BOCA RATON, Fla. — Classroom algebra lessons are making a big splash by opening young people’s eyes to a lifetime of possibilities. This is what kindergarten through 12th grade students do every day at Florida Atlantic University’s Alexander D. Henderson Collegiate School.
WPTV watched Preston Hoover and his friends fly drones in the learning lab. He said the practical experience reinforces the value of what is being learned in class.
“Science is going to be useful for a lot of things,” Preston said, “like writing code to make a drone do something.”
The school’s Superintendent Joel Herbst said the Learning Lab will be beneficial to students.
“This is a different approach to educating students and allows science and math to stick,” he said.
Science labs, flight simulator labs, and math classes put fun and opportunity within reach. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM subjects, are central to this public school’s mission.
“When I talk to people about math and science, I often say this: This country is in a Sputnik moment,” Herbst told WPTV.
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This is a competition for high ground that American students often lose. On a recent international math test, American students scored lower than students from 36 other countries. Other studies have shown that the majority of American high school students are not prepared to take her STEM courses in college.
“There is a crisis in this country related to math and science. I would go a little further and say that’s probably where we should be most focused on national security,” Herbst said. “All of the students in these schools today will be responsible for the jobs of the future, concepts such as computer programming, artificial intelligence, flight, piloting, and the rocket industry.”
Jobs can be taken, but only if an educated workforce can capture them. AD Henderson College administrators said students’ math and science scores are twice the state average.
“Our real mission is to serve as an experimental school to investigate different technologies and education and prove what works and what doesn’t,” Herbst said. [that] Across Florida and America.”
We are on a mission to secure the future of young minds and all those they look to lead the way.