Summer
is in full swing at Collier Youth Services especially at the Middle School
Extended School Year (ESY) program. This 6-week, state approved summer program
has an emphasis across the curriculum that focuses on executive functioning
skills, helps students become better organized, as well as maintaining grade
level knowledge in math, social studies, English, and science.
While
academics is one component of the Middle School ESY, students also have the
opportunity to enjoy other areas of interest during Preferred Activities such
as biking, swimming, hiking, music, arts and crafts, and STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics).
STEM
teaches resilience, experimentation, teamwork, problem-solving, how to
adapt—skills that will benefit students throughout their lifetime. During one
of Ms. Knoll’s STEM preferred classes, two of her students, Jamell and Liam,
teamed up to create a windmill. “Jamell and Liam
worked together to create a working windmill. Each day they laughed as they were
listening to Beatles tunes,” stated Ms. Knoll. “I was introducing Jamell to the Beatles, which is the
greatest band, in my opinion. So we were listening to Sergeant Pepper’s while
building the windmill, and we named it Paul. It was a lot of fun,” exclaimed
Liam.
Their love of STEM
is apparent since they’ve already started building something new...stay tuned!