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Schools

Tech Grant to Help SSF Kids

Educators say students are losing the ability to think inventively -- a serious handicap in a technology-driven age.

Once the hallmark of American education, inventive thinking is disappearing from the learning landscape, researchers say.

With the aim of restoring its vitality, a $100,000 county grant will help sow the seeds of creative thinking in the sciences and math in three South San Francisco elementary schools – Spruce, Los Cerritos and Martin -- and elsewhere in the county.

The grant is called STEM -- science, technology, engineering and math – and it’s the result of a partnership between the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and Workforce Development Services. It will enable educators to involve 700 students in workshops and in after-school programs overseen by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

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The grant will enable 120 kids in one under-performing school to get comfortable with science by conducting microbe and plant experiments.

“What is as important (as the experiments) is the conversations we have after the experiments,” in which kids analyze what they've done and how the lessons could be harnessed, said Ana Linder, manager of Community Learning Center. “Staff will learn how to lead those conversations.”

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Budget cuts have forced schools to do without resource teachers, who augment traditional learning with activities and experiments, Linder said.

In addition, critics say the value of creative thinking has been lost in the frenzy over standardized testing.

Rote learning is a critical component of learning but only half of a student's academic maturity, said county superintendent of schools Anne Campbell.

“Having been in this field for 35 years, I’ve seen the pendulum swing way back and forth, going overboard in both directions,” she said.  “What I don’t understand is why we haven’t ended up with a balanced approach.”

A study by Silicon Valley’s four Workforce Investment Boards, say technology companies require a vibrant local workforce to expand and compete.

The study, “Silicon Valley in Transition,” urges schools to engage students in experience learning beginning in the earliest grades.

“What saddens me is that this country has made so many advances in so many areas and in education, we are still so torn,” said Ana Linder, manager of the Community Learning Center. “People are looking for quick solutions."

STEM is particularly important in San Mateo County, "world renown for its technology and knowledge-driven industries," said Supervisor Carole Groom, co-chair of the Math and Science Workgroup.

Elsewhere in the county:

  • Daly City middle school students will team up with SFSU college students on robotics and science projects.
  • Youth served by the Parks and Recreation programs of San Carlos, Half Moon Bay, and Pacifica will learn to program computers and use high-tech tools to analyze earth’s environmental and ecological communities.

If CEOs identify creativity as the most important trait for a leader, the worth of divergent thinking extends far beyond economic success and into political, health and environmental arenas, says Bay Area writer Po Bronson, cited by the STEM crafters.

“The age-old belief that the arts have a special claim to creativity is unfounded,” the essay says.

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