Copperview Elementary, community partners unite for family STEM nights, field trips, classroom learning

Itwasn’t one family STEM night that Copperview Elementary hosted this spring—there were three.

Each of the STEM nights was tailored to students in certain grades, aligning the materials presented with the science core standards, said Jenna Landward, Copperview community school facilitator.

“We’ve been focusing on increasing student content knowledge and language acquisition through high-quality learning experiences linked to grade level core standards,” she said. “Each grade level is partnered with a community agency to provide experiential opportunities in and outside of the classroom.”

Many of those partner organizations presented material at the family STEM nights.

During the first- through third-grade STEM night, students could spin the wheel at the Red Butte Garden station with the help of the nonprofit’s school programs manager Sarah Sandoval. The spinner would land on a certain plant, then outreach coordinator Mary Hollyman helped students identify items made from that plant on table. Once they succeeded, students could choose a sticker, packet of seeds, temporary tattoo or a pass to the gardens.

“Plants are all around us and they’re a big part of our everyday lives; they’ve inspired a lot of human inventions and products that we consume,” she said. “It’s nice for students to make those connections and start noticing features and structures of plants that we have in our everyday lives.”

At the Tracy Aviary station, schools and outside school time program coordinator Erin Johnson and community programs coordinator Kylee Ehmann showed a pelican feather, a pelican replica skull and their breeding caruncle—the bump on their beak.

“We’re wanting people in the Salt Lake City area to learn about birds migrating in the wonderful watershed we live in,” Ehmann said. “We’re teaching students that we have the largest breeding colony of American white pelicans here on Gunnison Island in the Great Salt Lake; it’s about 20% of the global population. They’re learning that the Great Salt Lake supports 10 million birds that migrate through every year, so I hope they realize the Great Salt Lake is such an important resource.”

She also gave them tips to help birds, such as turning off their lights at night, so the birds don’t get confused during migration and putting decals on windows and sliding glass doors so birds see them and not fly into them.

Tracy Aviary is one of the partners that not only participated in a STEM night, but also will conduct an in-class teaching expe-

By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com

Evening Series

Season Tickets: $49 Adult, $45 Senior, $29 Child Amphitheater Parking: 495 East 5300 South Ticket Info: 801-264-2614 or www.murray.utah.gov

Amphitheater Parking: 495 East 5300 South

Ticket Information: 801-264-2614 or www.murray.utah.gov/1959/Tickets

May

May 26 The Alapa Family and the Kulturang Pilipino Ensemble of Utah

May 27 Aladdin, Movie Sing-Along

JUNE rience and invite them to the Aviary.

Other community partners include Discovery Gateway, Hogle Zoo, Red Butte Gardens, Clark Planetarium, Living Planet Aquarium and Natural History Museum of Utah.

During the STEM nights, students answered questions in a passport based on the activities in classrooms and the gym. Once completed, each student could go to the PTA booth to receive a new book; the books were donated by Glacier Hills Elementary.

PTA president Josie McClendon said many of the students were excited to learn about different animal environments as well to draw their dream habitat.

“It’s not only a good way the kids get a good, interactive way of learning the core curriculum material, they’re also getting to know their community and places in it,” she said.

Second-grader Maddy Esau attended the family STEM night with her brother, kindergartner Dallin and mom, Nicole. She was having fun with her friends and liked spinning the wheels to win prizes.

“I like to learn about things and do little science experiments,” Maddy said. “At school, we made little mountains of sand that stuck together, and we tested it with rain, wind and light. We were testing which one destroyed the land faster and which was the slowest. The wind was slower, and the flood was fastest.”

Assistant Principal Aimee Wagner said tying the community partners with class- room learning, family STEM nights and field trips helps reach the school goal to increase students’ academic vocabulary.

“It starts with their classroom instruction where teachers are taking one of our science standards and doing some very explicit instruction of the science standards and vocabulary,” she said. “Then, students go on a community partner field trip. We’ve also partnered with our Family Learning Center, so families have an opportunity to learn the same things that their students are learning and have that support and reinforcement of learning at home. Then anyone who attends a STEM night has a bonus where a parent and the student get a field trip to one of our community partners, so it all ties together.”

The field trips for a parent and child were paid out of Title I funds and directly ties into their curriculum standards, Landward said.

Wagner said they decided to focus on STEM to help Copperview’s 410 students grow more in the area as well as have handson engagement.

“We’re also able to increase students’ oral language and academic vocabulary at an early age, which will support them all the way through fifth grade. That vocabulary extends not only from science, but across all content areas,” she said. “Plus, we’re a very tight-knit community school and when we have events like this, families show up, participate, get to experience activities and learning together—and that’s awesome.” l

June 3 Murray Concert Band

June 9-10, Disney’s High School Musical 12, 15-17

June 24 Murray Symphony Pops

JULY

July 7-8, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella 10, 13-15

July 21 Peter Breinholt

July 28-29, Seussical the Musical 31, Aug 3-5

August

Aug 12 Thurl Bailey with Marvin Goldstein

Aug 18-19 A Celtic Summer’s Night

Aug 25 Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband

Aug 26 Jenny Oaks Baker & Family Four

September

Sept 1 4 HIMS

Sept 9 Trio Los Charros

This program has received funding support from residents of Salt Lake County, SL County Zoo, Arts & Parks (ZAP), Utah Division of Arts & Museums, Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement, Utah Humanities, and National Endowment for the Arts.

Using a spoon, riding a tricycle, exploring on the playground, even learning to do a somersault, may be typical traits for youngsters, but not for Klaus Sloan.

Like many of his peers, Klaus attends preschool four mornings per week. There are bright toys, a colorful rug and innovative games to play.

However, Klaus was born with numerous fragile, complex medical needs. He sits in his wheelchair with a bright purple neck support pillow as he is unable to hold his head up on his own. Klaus is nonverbal, but according to his teachers, he wants to communicate and express his thoughts the same as any 4-yearold.

Klaus attends Jordan Valley’s preschool, which helps 3- to 5-year-old students receive severe special education services. His class has about 80% of the students receiving special education services; the other 20% are peer models, said his teacher Rylee Barstow.

“It’s really awesome and a unique part of our programming in Canyons School District,” she said.

After his teacher and Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind’s outreach teacher of the visually impaired Madelyn Stafford tried several adaptions for Klaus, Stafford reached out to Debbie Inkley, the executive director of The Opportunity Foundation of America, to see if EagleEyes would be a possibility for Klaus.

EagleEyes is different than many communication devices since it doesn’t use eye tracking.

“These kids don’t have purposeful head movement; their heads go either right or left or down to their chin, so they’re unable to use their eyes to track,” Inkley said.

The Opportunity Foundation’s Director of Training Ron Williams, who was helping Klaus with his third 30-minute session, said the biggest difference between EagleEyes and other technologies is that there isn’t an infrared camera that may be disrupted when students flail and would need to be recalibrated to continue.

“EagleEyes captures it externally, so it really embraces their disability and allows them to do what they got to do,” he said. “It’s really forgiving if they’re a mover and a shaker, and other technology isn’t quite as sturdy.”

For the adaption to work, electrodes are placed above and below the student’s dominant eye and on both temples. They pick up the way the cornea and retina rotate in the eye socket and magnifies the electrical signal of the eye 10,000 times, converting it from the eye movement to a mouse cursor, Inkley said.

The result is when Klaus has the electrodes placed in position, the mouse cursor follows the location where Klaus is looking at the screen. This way, he can focus his eyes to a response—and he is able to communicate.

While EagleEyes is relatively new to