Silver Spring, Md. (August 28, 2018) – Florida’s Franklin County School District (FCSD) announced today that it is teaming up with Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, on a new initiative supporting STEM education across the district. Utilizing Discovery Education’s award-winning digital resources and innovative professional learning systems, this new partnership will empower district educators to create a culture of STEM teaching and learning in the district’s K-12 school and K-8 charter school.
Located in the heart of Florida’s Panhandle and serving the county’s approximately 4,250 households, the Franklin County School District seeks to create an educational atmosphere in the school system that inspires students to reach their fullest potential. Specifically, FCSD seeks to deepen students’ engagement in STEM education and nurture learners’ communication, critical thinking, creative, and collaboration skills by creating inquiry-based STEM classroom environments.
Among the resources the school system will use to create stimulating STEM learning environments is Discovery Education Streaming Plus. A comprehensive digital service supplementing instruction across all K-12 curricular areas, Discovery Education Streaming Plus helps build students’ mastery in interpreting, understanding, and evaluating information. Students can access a variety of digital assets such as images, primary source documents, podcasts, articles, and videos, then are empowered to become content creators with a suite of content creation tools that help teachers and students safely and easily collaborate in real-time on virtual projects. Teacher resources include lesson plans, instructional strategies, and content collections organized around themes, as well as a collection of STEM resources designed to fuel a cultural shift in teaching and learning.
FCSD educators across the school district will also soon begin using Discovery Education’s STEM Connect to enhance core curriculum and bring STEM to life in classrooms. A cutting-edge, web-based, interdisciplinary K-8 supplemental resource built on a 4Cs STEM skills framework, STEM Connect helps students develop the creative, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills they need for success beyond graduation. Featuring flexible, modular learning units, STEM Connect provides students an easy-to-follow educational experience that includes real-world challenges, career connections, and hands-on activities.
To help FCSD’s educators shift their instruction and utilize these new tools, the district will launch the STEM Leader Corpcapacity building model. Administrators and teachers from FSCD’s K-12 school and K-8 charter school will participate in STEM Leader Corps’ professional learning opportunities, which support the adoption of new strategies and best practices for building and sustaining a culture of STEM in their schools and guide them as they master new STEM instructional approaches. With a focus on developing high-quality STEM instruction, creating interdisciplinary lessons and units, and vertically aligning STEM education district-wide, this initiative provides the robust professional development, job-embedded coaching, and administrative leadership support necessary to create centers of STEM excellence.
“The teachers and administrators of the Franklin County School District are deeply committed to helping all our students develop the knowledge and skills they need to be successful no matter where their lives take them,” said Franklin County Schools Superintendent Traci Moses. “Discovery Education’s professional learning opportunities and digital content can help us meet that goal, and we are excited to team up with their experts to jointly build the culture of STEM teaching and learning that will prepare our students to succeed in the real world.”
For more information about Discovery Education’s digital resources and professional learning services, visit www.discoveryeducation.com, and stay connected with Discovery Education on social media through Facebook, follow us on Twitter at @DiscoveryEd, or find us on Instagram and Pinterest.
