.jpg)
Three … two .. one .. blast off!
From under their hardhats, Lylburn Downing Middle School students gaze in awe as their handcrafted rockets shoot into the blue sky. Students cheer and clap as they watch the vessels slowly float back down to the ground at Jordans Point Park in well-designed parachute deployments. LDMS teacher Spencer Golladay congratulates his design and build students after a nine-week class of hard work with the day’s rocket launches being the pinnacle of their learning.
Creating rockets in design and build class is just one of the many elective opportunities offered to the seventhand eighth-graders of LDMS. In previous years students were limited to art, band, media and a language – Latin or Spanish. Now, students have a variety of elective courses to choose from – art using upcycling and recycling, ceramics, coding, computer applications, cooking, design and build, digital media, keyboarding, music exploratory, wood carving, writing, yoga and mindfulness, and/or yearbook collaboration.
The initiative to offer students a more diverse selection of electives began four years ago when Abbott Keesee embraced his position as the middle school’s new principal. He felt the need to provide classes that could spark the minds and cater to the interests of each individual student, Keesee told The News-Gazette in an interview.
“All of [the electives] are popular because they’re going to inspire different kids,” he said. Keesee mentioned that the rest of the LDMS staff seized this opportunity to teach topics they wouldn’t normally be able to teach as all of the elective instructors also teach regular, core classes. For instance, LDMS band director Karen Doyle takes to the school’s new workshop kitchen to teach students the basics of cooking, or Golladay – who is usually an English teacher – guides students through building rockets and wood carving. “The teachers were excited to teach something fun and different,” Keesee said.
Each elective option alternates two out of the four nineweek quarters, so that all students have the chance to take their class of choice. The curriculum for some of the more technical classes such as cooking or woodworking requires significant lessons on safety procedures, the principal said.
For instance, Doyle demonstrates proper knife skills and kitchen appliance usage. The students’ kitchen resides in the former teacher lounge, which was transformed with the help of Spencer’s Home Center and Lowes, Keesee explained. While the new space is comfortable for a class of eight students, specific regulations and safety protocols are crucial to maintain student safety.
The teachers are enjoying new teaching techniques and students are excited to experience new learning opportunities. “Feedback from students is overwhelmingly positive,” Golladay told The News-Gazette following the rocket launch in late May. “They are genuinely excited seeing their protoype designs lift off the launchpad and streak skyward. Because each design is unique, the students are all curious about whether or not the model will actually fly the way they hope. Both the excitement and the uncertainty provide a powerful energy driving our classroom learning environment.”
He continued, “Students face challenges, anxiety, and failure along their path to success, all of which help model real world work experiences. As for feedback, many students share with me a sense of surprise that their model design functioned well, and many are curious about ways that they might accomplish future launches on their own. However, I most enjoy hearing students congratulate classmates on how stable a rocket flew or how nicely a parachute deployed.”
