| Oak View MS technology education program tops others in the state |
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| Wednesday, 07 October 2009 | ||
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Staff writer What Oak View Middle School students do in their technology education classes is a far cry from the shop classes many of their parents took at their age. Today’s middle school students at Oak View are working with power tools, but they are also getting their hands on computers so they can design robots, express their
The school’s technology education program is now considered the top middle school program in the state. Oak View Middle School technology education teachers Herb Reiersen and Paul Keeney learned Sept. 25 that their classrooms were receiving the Middle School Program of Excellence Award from the Minnesota Technology Education Association (MTEA). The program will be one of 20 honored nationally at a national conference in March 2010. Hands-on creativity Oak View’s technology education classes have a framework, but the students are encouraged to unleash their talent and creativity in the classroom rather than just following specific directions on how to complete a project. For example, every student must make a wall clock, but the theme varies. One student may want to highlight their athletic hero while another may want to capture nature in their artwork. All students must complete a video project. One of Reiersen’s students showed his love for his grandfather after he passed away by creating a video that was played at the funeral. The student’s grandmother called Reiersen to thank him for encouraging her grandson to make the video and said there was not a dry eye in the room. Many family members wanted to order extra copies. The labels next to the room numbers may say technology education, but Keeney and Reiersen think that what they offer is engineering for seventh- and eighth-graders. The lessons that Keeney and Reiersen teach require application of math and science curriculum they have already learned. Reiersen said they give students a reason to like these subjects by letting them be creative and hands-on and for some students, a light bulb goes off in their heads and they conclude they really enjoy what they are doing. “I like the fact that when they’re doing a project, they don’t think of it as school,” Keeney said. “They think of, ‘I’m making something. I’m doing something fun,’ and for me it’s almost like I’m tricking them into doing math and all these other things that are required to do the project, but they don’t think of it like that. That’s the way the real world works.” Asking students to apply what they learn in other classrooms and not just answer questions on a test is Keeney and Reiersen’s mission. Reiersen said he and Keeney try to convey to the kids that they want them to think to gain confidence in their decision-making and problem solving. “I always tell them, you’re going to be the leaders in the community and some of you people are going to be running businesses, you’re going to be hired and put into positions where you have to make decisions and it all starts with little decisions,” Reiersen said. “We do a lot of design work where they have to think and gain confidence in their decision-making.” Keeney and Reiersen can point to their own backgrounds to show students how they can apply what they learn in their class to the real world. Before becoming a teacher a dozen years ago, Keeney was a cabinet designer and a remodeling contractor. Coincidently, he built the cabinets in one of the Oak View Middle School technology education rooms when the school was being built and many years before he would become a teacher there. Reiersen is in his 21st year of being a teacher, but he took an 11-year break in the middle of this time to focus on his personal business of designing children’s toys. What drew Reiersen back to teaching was the excitement that students show in class while creating a project. He sometimes hears from students that they want to be engineers when they grow up because they have so much fun in his and Keeney’s classes. For some students, the lessons do not end when the last bell rings. Throughout the year some students stayed late to work on projects such as the Supermileage car or LEGO robots that Keeney supervises and some have done wood working projects with Reiersen. Keeney finalist for teaching award For the third time in four years, Keeney is a finalist for a Minnesota Tekne Innovation in Teaching Award, given annually by the Minnesota High Tech Association to an industrial technology teacher who excels at integrating technology in the classroom. Keeney and the other two finalists will find out who wins the award at an Oct. 22 Tekne banquet at the Minneapolis Convention Center. According to Keeney, he has coached over 30 LEGO League robotics teams during the past nine years. He was selected to represent Minnesota at an international symposium in Washington, D.C., titled “Robotics in Education” and he was also selected to pilot robotics curriculum at Oak View three years ago that focused on integrating math and science principals into LEGO robotics building. Students in Keeney’s design and manufacturing elective were able to learn about basic engineering and programming skills through a computer-based video instruction. The students then had to apply what they learned by completing a number of challenges. Keeney said students are very savvy when it comes to technology and integrating this into the classroom on a fun project is an effective form of learning. He started a blog to allow students to anonymously send him feedback on what direction they wanted their learning to go. “I found that the students were eager to come to class, ready to dive into their new experiments, and excited to see how well their robot did every time they were given a challenge to solve,” Keeney said. Eric Hagen is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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