How can our middle school offer DESIGNLAB after school programs?
WE ARE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE OR FIRST DESIGNLAB INVENTION KIT AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE!!!!!!
Check out our Electrical Inventions Classroom Kit from KELVIN.
COMING SOON...
The DESIGNLAB Classroom Tool Kit
AND
Mechanical Machines Classroom Kit from KELVIN.
Training for DESIGNLAB INVENTION KITS is still only available on a limited basis. The kits are available for purchase directly from KELVIN without training.
For information about training, read on...
For Schools Outside Massachusetts
By 2010, we should have our comprehensive web-based support system in place, along with design instruction videos, that will allow teachers from across the country to teach DESIGNLAB workshops, especially if we can also offer online DESIGNLAB training courses for graduate credit, which is what we are planning. If your school would like to offer DESIGNLAB after school workshops once they are ready for widespread release, please join our mailing list by clicking the link below. We will mail out updates on our program availability, and will try to work to serve districts’ training needs on a first-come/ first-served basis.
**The lock image above means the link goes to a secure page.
For Massachusetts Schools (& nearby border-state school districts)
Training for DESIGNLAB Invention Kits and most kits are currently only available to the Massachusetts schools involved in our grant-funded pilot testing. We are in the midst of a 5-year expansion initiative to formally develop our DESIGNLAB after school engineering programs and bring them to middle schools across the state. Our goal is to engage up to 125 teachers from over 50 middle schools to teach DESIGNLAB programs to 7,500 students by 2011.
We are in the process of training teachers and will soon be looking for new applicants. We will be looking for 10 to 20 new Massachusetts’ school districts to join our next round of DESIGNLAB pilots. Teachers from bordering states, who are within a 1 1/2 hour drive of Lowell, may also be included in our regional pilots over the next two years, and we may arrange Saturday training workshops given enough interest. If you are a Massachusetts’ school district interested in offering our after school workshops please read the requirements below and click on the “DESIGNLAB Application” link to submit the application.
DESIGNLAB Application**The lock image above means the link goes to a secure page.
Requirements for Pilot Schools
We are accepting new pilot schools based on their expressed intent to sustain our DESIGNLAB after school programs beyond the initial grant-funded period (with allowances made for high-need, disadvantaged school districts). In order for schools to join our pilot program, we must have a letter of commitment from your school or district’s administration. Letters of support should indicate your administration’s interest in being a DESIGNLAB program site, as well as a sincere intent to try to sustain these after school programs, and what means will be used to do so (budget item, student fees, PTO, grant funds, etc.). The nominal cost to offer DESIGNLAB programs (after the initial start-up costs are covered by the grant) will be approximately $75 - $90 per student for a 10-week workshop, which includes the cost of materials and instruction.
Requirements for Pilot Teachers
- We are looking for motivated teachers who will commit to:
- teaching three 10-week DESIGNLAB workshops in their schools, once a week for 2 hours
- attending approximately 12 to 14 afternoon meetings a year at the University for training and evaluation – teachers will receive PDP’s for training, and also can earn 3 optional graduate credits if they choose to formally enroll in our course through the university ($1,300 to register for course) - Saturday programs may be available
- fully participating in our program evaluation efforts, which involve both teacher and student surveys, interviews, and program observations, in order to provide feedback about the impact of our programs
- UMass Lowell’s Future Engineers Center plans to cover the first-year implementation and training costs for pilot schools, pending available grant funding. In exchange, for this significant commitment, our grant funding will:
- provide teachers with the classroom toolkits needed to set up a DESIGNLAB workshop ($900 per teacher – 3 kits)
- provide all project materials needed to enroll 12 students in each of the three workshops ($1,080)
- pay teachers a stipend of $800 for each workshop for workshop instruction, and for attending training sessions and participating in our program evaluation