Technology Learning Center Planning Since 1988, the Curriculum Coordinating Council has operated according to a planned three-year Curriculum Study and Development Cycle. As a result, several areas of the curriculum are at some stage in the restructuring process. Since the vocational education/ industrial arts area entered the cycle in 1989-90, the curriculum in that area has been restructured and, upon full implementation, will use a "technology lab" approach in grades 6-12. The District's Technology Plan, developed by the Technology Committee, is the blueprint for the technological infusion across the district in both instruction and administrative operations. The Middle School Explorations of Technology Lab (Grades 6-8) was implemented in 1994 and includes 30 seven-day modules incorporating a Home Economics/Industrial Technology focus with a full semester course for each grade level. This lab was funded entirely with district funds. Using a learning environment that looks like a business, with computers, indirect lighting, plants and music, students work in pairs to explore, through hands-on methods, a career or task which uses technology. Among the modules are: Great Starts (Health), Computer Graphics and Animation (Business), Flight Technology (Engineering), CAM/CNC Lathe (Engineering), Meteorology (General), Biotechnology (Health), Rocketry (Engineering) and others. In November 1993, district voters approved a bond issue to support several construction and capital improvements in the district's facilities. Among those was the renovation of a 4,800 square foot vocational shop at the McPherson High School. A decision was made to convert the facility to another use that would better support the district's progress toward integrated curriculum, especially an integrated academic and vocational curriculum with business, designed to prepare students for success in the advanced technology workplace. Members of the Curriculum Coordinating Council, District Technology Committee, and high school Site Council researched and considered many models before the Technology Learning Center model was finally adopted by the high school for inclusion in its School Improvement Plan. In summary, the McPherson USD 418 has been planning for a total revision of our curriculum, including the Technology Learning Center. Multiple groups of staff and community members including the High School and Middle School Site Councils, Curriculum Coordinating Council, District Technology Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, District QPA Committee and the Board of Education ALL support and encourage the development of the Technology Learning Center. These groups represent hundreds of staff, administrators, parents, students and community people who have been involved in this project. Technology Learning Center - Description of Program and Activities The Technology Learning Center facility is a 4,800 square foot area, that upon entry, resembles a business work site. The large, open space will be occasionally divided with partitions to create needed semi-private workspaces including offices, collaboration areas, and specialized work areas. Space-planning will purposely discourage isolation of any area or set "traffic" patterns. Space dividers, equipment, and furniture will be movable, as they are at most high technology work sites, to allow flexibility in the floor plan and arrangement as needs change. Carpeting, furniture, and decor will resemble that in business; rows of classroom desks will be replaced with round tables which encourage students to work in teams. Also absent will be traditional classroom elements like roll call and rules like asking permission to "leave your desk or go to the bathroom." Students will check in and out of the Technology Learning Center using electronic schedulers similar to time clocks of the industrial era and movement within the area will be self-directed. Supervision will be provided, just like it is in the business environment, by learning manager/teachers and by business/industry facilitators who, as a part of their own work, are assigned tasks in work groups at the Technology Learning Center. In the Technology Learning Center, regardless of age or position, everyone will be a part of the learning community with things to learn, things to share, and tasks to be completed. Like the workplace, everyone will have to schedule time for various activities (i.e., team meetings, research, training) related to accomplishing assigned tasks, possibly related to several projects/teams. Organizationally, the Technology Learning Center will operate like a business, not a school. Equipment for the Technology Learning Center will include computer workstations; computers for specific applications like CAD, multimedia, telecommunications (Internet); computer peripherals like printers (including color), plotters, scanners; office-type equipment like a fax machine and a copy machine; high technology audio/visual equipment, and specialized equipment to support work areas which focus on, for example, multimedia design/production, CAD, robotics, systems testing, data acquisition, and/or others. Final decisions about purchasing have not been made; however, the McPherson USD 418 has reviewed some specialized modules/equipment that are commercially available and expects, like it did for the Middle School Lab, to purchase specialized equipment from one or more national vendors after careful study to match the curriculum goals and outcomes the educators and business personnel set in planning sessions. An interdisciplinary team of two teachers (Business and Industrial Arts) will be assigned full-time to the Technology Learning Center; in addition, personnel from business/industry will be regularly involved as facilitators in the Technology Learning Center facility and at work sites for the student internship component. The first year will require intense planning with business and education groups, including colleges and vocational schools, to develop curriculum and activities which promote the direct integration of school to work philosophies. During the first year of this project, the McPherson USD 418 will enroll about 50-75 students who be be "trainees" for the educators and business facilitators to practice, work and learn with in the lab. In the second full year of operation in the fall of 1997, about 200 (9th and 10th grade) students will be enrolled in the Investigative Technology course in the Technology Learning Center, while the original 75 students will become the first advanced group, working on long term projects. In addition, selected 11th and 12th grade students, who are enrolled in regular social studies, math, science, and/or English courses will participate in projects in the Technology Learning Center as a part of their classroom-based activities. All faculty will be encouraged, and supported by Technology Learning Center learning manager/teachers, to incorporate use of the Technology Learning Center as a supplement to regular classroom instruction. By year three, approximately 75% of the McPherson USD 418's high school students (900 total at present) will spend some part of their day in the Technology Learning Center learning environment (capacity: 100 students per hour plus an additional number at work sites in internships). Specifically, the students will be engaged in the following courses and activities in the Technology Learning Center:   Investigating Technology (Grades 9-10) Students will be investigating technology by spending 15 days on certain basic function tasks. This course is designed for students to have six learning activities a semester. Of the six learning activities, four are required to be in the career area of the five year plan that the student is currently enrolled for that semester. For example, a student in the Engineering career area would take four modules dealing with engineering and two modules of his/her choice. Students will be expected to complete a total of one semester of Investigating Technology sometime during their freshman and sophomore years.   Applied Technology (Grades 10-12) Students will be apply technology by spending one semester on two high level functions; Team Effectiveness Training and teacher directed projects. In the Applied setting, students will be taking the knowledge gained from the Exploratory (Middle School) and Investigations (9-10) levels and "applying" those skills to teacher directed projects. Students work in teams of two to eight for 90 days. 1. The first step in Applied Technology is for students to choose a project to pursue during the semester class. The choice MUST fit the student's career choice from his/her five year plan.   2. The teams of two - eight will then be assigned a "project" by one of the facilitators. This project will be interdisciplinary, incorporating math, science, language arts, fine arts and social studies. Projects developed to date include: Global Telecommunications - Designing internet pages for McPherson USD 418 418 and the McPherson community   Advanced Projects in Technology (Grades 11-12) Students who pursue Advanced Projects in Technology will be involved in the learning environment from one to three hours a day over the course of one semester to one to two years. Students electing this course will use all of the tools learned in Explorations, Investigations, and Applications of Technology. Students in this course however will develop a student proposal for a major product. This proposal will involved a group of not less than three students and not more than ten students in a project that will heavily involved the business community, our local community and the global community. The students will be teamed with two community members to complete the project. In addition, students will be serving as interns to businesses for two hours a day after normal school hours. The purpose of Advanced Projects in Technology is to immerse students in true research and design of a product that has the complete capabilities of being marketable. This level is the perfect school to work transition as it involves students working with business in the Technology Learning Center and also at the work site. Students may repeat Advanced Projects in Technology as a course for up to two full years. Examples of semester projects might include: Build a working space module that is able to dock with another space ship. Build a full automated laser light show with classical or jazz music. Experiment with five different types of hydroponic crops. Report your findings to Kansas State and receive feedback. Build a solar powered car that can carry 50 pounds at a sustained speed of 20 MPH. Design ten 30 second commercials for a local business, which include computer animation, real video footage and complex art graphics, that will run on local access cable television and the internet. Create a multimedia research project of Hamlet and present it to the state English Teachers for review. Create a new housing development for the city and present it to the City Commission. Technology Learning Center - How it will change McPherson High School Over a three year period of time, there will be a fundamental, systemic change in the learning environment and culture of our high school and our community. The Technology Learning Center will be where students apply the knowledge learned in the classroom to their own career choice. This will be accomplished while working side by side with community members locally and globally who have expertise in a given field. The systemic change that will occur with the Technology Learning Center is that the goal of having students actively engaged in learning with the community as mentors and partners. The center will be the hub of activity in the school, operating 12-14 hours a day. Finally, the community will use the center for training and retraining of workers, thus giving our community a cost effective method of keeping workers current in the job market. Technology Learning Center - Course Outcomes and Evidence of Results The following student outcomes will be met through the Technology Learning Center and the changes that the center promotes in the high school. 1. Students will acquire the problem solving skills necessary to live, learn, and work in a global society, as evidenced by completion of portfolios and projects to a standard reflective of the "3" level on the McPherson USD 418 rubric of authentic assessment. 2. Students will acquire the SCANS Report Workplace Competencies (Resources, Interpersonal Skills, Information, Systems, and Technology) as evidenced by teacher observation, portfolio completion, project completion, and internship evaluation by business. 3. Students will acquire technical literacy, including systems analysis, maintaining individual and networked systems, and application of relevant technology to our world now and in the future, as measured by portfolio work and authentic assessment. This will be demonstrated and completed for each unit of study. 4. Students participating in the the McPherson USD 418 Technology Learning Center during the 1995-96 school term will master technical writing skills on each unit to the "3" (scale of 1-5) level, as measured by the six-trait analytical model for writing. 5. Students participating in the the McPherson USD 418 Technology Learning Center during the 1995-96 school term will master technical reading skills on each unit as demonstrated by completion of applicable research books, writings, and assignments. 6. Students participating in the the McPherson USD 418 Technology Learning Center will demonstrate mastery of group multi-media projects at the 85% level or greater for each module of study. 7. Students participating in the the McPherson USD 418 Technology Learning Center will demonstrate mastery in using technological tools of research (CD-ROM, on-line data bases, laserdiscs) as evidenced by teacher observation and student portfolio work. 8. The rate of completion of five year plans for University Prep and Tech Prep curriculums will increase to 30% by 1996-97 and to 80% by 1998-99. 9. The percent of students mastering course content in the core area will increase to 85% or above by 1999, as evidenced by the McPherson USD 418 curriculum assessments. 10. Student scores on the ACT test will be statistically higher than predicated by the ACT Explore test taken in the 8th grade, as evidenced by ACT records. 11. The percent of students completing Algebra I, Geometry, and Advanced Algebra (Algebra II) will increase from 55% of the graduating class in 1994 to 75% in 1998. 12. The percent of students completing Chemistry I will increase from 31% in 1994 to 60% by 1998. 13. ACT scores for graduating seniors in the areas of mathematics and science reasoning will be above the national and state level of achievement. 14. ACT scores in mathematics and science reasoning will increase over the baseline data score of 20.2 in math and 22.7 in science reasoning in 1994. 15. The rate of completion of five year plans for University Prep and Tech Prep curriculum will increase to 30% by 1996-97 and to 80% by 1998-99. These plans include at a minimum three years of math and science and in most cases four years of math and science. 16. The percent of students taking the ACT test who complete three units of math and science credit will increase from 21% in 1994 to 70% by 1998.

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McPherson Unified School District 418
514 N. Main
McPherson, KS 67460
Office: 620-241-9400 Fax: 620-241-9410
It is the policy of McPherson USD 418 not to discriminate on the basis of sex, disability, race,
religion, color, age, or national origin in its educational programs and/or activities, nor in its employment practices.

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