Students lead the way with STEM at Grassroots School

Schools across the country are struggling with ways to incorporate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses into their curriculum. Public schools and private schools usually have the resources to provide their students with tools to compete in the 21st century job market. Meanwhile, schools with less funding struggle to keep up and their students may fall behind in developing more marketable skills .

Grassroots School operates on a very limited budget, but it also has the advantage of being a democratic school — that means students and families have ownership of the curriculum and the daily operation of the school. At the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, one student looked around the school’s computer lab and was dismayed by the out-of-date computers and lack of support for students who wanted to do anything meaningful with technology.

Since everything at the school is decided on by voting , the student — 15-year-old Omar Assadi — went to the first Family Meeting of the school year and voiced his concern to the parents and staff.

He suggested that they needed to make the lab a priority for several reasons — most of the computers had operating systems that were no longer supported by the manufacturers, the computers were too slow for students to do much more than play simple games , and the unrestricted use by younger students put the lab at risk for viruses and security issues.

“Everything in our lives revolves around technology and more things are going digital every day — from school work and job or college applications to the work we do and filing for taxes,” Assadi says. “Parents need to prepare their kids and give them the tools they are going to need in the real world. We are getting behind; other countries do everything online; Estonia does all its voting over the Internet.”

Assadi has attended the school since kindergarten. He started playing video games when he was around six, and got interested in how computers operate a couple of years later. He built his first computer with a neighbor’s help when he was 12.

Assadi offered to build a new lab for the school, if the families and school would help raise money for parts and pitch in on some of the labor.

Assadi went to work researching the best ways to put together a lab that would meet the school’s needs and remain under the proposed budget. One parent, Michael Hammock, presented the proposal at a Family Meeting in November and received approval to redo the lab.

Families gathered on the weekends to clean out and repaint the lab before assembling the machines.

In mid-December and again after the winter break, Hammock gathered interested students in the computer lab and showed them how computers work and enlisted their help with assembling some of the computers for the new lab.

“It was great,” Hammock says. “We went through and labeled all the parts; then, we did the same thing with the new computer to see what they remembered. Some of them got in there and tightened screws and put things together.”

Students wandered in and out of the lab to check on his progress as Hammock put a power supply in place and unpacked a cooling fan.

Charlotte, a 7-year-old student, helped him install a graphics card for a machine.

“Computers are cool!” she says as they connected the power supply and tested the machine.

Opened since 1972, Grassroots is one of Leon County’s oldest alternative schools . Students are encouraged to follow their passions and interests. Typically, the day’s class offerings are written on the board and students choose which, if any, of the classes they want to attend. Sample class offerings are Spanish, bicycle repair, gardening, creative writing, math games, newspaper, book making, and drumming.

Kerrie Sandefur teaches creative writing, math, and theater arts at the school. Her husband, Floyd Wharton, is a graduate of the school and their three children have all attended Grassroots. Her older children opted to finish high school at SAIL, even though Grassroots is licensed for K-12 education; her youngest child still attends Grassroots and is preparing for the transition to high school.

Sandefur says it can be hard for new parents to understand how learning occurs at the school. She explains that asking children what they learned each day isn’t always an effective way to measure their progress.

What she sees at school are children being excited about projects they are immersed in and collaboration between age and skill levels . Sandefur explains that older students often help the younger students in her classes.

“The other day Charlotte (7) came into the Creative Writing class and Shelby (11) helped her with her writing. It happens all the time — the little kids come in and say they want to write a story or something and the older kids help them. They do the same thing in math.”

Sandefur says families play a big part in shaping what goes on at the school. She says the current group of families has put a lot of energy into improving the school this year. In addition to the computer lab project, families and staff members Luis Ortiz and Kim Weinrich cleaned and painted the exterior of one of the buildings.

“The families this year are awesome!” Sandefur says with a laugh.

Upcoming Events at Grassroots

What: Spring Break Minecraft Camp

When: March 16-20, 2015

Where: 2458 Grassroots Way; 656-3629

Details: http://www.grassrootsschool.org/events/spring-break/