Summer learning is hands-on and fun for NNPS students
Posted: July 24, 2024
Designing and building rockets and rovers, reading in a tent and learning to fly drones are all part of the summer educational experience for Newport News Public Schools students in various summer programs.
As part of a wide array of summer programming, ELEVATE summer school and STEAM Camps are currently ongoing while a group of interns is gaining valuable experience working alongside NNPS professionals.
ELEVATE was held at numerous schools and the elementary and middle school programs culminated with Family Day events on July 23, while the final session at the high school level will end Aug. 1.
Attendance at ELEVATE has been very high. Each week classes with perfect attendance are recognized and students who had perfect attendance for the entire camp are entered into a drawing for baskets of books.
"New this year was the camp vibe for grades K-5, the camp experience we were trying to provide for students," said Shaundalyn Thomas, instructional supervisor for elementary English.
This included tents for reading and artificial campfires. Each day opened up with a morning campfire gathering where students did a social-emotional check-in, sang the Camp ELEVATE song, did a team building activity and set an objective for the day.
There were new instructional curriculum pieces in math and science, a continuing partnership with the Newport News Public Library for students to participate in its Summer Reading Challenge by reading 20 books, and students showcased their work in each content area and explained it to visitors during Family Day.
STEAM-Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math-Camps are taking place at Hines Middle School with 11 different camps for students in grades 3-10. They will showcase their work at the STEAM Camp Expo on Aug. 1 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
STEAM Camp topics include city planning and urban development, space exploration and the problem of space debris, artificial intelligence and robotics, aeronautics and automotive study, designing and building rockets and rovers, coding and building robots, flying drones and learning coding for automation, and story creation to build a character and integrate technology to act out the story.
The drone program is the newest and largest program for middle and high school students with four classes learning the highest level of technology, according to STEM Instructional Specialist Kevin Nelhuebel.
"STEAM Camps give students an opportunity to learn something new about robotics and blend robotics into real world problem solving," said Jennifer Barker, STEM instructional specialist. "It's heavily integrated with other core concepts and subject areas.
"Then we bring in a large number of community partnerships. Students are able to go on many field trips and we have a lot of educational outreach that comes into the building and enhances the program that they're in."
Community partners include Virginia Air & Space Science Center, Brooks Crossing Innovation Lab, Virginia Spaceport Authority and Jefferson Lab.
Pre-service teachers who are graduate and undergraduate students at William & Mary are helping to teach all content areas. NNPS STEAM Camps, in collaboration with W&M, were recognized as a 2023 "Program that Works" by the Virginia Mathematics and Science Coalition.
History lessons are displayed throughout the hallways during camp days at Hines. Classrooms are filled with items students have built and tested, with pages all over the walls containing all of the data they have collected from testing their projects.
Students engage in team building challenges daily and all of the camps are deeply embedded in vocabulary because students are learning so many new words.
Stringing for Success summer enrichment music camp at Hines is a partnership between host organization Stringing for Success, EduStar Performing Arts Society and NNPS. Rising sixth and seventh graders are learning the fundamentals of playing a string instrument, reading music and performing together.
Throughout NNPS, a total of 39 students from each of the city's high schools are working internships in 13 different departments.
Their work ranges from assisting to support Camp ELEVATE and the Summer Institute for the Arts, helping with curriculum overhaul in math and social studies, uploading resources for the world language department, helping to register English as a Second Language students, supporting STEAM Camps and helping with coding, testing programs that will be used across the school division, implementing technology refurbishment across the school division, driver's education and marketing.
"They are a huge help," said Adriane Graham, career and technical education work-based learning specialist. "All of the supervisors have had wonderful things to say about the fresh perspectives they get from working with the student interns. They are able to test things on them and it's helpful to have the student voice.
"They have helped staff to do some things they can't usually get to. We have students who are doing wonderful things."
