3.1415926535897932…
Cannon River STEM School (CRSS), a new public charter school opening in September 2009, will hold its enrollment lottery on Saturday, March 14, 2009, at the Just Food Coop event room. The public is welcome to attend the lottery and help the CRSS board celebrate “Pi Day” (3.14) and the 130th birthday of Albert Einstein. For each child placed into the school, a new decimal place will be added to pi! The celebration goes from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, with the lottery taking place at 11:30 am. Homemade pi(e) will be served.
CRSS is also in the process of hiring teachers for the 2009-2010 school year. To apply, see the full job description on our website.
Located in the Cannon River watershed, Cannon River STEM School will provide locally-grown education for national leaders in science, technology, engineering, and math. CRSS will address the national deficit in math and science education while remaining grounded in its local community and the natural environment. As part of a curriculum that takes the environment as an integrating context, CRSS students will engage in projects that take them outside and into the community to make the vital connection between learning in the classroom and living in the world. CRSS students will have opportunities to grow organic produce in a school garden, to monitor the weather in a school weather station, and to follow their natural curiosity outside the walls of the traditional classroom.
Studies have shown that this kind of nature-based experiential learning improves student achievement across the curriculum. The goal of CRSS is to meet or exceed Minnesota State Academic Standards while nurturing each child’s innate curiosity and sense of wonder.
Cannon River STEM School will be community-supported education at its best, drawing on the resources and expertise of parents, community members, and institutional partners to enrich the curriculum. CRSS is currently fostering relationships with St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges in Northfield, and with Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Faribault, which is developing its own state-of-the-art regional STEM education center. CRSS students will also have the opportunity to travel to a residential environmental learning center, Audubon Center of the North Woods, the school’s institutional sponsor.
For more information about Cannon River STEM School, visit our website, email info@cannonvriverstemschool.org, or call (507) 663-STEM (7836).
One Trackback
[...] Caroline Jones, Director of Prairie Creek Community School, will be our radio show/podcast guest next Wed. PCCS is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year (they’ve been a K-6 Charter school since 2002) and they’ve begun construction on an expansion. Their enrollment lottery is March 16. The Northfield School of Arts and Technology (ARTech) is a 6-12 Charter School that opened in 2003. Both PCCS and ARTech are sponsored by the Northfield School District. A new K-8 Charter, the Cannon River STEM School (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) opens this fall, location not yet announced. The school is sponsored by the Audubon Center of the North Woods and is holding its enrollment lottery on March 14. [...]