CRTC Happenings by: Director Steve Rothenberg

This summer I attended a training seminar by teacher Marty Sugerik of Wilmington, North Carolina. Marty’s specialty is project-based learning with a particular focus on CTE (Career and Technical Education). Marty shared some sample projects, top 10 PBL lists, and rubrics. These projects are exciting and demanding, pushing students to maximize their out-of-the-box thinking, while leveraging previous knowledge and experiences.

Students make particularly strong growth in core academics like math, literacy, and science when they are correctly integrated in CTE’s applied environment. The concept of a project that has “no single easy answer, meets our competencies, is “real”, and incorporates core academics -- is our ideal world. One challenge of this process is for our CTE teachers to become teachers of math, reading, and science, for example in the context of Cosmetology (biology - bacteria), Construction Tech (geometry - roofs), Criminal Justice (chemistry - forensics, U.S. History - criminal laws), Automotive Tech (algebra - wheels and tires, physics - hydraulics, Ohm’s Law) and more. Much work has been already done in this area at the CRTC and our students have gained because of it.

Oftentimes we get caught up in students only demonstrating a checklist of understandings and skills, and not fully engaging in an environment where they solve complex real-life problems. Basically we get stuck in a world of too many competencies and not enough time. Our center is working towards using more PBL strategies (tied to core academics) including dedicated time this spring to do a simultaneous implementation across all programs.