While most students spent their summer sleeping late, more than 100 students from area schools set their alarms and woke with the sun.
Students at Lake Shore Middle School and Atlantic, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, Santaluces, Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Beach Lakes and Royal Palm Beach high schools benefited from Advanced Placement Incentive Program (APIP) grant funded programs designed to provide enrichment and practice in skills that will support student success in the coming school year and beyond.
More than 30 Lake Shore students with the potential for success in Algebra I Honors classes spent two weeks at the All About Algebra enrichment program, refreshing their algebraic thinking skills and receiving an early introduction into Algebra I course content. Taught by three outstanding faculty members, classes included collaborative group work, direct instruction and independent work. Pre and post tests guided instruction and provided students with daily feedback on their progress.
Students participating are now well-prepared for the rigors of this high school level course.
While Lake Shore’s students tackled topics like the Pythagorean Theorem, incoming freshmen and continuing students at Atlantic, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, Santaluces, Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Beach Lakes and Royal Palm Beach high schools built, tested, demolished, redesigned and rebuilt exemplary structures during the Engineering Enrichment Program. For two weeks, students worked in groups to conceptualize and execute towers, platforms and bridges. After testing original designs to the point of failure, students reflected on the design, point of failure and materials used to analyze deficiencies in design. After a critical analysis of the original design, students redesigned, rebuilt and retested structures. Redesigned structures proved to be well-engineered and withstood greater stressors, demonstrating that the redesign process is a crucial step in any project.
Royal Palm Beach High School invited rising ninth- through 12th-grade students with an interest in and potential for success in Advanced Placement coursework to participate in a weeklong intensive AP boot camp. Taught by content area AP teachers in seminar-style classes, students focused on topics including critical reading, persuasive writing, literary analysis, self advocacy and time management. Incoming freshmen spent additional time learning school specific traditions, policies and procedures in an effort to ease the transition to high school.
For more on the summer enrichment programs supported by APIP grants, contact College Readiness Manager Becky Youngman at (561) 982-0945 or becky.youngman@palmbeachschools.org.
Above: RPBHS students Joseph Fleuricot and Jordan Ruiz work on a project.
