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As the nation's eleventh largest school district, Dallas Independent School District serves more than 160,000 students who come from homes where 58 different languages are spoken.  Operating with a $1 billion dollar budget, DISDemploys 18,613 employees including 10,000 teachers in 220 schools.

State-Of-The-Art Technology Lab At Longfellow

19 Sep 2000

Imagine a youngster cooking hot dogs in a solar cooker to learn about energy, power and mechanics...or a 12-year-old creating a budget and balancing a checkbook...or a 14-year-old building a rocket and plotting a mission to Mars through a Rocketry and Space curriculum.

All this is within reach for middle school students who attend Longfellow Career Exploration Academy and are enrolled in the Career and Technology Education Integrated Technology Lab. The lab will be dedicated Tuesday, September 26. Student demonstrations have been scheduled for 5 p.m. The program and ribbon-cutting ceremony starts 6:30 p.m. Harvey Dean, CEO, Pitsco, the company supplying the lab and Ward McCain, State Director—Career and Technology Education, Texas Education Agency will be present. Interim General Superintendent Robert Payton also has been invited. The school is located at 5314 Boaz St.

“This laboratory departs from the traditional classroom,” said Barbara Ware, specialist—Career and Technology Education. “It blends multimedia and video instruction to provide an exciting learning experience. In addition, the technical education, family and consumer sciences (Home Economics), math and science each provide an integrated approach to careers.”

The lab has taken over what used to be industrial arts (shop) and home economics classes. In their place now are modules equipped with the tools needed to explore over 60 careers.

Earlier this year, six Longfellow teachers traveled to Synergistic Systems company headquarters in Kansas to be trained on how to use the state-of-the-art modules. The training also covered how to use the unique computer management system which puts together the lessons learned by the students.

“The way the system works is that students are assigned a module. For example, the module we are studying now addresses nutrition, robotics, and the weather—and every module has a career component to it. Another module we already reviewed studies family structures and requires that students design a web page in which they explain what they have learned.”

Add to the curriculum the benefits of piped-in music, modular furniture, lower ceilings, carpeted floors and the students are treated to an environment that stimulates the mind and puts the latest technology at their fingertips.

For more information, or to make an appointment to tour the lab, please call Barbara Ware or Ron Page at 972-749-2520.