STEM Practicums: A New Program of The Bellows Institute

(The Bellows Institute hosted eighteen students of Patagonia Union High School and their math teacher, Gilbert Melanson, on a one-day Aerodynamics/Renewable Energy Practicum, which began at the Eloy, Arizona Skydiving Center, where, one-by-one, they entered a vertical wind tunnel, under the supervision of an instructor, to experience the aerodynamics of a simulated free-fall. Then, they traveled to the University of Arizona’s Aerodynamics Laboratory to meet Dr. Israel Wygnanski and members of his graduate student research team and be shown how aerodynamic theory connects to real-world applications and the technological innovations that are at the center of their work.)

The Bellows Institute is developing STEM Practicums, a new approach for re-centering science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) as a vital part of our next generation’s education.

Organization: STEM Practicums is a program of The Bellows Institute (“Bellows”), which, in turn, is a division of The Bellows Foundation, formed in 2004 as an Arizona Non-Profit Corporation and a 501(c) 3 Public Charity.

The Catastrophe of Arizona Education: The transparent deficiencies of Arizona education have been the subject of seemingly endless debate. And seemingly endless institutional gridlock has stymied urgently needed reform, as reflected in this list of particulars:

• 49th in the nation in state and local per capital spending on K-12 education.

• 43rd in the nation in percentage of high school graduates who go on to college.

• 35th in the nation in state and local per capita spending on higher education

• Less than half of Arizona’s public high school graduates qualify academically to enroll in public universities.

• For every 100 students in the ninth grade; 64 graduate from high school four years later; 18 enter a four-year college program within one year; only 9 complete their bachelor’s degree within six years.

Arizona education, by any measure of student learning outcomes and dropout rates, is in a state of catastrophe: a phenomenon that is inflicting great damage on our next generation, our economic future, our quality of life, our national security and the soul of the nation—our American Dream. And these conditions are glaringly exacerbated in Arizona by an irresponsible State Legislature that has consciously driven Arizona education to the bottom of the national rankings. Accordingly, we believe that Arizona is the ideal place to launch STEM Practicums because it has the unique capacity to gain national attention if it reverses this disastrous course that is, inexorably, leading Arizona to a third-world status.

First, we must motivate Arizona students to re-engage in their education. Next, we must reverse the Arizona student dropout rate. And we must decisively transform their learning environments to able them to master the competencies that will prepare them for creative, productive and responsible participation in our emerging global society and work environment. In other words, we see the potential of STEM Practicums to create a natural, evolutionary advance in Arizona education that could lead to a replication of success across the entire U.S. educational system.

The Mission: To provide Arizona junior high and high school students with a fresh perspective and new rationale for mastering competencies in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) needed to function in 21st century work environments. The building blocks include:

1. Creating a growing infrastructure to enable STEM Practicums to reach all junior high and high schools in Arizona. Cohorts of 12 students each are transported to practicum sites by van and equipment/supply trailers which extend the range of travel and provide self-sufficiency.

2. Immersing Arizona students and teachers in laboratories, centers and industrial facilities that clearly demonstrate the interplay and relevance of STEM in connecting the dots between academic theory, real-world applications, and technological innovations that make a difference in the world;

3. Immersing Arizona students and teachers in the organizational dynamics of STEM work environments through the use of Development Simulators;

4. Immersing Arizona science and math teachers in a retreat learning environment for revitalization, through a licensing arrangement with New Teacher Academy, an outreach professional development program sponsored by Teachers College of Columbia University; and

5. Offering students a Renewable Energy and Workforce Training Center, which calls for: (i) a solar and wind energy research, development and demonstration station to enable students to participate in solar and wind energy practicums; (ii) a solar equipment installation school; (iii) a welding school for advanced aerospace metals; (iv) an FAA-approved aviation repair and maintenance school with an A&P shop to service certain aircraft from Tucson International Airport under a potential agreement with the Tucson Airport Authority timed with its expansions needs. The wind energy component would involve collaboration with Dr. Israel Wygnanski, head of University of Arizona’s Aerodynamics Laboratory, where work on an advanced wind turbine is underway. (vi) Perfecting STEM Practicums student and teacher learning outcomes through research, evaluation and participation by an advisory board of high technology employers.

Creating a Collective Epiphany: Arizona junior high and high school students and teachers will experience a powerful epiphany when they understand the implications of connecting: (i) a good foundation in science, technology, engineering and math, and (ii) mastering 21st century competencies. The epiphany will be that they can make a real difference in their 21st century world—–that their personal creativity will be released, enabling them to bring about vital innovations to solve climate change, pandemics, resource depletion, food shortages, alternative energy needs, pollution and other dilemmas that threaten their sustainable future. This epiphany will move students to believe they can successfully pursue 21st century careers in advanced communications, aerospace, alternative energy, bioscience, and other leading technologies of the future. Furthermore, this epiphany will spread from the students to their parents, who are deeply troubled by the catastrophe of Arizona education. When parents experience the epiphany that their sons and daughters can make a real difference in the 21st century world by acquiring STEM competencies, the Arizona Legislature will also sense that epiphany. Legislators responsible for the disgraceful and dangerous condition of Arizona education will have to answer to energized and mobilized local constituencies that have experienced the epiphany.

Implementation: To provide this fresh perspective and rationale for acquiring 21st century workforce competencies, a form of complementary education must present itself from outside the existing structure of Arizona education. And it must be much more closely aligned with our next generation’s evolved thinking and learning processes than the traditional 17th century classroom model of American education, which was introduced to the American colonies with Harvard College in 1636 and the first taxpayer-funded public school in Dedham, Massachusetts in 1643. This complementary form of education is guided by new research in neuroscience, cognitive psychology and other related scientific fields that suggests our next generation has been socialized in a manner profoundly different from their parents and, accordingly, their thinking and learning processes may be remarkably different, as well. This complementary model of education has three components:

Practicum-based learning in STEM work environments: Bellows is underway with the operation of practicum-based learning environments that take students and teachers out of the traditional classroom and out of the organizational dynamics of traditional school settings to immerse them in STEM work environments where they can learn the connections between classroom theory, real-world applications, and technological innovations. The epiphany will come when students (and teachers) are immersed in highly interactive and integrative learning environments, where their specifically researched aspirations and concerns are taken into account in order to achieve closer alignment with their evolved thinking and learning processes. Our Aerodynamics/Renewable Energy Practicum brought 18 high school students and their math teacher to a vertical wind tunnel at a skydiving school to enter a free-fall simulator to become familiar with human aerodynamics.

Then they visited University of Arizona’s Aerodynamics Laboratory, headed by Dr. Israel Wygnanski, where aerodynamic theory was explained and connected to two aerodynamic applications and two resultant innovations: (i) an innovation that increased the lift of the V-22 Osprey aircraft by thirteen percent; and (ii) an innovation to improve the efficiency of wind turbines by eliminating the standard rotor atop a pylon and substituting a vertical axis design that loses less efficiency when the wind shifts. This STEM Practicum was met with keen interest by the students, their teacher, and parents. Bellows is approaching laboratories, centers and industrial facilities to be included in upcoming practicums, such as UA’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory; UA’s Biosphere 2; UA’s Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy; UA’s McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship; and UA’s National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade, for a diverse immersion in 21st century interactivity.

Development Simulators: All STEM Practicums will include role-play scenarios in a Development Simulator to immerse students (and teachers) in the organizational dynamics of STEM work environments. The role-play scenarios are designed to develop 21st century competencies to include deepening critical thinking, problem solving, ethical judgment, creative collaboration, leadership skills, multi-tasking skills and developing a personal worldview. The overarching objective of the scenarios is to prepare students and teachers for creative, productive and responsible participation in our emerging global society and work environment. These learning outcomes will emerge from role-play scenarios that immerse students (and teachers) in highly interactive and integrative learning environments in which their specifically researched aspirations and concerns are taken into account in order to achieve closer alignment with their evolved thinking and learning processes. The scenarios involve teams of five students (or teachers) at a time. Before entering the Simulator, each team will be presented with an actual case history in the story-telling tradition and given an assigned group task to accomplish within the four-hour duration of the role-play scenario. Instructors will surround the team in the Simulator to play the role of characters who heavily influence the organizational dynamics of the scenario. Each scenario will replicate a STEM work environment and immerse the teams in the practical application of STEM subjects. For example, the Aerodynamic/Alternative Energy Practicum includes a four-hour role-play scenario about the organizational dynamics of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, with a focus on the Apollo 13 rescue.

 

Apollo 13 experienced an explosion in its Service Module that reduced its fuel, oxygen, battery power and water to such a low level that a safe return to Earth was in serious question. The Apollo 13 mission to land on the Moon turned into a desperate race to improvise unpracticed procedures and to push the teamwork between the flight controllers at Houston Mission Control and the Apollo crew to unprecedented levels.

 

 

Student teams in this role-play scenario are pressed to the limit to exercise critical thinking, problem solving and collaborative creativity as they cope with multiple crises and many science, technology, engineering and math components that touch on communication, navigation, extraordinary resource allocation, trial and error simulations, flight dynamics, propulsion, controls and telemetry. The Apollo 13 rescue was the paradigm case of organization dynamics stretched to its limits, from which students can learn and internalize principles of leadership and collaborative creativity, as well as acquiring an appreciation of the flight controllers’ unshakable determination to save the Apollo 13 crew against all odds.

Advisors assisting in the development of the role-play scenario of the Aerodynamics/Alternative Practicum include Raytheon Vice President Don McMonagle, who is a former astronaut; Dr. Israel Wygnanski of the UA’s Aerodynamics Lab; and Keith Lyon, former head of the Delta Airlines Flight Simulator Center.

New Teacher Academy: Given the importance of energizing Arizona science and math teachers, Bellows has become a licensee of the New Teacher Academy sponsored by Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Since 1998, New Teacher Academy has provided a professional development outreach program to help school districts across the U.S. improve the retention rates of new teachers—while simultaneously developing new leaders. The program is focused on reversing the national statistic that 50% of all teachers leave the field within five years of service. Bellows has facilities and land in Patagonia, Arizona to build an educational retreat for Arizona science and math teachers who seek revitalization. These teachers will also benefit from immersion in the STEM Practicums.

 

4. Creation of Renewable Energy and Workforce Training Center Founders and advisors of The Bellows Institute are planning the creation of a Renewable Energy and Workforce Training Center on land adjacent to the Nogales International Airport.

 

The Nogales International Airport is 10 miles south of Patagonia, Arizona and 8 miles north of Nogales, Arizona. The Airport has a 7,200-foot runway that can accommodate 737 jet aircraft. A ranching family owns 2,000 acres of commercially-zoned land adjacent to the Airport (top portion of aerial photo above).

 

The site location for the Renewable Energy and Workforce Training Center is within the 2,000 acre tract adjacent to the Nogales International Airport, on 10 acres of developed land containing an 1,500 metal building that is fully equipped for initial classroom and work space.

 

Members of the planning group for the Center (left to right): Stephen Hathaway, officer with Homeland Security; Paul Proffitt, instructor in welding of advanced aerospace metals; Robert Elliott, Vice President of Raytheon Company, acting in his private capacity; Steve Boyle, President of The Bellows Foundation and The Bellows Institute; and Paul Hathaway, co-owner of the 2,000 acres of commercially-zoned land adjacent to the Airport.

 

Members of the planning group for the Center, visiting Tucson International Airport, hosted by James Garcia, Vice President of Development of the Tucson Airport Authority (left to right): Paul Proffitt; Randy Denning and Joel Kramer of the Nogales School District; Stephen Hathaway, Paul Hathaway, Ernesto Portillo, Sr., board advisor; and Robert Hathaway, co-owner of the 2,000-acre commercially-zoned land adjacent to the Nogales International Airport.

 

The planning members of the Center visited the Pima Community College Aviation Technology Center.

 

 

Members of the planning group met with executives of Bombardier, Southwest Airlines and the maintenance and repair facility at the Tucson International Airport to discuss workforce needs in aviation technology fields and training requirements.

 

James Garcia, Vice President of Development of the Tucson Airport Authority (right) with Ernesto Portillo, Sr. (center) and Paul Hathaway, members of the planning group. The Renewable Energy and Workplace Training Center plan calls for: (i) a solar and wind energy research, development and demonstration station to enable students to participate in solar and wind energy practicums; (ii) a solar equipment installation school; (iii) a welding school for advanced aerospace metals; (iv) an FAA-approved aviation repair and maintenance school with an A&P shop to service certainaircraft from Tucson International Airport under a potential agreement with the Tucson Airport Authority timed with its expansions needs. The wind energy component would involve collaboration with Dr. Israel Wygnanski, head of University of Arizona’s Aerodynamics Laboratory, where work on an advanced wind turbine is underway. Other members of the planning group include: Don McMonagle and John Waszczak, Vice Presidents of Raytheon Company, acting in their private capacities and Scott Collins of Pima Community College.

Conclusion: STEM Practicums has a highly focused purpose of transforming science, technology, engineering and math from its problematic image in the minds of many students to a much more friendly and highly relevant perception from which they are better served to make sound decisions about their future life-pursuits. But STEM Practicums also has a broader purpose: to wean American education off of its heretofore untouchable 17th century classroom model of education by blending it with connected practicums that become so routine that, within ten years, 30 to 40 percent of the student body of every educational institution will be off school grounds and complementing their education in challenging real-world learning environments. That, we believe, is the natural, evolutionary advance of American education that will rekindle student engagement in their studies, reverse the student dropout rate, and release the pent-up creativity of our next generation that we so badly need to safeguard our sustainable future.