Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Building To Teach Update

It’s well past the New Year, and I thought I’d give you an update on Building to Teach.

As you know, almost a year ago Kent Barnekov took over as Executive Director of the Alexandria seaport Foundation so I could concentrate on developing Building To Teach. Up to that point, the Seaport Foundation staff had compiled and distilled some of our teaching materials- we’d even trained several other organizations- but the program just wasn’t moving forward fast enough.

Our big break came in August, when we were told that the Office of Naval Research (ONR) had funded our proposal to develop our materials, put them on the web and start training other boat building organizations in how to teach math while building boats. ONR is trying to develop a future workforce with skills in science, technology, engineering and math. What better way than having kids build their own boats? While working on a project, they learn that math is a useful tool and hopefully they learn to really like boats. Special thanks go to Dr. Kam Ng, our ONR program officer, for his belief in our work.

The purpose of the ONR grant is to, over three years, train fifty non-profit organizations across the country to teach basic math and engineering skills to 4500 underserved youth in grades 4 – 12 through boatbuilding oriented, project based lessons that align with math and science Common Core State Standards, as well as Career and Technical Education (CTE) skills and competencies. Volunteers from Navy related Agencies and Industries will also be engaged and trained to serve as on-line tutors and career mentors. Training for the organizations and volunteers will be provided both on line and in person.

The project is funded by ONR for its first year. By July, the on-line training materials will be up and running, twenty organizations will be trained and volunteer training will be underway.

Work started in earnest in August. The first milestones involved refining our existing teaching materials, developing new materials, as needed, building the web based distribution tools and starting to get word out. Here are some of the results...

Two Step Training Certification
Based on feedback from interested organizations, time has been spent refining the training model. There will be two levels of certification. The first is on-line and will be available to interested organizations. The second level of certification is “in person.” This will be available to organizations who qualify for support under the ONR grant and have completed the on line training.

Public Website- http://www.buildingtoteach.com/
The online face of Building to Teach is a “Public” website. This website was launched in December and is still being refined. The on-line training will happen on password protected “Builders Sites.”  The concept and flow for the websites and their related technology is being worked out and reviewed by a committee consisting of David Welsh (Arlington Career Center), Heather Rosato (Yuma Productions), Erik Kimel (Peer2Peer Tutoring) and Walter Rissmeyer (Blueland Media,) Heather Rosato has been doing a wonderful job synthesizing the materials and making them coherent and good looking. Jack Mandel (Jack Mandel Design) also designed a very nice logo.

Building a Skiff to Teach Math, Getting Started in WoodenBoats, Vol. 32- WoodenBoat Magazine, January/ February 2012- http://www.woodenboat.com/wbmag/index.html
A seven page introduction on how to teach math while building a simple boat, this article is the public “kick off” of Building To Teach. WoodenBoat Magazine is read by almost all of the groups who will be interested in participating in the ONR grant. The magazine is just now  (1/3/2012) reaching readers, and interested groups are already getting in touch. Special thanks go to Bob Grove for doing the beautiful illustrations.

Reactivation of TWSB Alliance- http://www.teachingwithsmallboats.org/
This group represents the organizations that attended our Teaching With Small Boats Conference in March 2010. The 63 attending programs serve approximately 27,000 students a year. The groups who are trained under the ONR grant will largely be a subset of this group.
The next conference has been scheduled for April 27, 28 and 29th. It will be hosted by the Center For Wooden Boats at their at Cama Beach (Washington State) facility.
Regular Steering Committee conference calls to arrange next conference and develop organizational planning and governance documents.

The first Building to Teach training is scheduled for April 30, May 1st and 2nd as a follow on to the conference. It will also be held at Cama Beach facility.

Museum Small Craft Association Conference
Many of the groups from the TWSB Alliance attended the Museum Small Craft Association annual meeting in Maine this past October. Attending the conference hosted by the Maine Maritime Museum and The Penobscott Bay Maritime Museum was very valuable for lining up potential training organizations, learning about other groups activities and spreading the word about Building To Teach.

Building To Teach Math Cross Reference Chart-
This multi-page spreadsheet summarizes the skills that can be taught with Building To Teach materials. It links the national common core standards, hands on math exercises and projects with track-able math competencies from the 4th grade through Algebra and Geometry. Special thanks go to our summer interns Josh Cohen and Will Mendez for helping to put this together.

Bevin’s Skiff Math Instructors’ Guide
The Bevin’s Skiff lesson plans have been revised into a step by step instructors guide for math instructors to use while building the boat. Currently at about 70 pages, the Instructors’ Guide has been reviewed by teachers familiar with teaching through boat building. These folks include longtime teachers and ASF volunteers Robin Muir and Penny Holland, as well as Matt Cupples, the Career and Technical Education teacher at Hammond Middle School (Alexandria, VA) Their comments are now being incorporated into the document.

Bevin’s Skiff Math Instructors’ Videos
A key component of the on line training will be videos presented on a web channel. We’ve filmed approximately 40 videos that complement the Bevin’s Skiff Math Instructors’ Guide. This work was done in the studio of the Arlington Career Center with the assistance of their instructors, students and interns. The pieces are currently being edited. Once finished, they will populate a web TV training channel being developed by Dave Gardy at TV Worldwide. After registering, potential instructors and volunteers will be able to view B2T videos and exercises. In order to receive certification (and the resulting permission to use the materials), they will need to complete on line assessments that monitor their progress through the materials.

How to Teach Hands On Math videos
These videos, also shot at the Arlington Career Center, cover our Elements of Instruction and Fundamentals of Math. They are also being edited now and will also be incorporated into the web training channel.

Industry Outreach
A major goal of Building To Teach is to engage volunteers from industry as on-line tutors and career mentors. We will be doing this recruitment primarily through their employers. Ken Lopez at Animators at Law has been developing PowerPoint presentations for both potential Industry and Training Organization partners

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters
As many of you know, I helped write the Carpenters’ Union math book and training materials- Math For The Trades. (This book was released in the spring and is already in its second printing.) The International Training Center has generously offered to support partnerships between their 250 local training centers and any groups using Building To Teach materials. This not only builds a potentially powerful local partnership, it makes all the Union’s math training materials available to Building To Teach organizations.

Upcoming Work
In January and February we’ll be working towards a March launch of the web based training. There’s a lot of work to be done on the Builders Sites and related web channels. We’ve designed Hands on Skill building projects that can be used to familiarize volunteers and instructors with the building process without having to build a full boat. We need to build the prototypes and accompanying instructional materials. We’ll continue developing the materials for the in person trainings and recruiting groups for those trainings. We’re also going to continue recruiting volunteers through our outreach to related industry and agencies.

So, if you haven’t seen much of me, this is what I’ve been doing. It wouldn’t be happening without the help of a lot of people- some I’ve mentioned, others I’ve missed. Their enthusiasm for the project is the best indication we’re on the track.

Thanks for the help. I’ll keep you posted.