Education for the Digital Era

ACADEMICS Education for the Digital Era

Mercy High School is constantly developing our academic program to meet the needs of today’s world. The transition to Distance Learning as a result of COVID-19 underscored the importance of digital fluency and adaptability for our students and our faculty. We were grateful to have piloted Distance Learning last fall in anticipation of a campus or county event with the goal of providing a rigorous, engaging academic experience through a digital platform.

Collaboration for STEM Advancement Research from the National Association of Girls Schools indicates a long-term advantage in comfort with STEM, with studies finding girls’ schools foster interest and confidence in underrepresented STEM subjects. Researchers found graduates are 6x more likely to consider STEM majors and 3x more likely to pursue engineering careers than peers that attended co-ed high schools. Knowing that this crucial field will only become more important in the future, we have taken steps to enhance our STEM curriculum that will give our students a foundation for success in the digital era.

In the fall, Mercy will debut a new course called Robotics, Engineering, and Design Thinking, team-taught by STEM faculty members. The course will introduce the engineering design process and students will have the opportunity to develop skills in design thinking, coding, research and analysis, teamwork, and communication methods. They will apply math, science, and engineering principles to handson robotics projects that will lead up to the FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Competition! Mercy Students Lead in Technology Adoption Mercy’s Student Technology & Innovation Team was invited to present at the Silicon Valley CUE conference this year! A long-standing organization, CUE (ComputerUsing Educators) had planned its Silicon Valley Regional breakout for March. Unfortunately, the conference was cancelled at the last minute due to COVID-19, but we are so proud of the presentation that Mercy’s Student Team and their moderator Lindsay Stewart developed.

Their topic, “Elevating Student Leadership Through Innovation Teams” used the program implemented at Mercy to provide instruction on how other schools can create student innovation teams. Our students would have been showcasing the projects they had accomplished throughout the year to a wide audience, from executives of EdTech companies, Google, and education software companies to principals, teachers, and librarians. We believe it is important to provide a platform for our students to promote their own experience in this adventure, and to present their own content. We are so proud of their creativity, and know that they will continue to use their voice and passion to advocate for improvements in any capacity in the future.

Education for the Digital Era

Government Senior Class Project The final project in Tom Wootten’s Senior Government class blended traditional and digital presentations with activism. His twopart assignment included a three-page research paper attached to a letter that students sent to a Congressperson or local Representative.

A still from Alicia Rodriguez-Majano’s ‘Gender Inequality: Divided Workforce’

Encouraged to choose a topic that they were particularly passionate about, many students selected subjects related to Mercy’s Critical Concerns.

They then condensed their research-supported argument into a video to be shared with the broader Mercy community. Students learned how to translate the traditional, written project into a more modern, media-friendly format capable of

Day of Code In honor of Computer Science Education Week, Mercy hosted our first Day of Code! Patricia Bradley and Sarah Murphy hosted middle school girls from all reaching a wider audience.

over the Peninsula in the Mercy Library to explore coding through fun and creative lessons. The girls were assisted and mentored by our current Mercy students, and some entered the codes that they created into a coding competition! The event was so successful at engaging students at all levels that they were interested in joining a Mercy “Girls Who Code Club”.

Faculty Op-Ed on Distance Learning

Our Distance Learning experience provided a unique opportunity for our faculty to explore how virtual learning impacts their relationships with students, and their ability to support students’ academic and emotional needs in a virtual setting. Here’s a sample of their reflections: While I have always worked toward, and prided myself in accepting each of my students as individuals, Distance Learning has given me a more profound appreciation of each girl. With Dis tance Learning has taught me valuable lessons. On Zoom, I’m able to pay attention to individual students in a new way. I’ve learned how to better interpret cues like facial expressions and body language and respond to “ “ them in new ways. Some girls focused well and that acceptance came the intentional seemed task-oriented, some seemed to thrive embracing of their little stumbling steps on managing their own time and schedule, but in their language acquisition. Their others appeared to shut down and need more challenges and how they reacted to personalized interaction. I recognized that so many valuable connections had been taken away and now was the time to pay special attention to the individual, knowing they are experiencing new challenges. —Louisa La Farge, Science Teacher “ them, gave me closer glimpses into their personalities. My imagination took flight to see what these wonderful students would be doing 10-20 years from now. I have been blessed by this experience because these young women have graced my path. —Mary Louise Castillo, Spanish Teacher “ THE OAKS SUMMER 2020 7