Ahlf Junior High begins EAST Initiative

Ahlf Junior High School EAST facilitator Kelly Martin, right, shows eighth-grader Emon Redmann how to wear the Oculus Rift equipment that was given to the school as part of its new EAST Initiative program that began this school year. Oculus Rift is a virtual-reality headset that allows students to take virtual tours.
Ahlf Junior High School EAST facilitator Kelly Martin, right, shows eighth-grader Emon Redmann how to wear the Oculus Rift equipment that was given to the school as part of its new EAST Initiative program that began this school year. Oculus Rift is a virtual-reality headset that allows students to take virtual tours.

— In one Ahlf Junior High School classroom where desktop computers line the wall, one group of students pose in front of a green screen while members of another group peer inside a 3-D printer. The technology is just a small part of what students can experience in the school’s new EAST Initiative classroom.

Ahlf Junior High School in Searcy has begun the EAST Initiative for the first time and was the first Arkansas school to be supplied with EAST Initiative equipment for the 2016-17 school year. Ahlf Junior High is a seventh- and eighth-grade school.

The Environmental and Spacial Technology Inc. (EAST) Initiative is a project-based learning program that exposes students to high-end technology. The program is designed to increase students’ problem-solving skills while they complete community-based projects.

“The EAST Initiative is a huge problem-solving class — that’s kind of the main goal,” EAST facilitator Kelly Martin said. “It’s there to teach the students skills that they’re going to need in everyday life for the rest of their life, and how to go through different steps to solve the problems.”

In January, Sheena Williamson, Searcy Public Schools assistant superintendent, introduced Ahlf Junior High Principal Gene Hodges to a grant for the EAST Initiative. The school applied, was chosen for an interview and was approved for the program this spring.

“I think it’s going to increase our STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) awareness,” Hodges said. “We want to incorporate technology as much as we can. We’re pretty technical at Ahlf Junior High anyway, but I think it gives us another avenue where students can use their creativity. It’s not your standard class where you go in and sit down, and the teacher delivers the instruction. The students come up with the projects, and they’re typically community-based and school-based.”

Hodges said learning organizational and social skills is particularly important at the junior high level. There are about 577 students at the school, and 80 have shown interest in the EAST program.

Martin said that throughout the school year, EAST students will complete independent projects.

“It’s a lot of self-guidance, so it depends on what the child is interested in,” said Martin, who attended a week-long training program on how to lead an EAST classroom. “There are different things. If they are interested in making movies, then we’ve got the green screen. They can make the movies. They can put in special effects; they can put in their own backgrounds, music, things like that. If they like photography, there’s editing software for photography. There are ways they can make different learning games and video games and things like that.”

Hodges also said the campus has already been a technology-focused school because each student has a Chromebook available to use in the classroom, and students have their own school email address.

“Everyone has projects that they can stream from their computers. Gosh, you name it, just about, we have it if it’s technology,” he said. “Today, our kids are driven by technology. They’ve got more technology in their hand with a cellphone than probably most schools have in their school.”

The school’s EAST Initiative classroom now has digital cameras, tablets, Oculus Rift headsets, Apple TV, Chromecast, a 3-D printer, a green screen, two laser printers and more.

Searcy High School joined the EAST Initiative in 2008, but Hodges said he doesn’t want people to think Ahlf Junior High’s program will be a feeder program into the high school’s EAST Initiative.

“I kind of feel a little differently about it,” he said. “I feel like we’re kind of a standalone. When I met with the EAST Initiative people, they wanted it to be that way. They wanted us to be our own entity, have our own program. Hopefully, that’ll make them want to be in the EAST program at the high school, too.”

Hodges said he can see the program growing so much that some students may not be able to enroll.

“I see it, in the next two years, possibly having to turn kids away, having a little more strict rules on who can be in there and who can’t,” he said. “That would break my heart. I don’t want to turn kids away, but I can see it growing to the maximum in the next couple of years. Next year, I think it’ll probably grow to 100 kids.”

Martin said she looks forward to guiding students through a class that gives them skills to use in their other classrooms.

“I’m just excited that we have [the EAST Initiative] and that we’re giving the opportunity to kids who might not succeed otherwise,” she said.

Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.

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