The new school year has presented a formidable challenge to Macon County families. Shifting the classroom to an online space has given parents a lot more responsibility in their children’s educations, teachers an entirely new set of tools they have to use and students a massive new subject to learn before they even get to their school work.
For Highlands School seventh-grader Jaylin Raby, however, all of this actually looks pretty familiar – it reminds her of her summer school experience with the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics.
The NCSSM offers academically gifted students around the state the chance to pursue specialized curriculum in STEM fields. Their summer courses often involve having students make the trip to Durham for an experience not unlike the early days of college, but with the pandemic still raging on, this year’s courses shifted online.
Macon County Schools STEM coordinator Jennifer Love told her eligible students about the program as a way to get back to learning after getting out of school several months early, and Raby was the one who braved the application process to make it in.
“She worked hard for it,” Love said. “She had to fill out an application and write an essay to submit with it. It was like she was applying for college.”
In choosing her summer curriculum, Raby chose to take classes focused on biotechnology. Using supply kits provided by the NCSSM, she took on a large variety of projects that explored biological phenomena that happen in homes and workplaces every day and how scientists use them to fuel our economy.
Some of the projects included extracting DNA strands from a banana, harnessing gasses given off by yeast to blow up a balloon, swabbing her entire house for bacteria to see where it built up most and shifting milk through temperature phases to turn it into yogurt.
“The yogurt actually turned out pretty good,” Raby said. “It doesn’t taste anything like what you get in the store, but it’s still good.”
Raby enjoyed learning more about science over the summer, but since returning to her main classes, she’s noticed how much difference the program made for her in terms of online learning. The processes that she has to use to find tutorials and submit assignments are similar to the ones that she used over the summer. It’s taken a lot of stress off of both her and her family.
“It’s given her a leg up on virtual learning,” said Janice Raby, Jaylin’s mother. “She got used to going to Zoom meetings and having all of her assignments online. Now the school system is doing everything through Google, and she knows exactly what to do. I hope this is something [the NCSSM] will keep doing in the future.”
Love said that Raby’s positive experience is indicative of what taking on extracurricular work can do for a student’s practical skills. She has similar programs to offer every year and hopes that families will make the most of them now more than ever to help their kids keep up in school.
“Programs like this are out there and I hope that students and parents will see them and want to take advantage of them,” Love said.
Raby can also give the experience a glowing review based on how the summer went for her.
“I got to learn how to work with people who I may not have been familiar with before,” she said. “It was definitely worth it.”
For more information on STEM activities available in Macon County Schools, contact Jennifer Love at 828-524-3314 or jennifer.love@macon.k12.nc.us.