Local Schools

3D Projector Brings Lessons to Life
September 08th 2017 by Dee Loflin
3D Projector Brings Lessons to Life
Poplar Bluff, Missouri - Observing blood travel through a beating heart, dissecting a diamondback rattlesnake and assembling an automobile engine are all possibilities in a 3D learning environment that is being simulated for students through new technology.

A 3DAV rover, valued at over $14,000, was delivered this month to the Poplar Bluff Middle after a string of grants and donations were secured by the STEM department, which stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“If kids didn’t have to come to your classroom, would they?” This is a driving question STEM teacher Cody Young often asks himself. While it is difficult to take a student body of 1,200 on a field trip, he noted, virtual reality has made these experiences possible.

The rover is a portable 3D projector and theater system built inside a wheeled AV cart, according to the website of Vizitech USA, which was founded by a retired brigadier general for the U.S. Army before he expanded the business to education. The holoprojected images are transmitted into the classroom through active glasses students are supplied 

At the end of last school year, Young landed a 50/50 grant through the Georgia-based company’s nonprofit foundation, Tek4Teachers. His former colleague Keri Jameson, now an instructional coach at Junior High, also wrote a successful grant for $1,500 through the Poplar Bluff Public School Foundation. The remaining funds came from a business donation by Whitworth’s Gift Chest Jewelers, the Parent Teacher Organization, and individual solicitations collected by the Student Council.

“Mr. Young has done a great job in bringing together community and school to show the importance and value of what the rover can do and how it will benefit our students,” said Dr. Brad Owings, Middle School principal. “This piece of equipment, along with the software, allows students opportunities that they otherwise wouldn’t have.”

While the technology complements the 3D printer, Bloxel video game builders and Sphero robotic toys that are utilized to teach STEM concepts, Young says the mobility of the cart will allow the unit to be checked out to all Middle School classrooms. The rover comes with over 3,000 lessons broken down by grade level strand, according to the instructor, who believes it will help improve MAP test scores.

“This is how kids learn,” Young stated. “It brings lessons to life in a way books can’t, and increases their understanding about topics they’re learning.”

Pictured: Students (from left) James Gambill, Braden Belknap, Bryce Millner, Molly Maurer, Ian Pierce and Ava Kingree, and STEM teacher Cody Young stand behind the rover, sporting special 3D glasses.

Photo and article submitted by Tim Krakowiak, Communications/Marketing Director, Poplar Bluff R-I School District

Last Updated on September 08th 2017 by Dee Loflin




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Rotary Club Awards Scholarship to Poplar Bluff Resident
September 06th 2017 by Dee Loflin
Rotary Club Awards Scholarship to Poplar Bluff Resident
Poplar Bluff, Missouri - Justin Darnell of Poplar Bluff, a Three Rivers College student, was awarded a $1,000 Rotary Club of Poplar Bluff scholarship for the fall semester, administered by the Three Rivers Endowment Trust.

Pictured are, from left, Club President Rozetta Little; Steven Lewis, a club member who is an instructor at Three Rivers College; Darnell; and Michelle Reynolds, director of development at Three Rivers College.

Last Updated on September 06th 2017 by Dee Loflin




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Student Liaisons Elected to School Board
August 30th 2017 by Dee Loflin
Student Liaisons Elected to School Board
Poplar Bluff, Missouri - Decisions at the Poplar Bluff School District are intended to be considered with the betterment of students in mind. Now the Board of Education will get to cross-check with the actual student body when they conduct business.

High School juniors Sara Holland and Jackson Winters, and senior Sam Traxel have been selected to serve as the district’s first student liaisons to the school board.

“Decisions that impact kids’ lives are made at every board meeting,” said R-I Superintendent Scott Dill on Thursday, Aug. 24, at the monthly meeting. “I feel it’s forward-thinking from the board, soliciting feedback from the student body. It shows that their hearts are in the right place.”

The notion was initially brought up last year by board member Heather Tuggle. Tuggle had participated in the annual conference of the Missouri School Boards’ Association during which she learned that a school board in Ava, among others districts, had a nonvoting student advisor.

The PBHS Student Council chose Sara, Jackson and Sam as finalists from nominees, and it was ultimately determined that all three would serve since they are equally interested in politics and public policy, according to the StuCo teacher advisory.
 
Pictured: (From left) Sam Traxel, StuCo president Jayla Matlock, Jackson Winters and school board member Heather Tuggle visit before the monthly meeting in the Administrative Building. Not pictured is liaison Sara Holland.


Photo and article submitted by Tim Krakowiak  Communications/Marketing Director  Poplar Bluff R-I School District

Last Updated on August 30th 2017 by Dee Loflin




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Eclipse, Space Balloons and Dr. Kaku
August 30th 2017 by Dee Loflin
Eclipse, Space Balloons and Dr. Kaku
Poplar Bluff, Missouri - A group of Poplar Bluff students not only got to view the solar eclipse in totality, but met famous theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku and sent an experiment to the edge of outer space, all in the same day.

“This day was the culmination of why I became a teacher,” Junior High science teacher Ashley Woolard reacted. “I was able to become a page in these students’ stories. When these kids tell their grandkids about the 2017 eclipse, they will say they were in Mrs. Woolard’s science class.”

Woolard’s team at Junior High, along with Tana Bringer’s Middle School pod as well as Kathy Miller’s AP physics class at Senior High—about 200 students total—participated in the NASA sponsored event on Monday, Aug. 21, hosted by Southeast Missouri State University at Houch Field in Cape Girardeau.

The participating teachers, representing 17 area school districts, were invited after attending an eclipse workshop during the Collaborative Regional Education Academy in June at SEMO. The professional development was one of several voluntary opportunities made available to teachers over the summer, according to R-I Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Patty Robertson.

For the space portion of the program, classes placed items in test tubes to be launched in a high-altitude weather balloon 20 miles up. The High School chose seeds to test germination rate, Junior High selected antibiotics to check potency on a staph culture, and the Middle School experimented with the toy Orbeez to discover how the environment affects the molecules. The balloons included cameras and will be tracked with GPS locators once the payloads return to Earth.

Later that evening Kaku was booked to deliver a keynote address about the future at the Show Me Center, and decided to make an appearance at the university’s former band practice field during the day to visit with students.

Back in Poplar Bluff, the R-I campus community participated in activities related to the Great American Solar Eclipse, watching the stream provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and documenting the moon’s coverage of the sun in science journals.

Pictured: The PBHS AP physics class awaits a total solar eclipse, which is when the moon completely covers the sun and the sun’s tenuous atmosphere, the corona.

Photo and article submitted by Tim Krakowiak, Communications/Marketing Director, Poplar Bluff R-I School District

Last Updated on August 30th 2017 by Dee Loflin




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MRTF Awards $500 to Junior High
August 23rd 2017 by Dee Loflin
MRTF Awards $500 to Junior High
Poplar Bluff, Missouri - The Missouri Retired Teachers Foundation has awarded $500 to the Poplar Bluff Junior High honors English program for curriculum materials associated with several literary classics, as well as mythology and poetry.

The proposal was written by eighth grade instructor Hilary Taylor, who is new to the department, and says the curriculum is being restructured with increased rigor. Project-based learning activities cited include modernizing passages and transforming stories into graphic novels, children’s books and scripts.

“Students will rise to greatness, but they must be given that opportunity,” Taylor wrote. “It is our job to facilitate those opportunities.”

The MRTF awarded a total of $42,000 to teachers in Missouri, six grants per region. This was the first grant awarded to an R-I instructor, according to organization representatives. Taylor said she was made aware of the opportunity at the end of last school year by Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Patty Robertson

Pictured: Displaying an MRTF grant on Wednesday, Aug. 9, are (from left) English Department Chairwoman Julie Gambill, R-I Assistant Superintendent of Personnel Dr. Amy Jackson, John and Anne Moyers on behalf of the foundation and association, PBJHS Assistant Principal Jason Dowd, teacher Hilary Taylor and Principal Candace Warren.

Photo and article submitted by Tim Krakowiak, Communications/Marketing Director, Poplar Bluff R-I School District

Last Updated on August 23rd 2017 by Dee Loflin




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