Cari: I love the way our campus reinforces Solebury’s mission to create an environment of educational excellence that prepares students for success in college and beyond. 我们的校园很像大学校园. The departments are housed in separate buildings and students move around our 140-acre campus as they need to. It is nice to experience the outdoors several times a day and sit outside on a nice day when students or 教师 do not have class. Solebury values challenging students academically and building creative and independent thinkers. You see that within the vast number of electives that we offer our students.
科学系在学校的角色是什么?
Cari: The role of the 科学 Department is to give students an understanding of how science is around us every day and to look at things through that lens. 我们教学生思考所给的答案, 看看他们是否能用他们已经知道的东西说得通. 工程就是解决问题. 我们实行“物理第一”的课程, so students start looking at science that is very tangible with conceptual physics, 动手做实验和收集数据. 在年底, 学生们在物理课结束时讨论原子, 让他们谈论化学. As a sophomore, students take chemistry and do more data-driven experiments and write up lab reports. 在大三的时候，他们选修了生物学. All Biology books starts with chemistry and the building blocks of macromolecules. Our students have already taken chemistry, so they understand bonds when we look at DNA or proteins. As a junior or senior they have their choice of electives that interest them.
In the past few years we have added engineering to the 科学 Department and have given a path of STEM (科学, 工程, 数学, and 科学) to a whole new group of kids that may have been scared off by the complexity of science. 工程 classes give them a way to look at problems and figure out how to solve them.
我知道你们将在今年秋天开设一个新的创意实验室. 给我们讲讲吧.
丹:创意(发明), 设计, 工程 and the 艺术) Lab is a new space in the center of Solebury’s campus that is specially designed to be used as both a classroom and collaborative design space for student projects. The lab will serve as a permanent home for Solebury’s engineering and robotics teams.
Cari:我们很高兴能开设一个专门的工程空间. We will have classes offered in engineering, digital design, computer science, CAD, VR, and robotics. 一些课程提供参加当地比赛的选择, 还有一些是学期课程，他们可以学习如何编程, 使用3D打印机设计对象, 激光切割设计, 或者设计自己的电子游戏. Keeping kids active in creating their own designs is the goal of the 创意实验室.
今年你打算专注于哪些项目?
丹:今年将是推出我们新设备的激动人心的一年. In the past, engineering classes would fabricate student designs externally. Our 创意实验室 can now have the students fully involved in the fabrication process using tools ranging from 3D printers, 焊接烙铁, and Dremel tools to our new laser cutter and computer-controlled (CNC) milling machine. Students in our Spartanbuilders engineering club will use our club time to design personal projects as well as signs and decorations for the new space. 另外, a new elective class called Virtual Reality will take advantage of our new computers and HTC VR systems.
How does the STEM curriculum complement other aspects of the students’ education at 韦德娱乐app下载地址?
Dan: There are a variety of STEM electives at 韦德娱乐app下载地址 across multiple departments including the 科学 and 艺术 departments. Together with the Solebury 科学 Department “Physics First” curriculum, students have the opportunity to apply hands-on learning methods to reinforce basic concepts of the sciences.
Cari:当学生在IDEA实验室上课时, 他们可以在其他课程中使用相同的技能. Once you know how to use the VR software you can design a tour of an art museum or a walking tour within a city in France. Students have a lot more options open to them for presentations within their other classes after learning the skills in the 创意实验室.
Our goal in the 科学 Department is to break down the walls of departmental silos and show students that as adults we do not function in 80-minute blocks of different disciplines. 科学 intertwines with history very well — we offer a co-taught Moral Conflicts class. 就因为你喜欢人文学科, it doesn’t mean you can’t come into the 创意实验室 and make something using the CNC machine.
