Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education STEAM topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Ranger High‑tech Academy highlights STEAM projects and community partnerships
Summary
Melissa Durkin told the North Ridgeville City Board of Education that Ranger High‑tech Academy is pursuing STEAM redesignation and using project‑based learning with community partners (OSU, Willowway Nurseries, NASA HUNCH) to produce student work used locally and abroad.
Melissa (Miss) Durkin, a presenter from Ranger High‑tech Academy, told the North Ridgeville City Board of Education on Dec. 17 that the school is in a STEAM redesignation period and is using project‑based learning to connect students with real‑world partners.
Durkin said the academy “is the only public school that has a STEM or STEAM designation in Lorain County,” and noted the school received five stars on its report card and a PBIS silver award this year. She described project‑based learning (PBL) as authentic work that partners students with businesses and community groups and often results in products that serve a public purpose.
Durkin highlighted several grade‑level projects: a fifth‑grade unit partnering with South Central Park, North Ridgeville City and Old Woman Creek to build pollinator houses using invasive phragmites collected responsibly; a sixth‑grade soil‑health project with Ohio State University and Willowway Nurseries that produced soil analyses offered to neighborhood families; and an eighth‑grade investigation into head injuries that produced helmet‑safety keychains distributed at a high‑school football game.
She also described international and professional partnerships. Durkin said a Spanish‑language project created bilingual picture books for a partner school in Mexico she referred to as Mohaka; staff and volunteers personally delivered supplies when shipping was unreliable. She confirmed the school continues to participate in NASA HUNCH, where students prototype designs and present them to engineers for feedback.
Board members asked how the Mexico connection began and whether the NASA partnership remained active. Durkin said local coaches and staff developed long‑standing relationships that facilitated the international collaboration and confirmed that NASA HUNCH reviewed student designs recently.
Durkin said the school uses PBL to ease transition into high school by offering PBL options in core subjects so students can continue that learning style.
The presentation ended without formal action; the board thanked Durkin for the update and moved on to routine business.
