STEM comes to CCS
principal introduces new programs to the curriculum
While still a college preparatory school, Holly Neill, CCS’s new upper school principal is introducing new STEM programs to the curriculum.
“If you understand your world, it will help you no matter what job you have,” she said. “Everybody needs to have a basic understand of how the world works, and STEM classes are the way that you can get that hands on.
“We’re really excited,” she said about adding the programs. “Concord is growing so much (that) we’re just really blessed. And, I think a lot of this is a culmination of work that’s been behind the scenes for many years, so it’s really awesome to be able to step back in and participate in growing it.
“For example, we are starting a partnership with Carson-Newman University, so we can offer an associate’s degree for our students,” Neill said. “I’m really ramping up the number of college credits kids can take here at Concord.
“The nice thing, too, about our relationship with Carson-Newman is they have a very similar philosophy as us,” she said.
Neill said the school is going to get that program started in the next year to increase the number of opportunities for students.
Similarly, “this year we started a new relationship with the University of Texas, Austin,” she said. “Our dual enrollment engineering students actually can get college credit from UT, Austin, from its engineering program, which is literally one of the best engineering programs in the United States.
“There’s just all this project-based learning and understanding not only engineering design but how to respond to stakeholder needs, and it’s wonderful,” Neill said. “The project they are working on right now is they are responding to a stakeholder’s need.”
The students are creating a camera for individuals with limited use of their hands but need to take a picture.
“We were tasked to make a pinhole camera for people with motor disabilities,” dual enrollment engineering student Payton Turner said. “We had to follow ways that they could hold it and carry it to the designated mural spot, ways they could open it, put this film inside … and take pictures.”
“The kids have different parameters they have to work with and they have to build a camera that can take a picture based on what those limitations are,” Neill said. “That’s what they’re doing right now. That’s a new class I got to start with some incredible staff.”
The school also is seeing a lot of support for its Key Club and, because of that, starting a DECA and Future Farmers of America to provide experiences in career technical education.
“So not only are we going to be a really strong college prep, but also really strong in getting kids exposed to real world jobs, working on our internship program and lots of other amazing things coming up, ” Neill said.
Additionally, from her background in having a master’s degree in environmental science chemistry, she is pushing to increase the school’s STEM offerings and what it is doing with them.
“For example, our fifth-graders are doing quite a bit of work with Lego robotics and programming as well as part of a NASA program,” she said. “It’s called Roads to Mars.
“I got to help our fifth-grade teacher this year implement that,” Neill said. “Our sixth-grade teacher actually is with his new STEM class we just developed over the summer. They’re building an underwater robotics kits.
“They’ve built these adorable little underwater Robs,” she said. “They compete in the swimming pool.
“This is a newer competition to the Knoxville area, but it is not new to Tennessee,” Neill said. “We’re helping Concord become part of this (international) competition, so, we’ll have a high school team as well as work in our middle school.”
On another path, she said the school recently hired a chemist from Y-12 who is developing CCS’s chemistry program.
