BY HANNAH JOHNSON
About the program
Going forward
In the advanced levels of CTE courses, students complete a practicum to get hands-on experience in their field, Contreras said. “The goal is to make sure students are career ready [and] either prepare them for college or jobs,” he said. In PISD’s CTE health science program, students get experience in hospitals, nursing homes and emergency medical care through a Collin College practicum, Director of Advanced Academics Seth Rutledge said at an Oct. 16 board meeting. “[Students] are getting hands-on practice they wouldn’t get otherwise,” he said. Students in a CTE course are more likely to come to school and succeed, Contreras said. CTE learners, which are students taking at least two career and technical courses, outperform peers on all areas of State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness end-of-course assessments, PISD’s CTE director Julie Anderson said. Earning industry-based certification makes students
The health science program has grown the most in CISD’s CTE program, Contreras said. The program had its first cohort go through the program and had 12 students earn a Certified Nurse Assistant or Patient Care Technician certification in the 2022- 23 school year. In the next school year, Contrereas said the district is working to expand into pharmacology. “It gives students another option with the health science program of study,” he said. CISD is also working to pilot an Esports program with Region 10 Education Service Center, a regional agency that supports public schools. The district works with Region 10 to track trends and work closely with workforce development, he said. “We want to make sure we develop the student in the whole picture,” Contreras said.
Ondria Wilson and Sierra Bates, Rock Hill High School students, practice bedside manner in their EKG class.
HANNAH JOHNSON/COMMUNITY IMPACT
marketable for college and jobs, she said. “Our students are seen as more valuable for entry into college,” Anderson said. The programs also encourage participation through student organizations, such as Future Farmers of America and Health Occupations Students of America, he said. “There’s a real benefit to CTE. … It prepares them for life after high school,” Contreras said.
INNOVATION MEETS EDUCATION: UNT FRISCO'S PROJECT DESIGN AND ANALYSIS PROGRAM SHAPES TOMORROW'S LEADERS Q&A The story was produced by Multi-Platform Journalist Mary Katherine Shapiro with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team. Students in the Project Design and Analysis program at University of North Texas at Frisco have the unique opportunity to work with local business leaders to solve real industry problems and gain valuable experience through project-based learning. Kevin Sanders, Director of Project-Based Learning, explains the principles of project-based learning, its practical applications at the university and how this approach better equips students for their future careers.
Kevin Sanders, Director of Project-Based Learning
Can you give a basic definition of project-based lear�ing? Sanders: Project-based learning is a concept in which we try to build a curriculum around a centralized project throughout the course of the semester. At UNT at Frisco, we build that project around an industry partner. We identify an industry problem and we work to solve that problem throughout the course of the semester. How do you think that prepares students for what they’re going to do after college? Sanders: I think it really heightens the stakes because they’re not working with a simulation or theoretical problem. They’re working with something that somebody from an industry has actually identified as something that they need help with. One of the benefits of project-based learning is that it does increase the degree of authorship and ownership that a student has over their work. Our students are getting a chance to see what works and what doesn’t work because they’re getting feedback in real time. Therefore, when our students are going to work full time and doing interviews after they graduate, they have a little bit of a better grasp of what works and how to take those things from a classroom and actually apply them to the real world. Read the full interview and learn more
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PROSPER - CELINA EDITION
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