MSE students and families rotated through dozens of hands-on activities and experienced the wonders of the Night Sky inside a mobile planetarium at MSE’s STEM Night January 21^st.    The engaging activities were created to inspire and grow interest in science, technology, engineering, and math. Each activity  exposed the students to basic scientific and mathematical principles, and reminded us all how much fun learning can be! We are especially thankful to community members, Paxton School,  Walton Middle School, Walton High School, and the STEAM school for contributing to  our successful event!

Walton High School’s Culinary 1 students recently received hands-on experience with our Food Service Director, Robert Martin, in the Walton High School cafeteria and kitchen. Receiving goods and determining if anything needs to be rejected are important skills in the food service industry. Mr. Martin provided students with an invoice and products to examine, while Culinary Arts teacher Ms. Spice took students to check on the temperatures in the walk-in cooler and freezer as well as the rotation of goods in the store room.

Mr. Stephen Byrd's instructional style proves that literacy matters in the career and technical subjects.  Students in Mr. Byrd's eighth grade ICT class recently learned to create simple web pages using HTML code by engaging in a paired programming activity.  In paired programming, one partner carefully reads aloud the task instructions for creating the web page, while the other partner listens and responds, creating the web page as they go.  In this hands-on lesson, students learn the importance of both reading carefully and listening closely, else their website creations will veer far off course.  At different points in the lesson, students switch roles so everyone gets to experience the reading, listening, and creating aspects of the assignment.  After this introductory lesson, students will delve into deeper detail about web design (colors, aesthetics, placement, alignment, proximity, etc.) throughout the unit, testing at the end to earn their industry certification in web design.  Mr. Byrd does an excellent job of building students' literacy and listening skills while equipping them with high-demand technology competencies.

Cover photo - A.J. Lardiere reads instructions for creating a web page, while Kyla Brown listens and follows along step-by-step.

Noah McKnight and Grace Bell practice paired programming.