be creative, critical, analytical, lifelong learners.

Hot off the press -  ³Riptides² are one of sixteen winning teams in the Air/Climate competition of the Lexus Eco Challenge.






















Clark Environmental Sciences Teams won the Lexus Eco Challenge in

Clark senior projects are a fundamental part of the schools culture and student motivation. The school is designed around principles of "particapatory design" giving rise to all voices on campus and in the community effectively unifyiing the school and broader community participation in school and vice a versa. 

Clark's culture and community participation and school leadership are fostered by shifting leadership for governance and setting guidelines for community principles, values and behaviors to the student body. This is effected by the Anderson W. Clark Magnet High School Student Body Constitution and student organized clubs. In other words, Clark is constituted from both the bottom up by students and the top down through mentorship from faculty, staff and community. The school is a model of participatory design and its role and value in creating cultures of transformation and innovation.

Thirty-six students in Kelly Brinker's photography class attend the L.A. Auto Show where they learned about American-made products and had the chance to do some up close photography. Dec. 2012, Read More. 

Morning Star Teaser Trailer (1080p)

Morning Star Documentary - Episode 1

Muse - Unsustainable [Official Video]

Conclusion - What's Next?

Clark's next goal is to be the first high school to launch a functioning satellite into orbit in the University Nano Sat Program affiliated with the U.S. Air Force Academy. Clark students and educational programs represent a qualitative transformation in what we consider a well-rounded student in the year 2013-a shift from intervention to innovation in school practice and culture. 

Jim Brazell and Doug Dall will tell Clark's story to an audience of the National School Board Association in San Diego, Sunday, April 14, 2013. The program title is: Mainstreaming STEM+ARTS - The STEAM Movement in U.S. Schools.

Nationally, thought leaders are suggesting a shift from STEM to STEAM (adding the Arts to the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math focus). Hear from Jim Brazell, one of the leading proponents of this educational strategy and then get a deeper look at Clark Magnet School, a model STEM+ARTS high school. Learn about project-based STEM plus Arts instructional themes and improving achievement and access to the core curriculum for ALL students, especially second language and Title I students. Conference registrations are on track to attract more than 5,000 school board members and superintendents from around the country.

To learn more about Clark or to arrange a site visit, contact Principal Doug Dall, ddall@gusd.net.

Image courtesy of NCPN and SparkFun.com

Jim Brazell explores the role of cyber (networks, computers, software, and intelligent actuators) in U.S. education, workforce, and economic development. Topics include (1) defining science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; (2) the structure of technology in the 21st century; and (3) emerging P-20 education practice with an emphasis of Dr. George Kozmetsky's innovation and "transdiscipline". A speech 10 years in the making, illustrative of keen insight as a technology forecaster, Brazell delivers solid analysis about what is next in living, working, playing, and learning in Robot World. 

Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center - Grapevine, Texas

Did you know?

• The first US Astronaut to walk in space is from the Alamo city and one of the top ten patents of all time, the Palmaz-Schatz Heart Stent, flows from the city's biotech/health industry.
• San Antonio's metropolitan area is home to 14 colleges and universities and approximately 118,000 college students and a burgeoning youth population.
• San Antonio's Datapoint (CTC) Patent #224,415, filed November 27, 1970 is the world's first Personal Computer (PC). The company is also responsible for key technology underlying network computer configurations at the heart of the Internet and even industrial infrastructure such as water and electricity networks.
• In 1948, one year after the formation of the US Air Force, Harry Armstrong organized a panel in the city to explore the aeromedical implications of space flight and the city became home to communications electronics security--today cyber security.
• At age 37, Julián Castro is the youngest mayor of the country's 50 most populous cities.
• For over 11,000 years Native American hunter-gatherers utilized the lush and varied ecosystems of San Antonio's Olmos Creek basin, the fresh water springs, and rivers leaving evidence of tools and technology here for millennia

Fort Sam Houston is the birthplace of military aviation (1910) and home to the US Army Medical Department and San Antonio's new San Antonio Military Medical Center. Lackland Air Force Base is the home of Security Hill and Air Force cyber. Randolph AFB is home to US pilot instructor training and combat systems officer training. Camp Bullis, in the hill country, is where mission support and training readiness begin for medics in the field. The Alamo city is a nexus for first responders--medical, cyber, biological and air transport. The city's history of military medicine, space, aviation, cyber and scientific research and development, create a mature foundation for both capital- and knowledge-based economic growth in commercial and government sectors.

 

Global financial capital is present in the form of Fortune 500 companies; human and intellectual capital are present in the city's R&D apparatus across commercial, military, non-profit and university sectors; Startech is organizing entrepreneurs, university IP and institutional investors; and Dr. Randy Goldsmith of Texas Technology Development Center and York Duncan from Texas Research Park are organizing private and institutional investors. San Antonio has all of the ingredients of a global technopolis--a high technology regional economy.

 

In 2012, people, capital and information flow among the Central Texas Technopolis within easy driving distance by automobile (~3.0 hours). It was in the 1980's and it is today an interaction in the greater San Antonio-College Station-Austin-Copperas Cove-Waco research triangle that gives rise to the innovation economy of Central Texas. Today, the Central Texas Research Triangle is once again on the move. This time, the focus is broader than computer hardware and software and includes regional innovation focused on the intersection of nano technology, bio technology, cyber and copy-right-based digital arts.

 

Central Texas Research Triangle, Unpublished work from Digital Convergence Initiative (Brazell, 2005)

Central TX Research Triangle