The DeWitt Creativity Group, Stockbridge Underwater Robotics Team, and Williamston High School InvensTeam are proud to announce the launch of the Capital Area Schools of Innovation Network (CASIN). This group will share innovative practices and ideas on cutting edge project based learning throughout the Lansing region. In addition to K-12 public schools, home schools, parochial schools, charter schools, on-line education providers, and others are welcome to join this exciting new coalition in changing education as we know it. Please read the following document for more information on CASIN.
CAPITAL AREA SCHOOLS INNOVATE LEARNING
Public schools create network of innovative, project based school organizations!
Educators working for two different schools have collaborated recently to form a creative, innovative technology network. Robert Richards, a business and technology teacher at Stockbridge High School, along with Jeff Croley and Jason Lafay, high school teachers at Dewitt High School, created the Capital Area Schools of Innovation Network (CASIN).
CASIN was created in order to cultivate an environment capable of promoting the ideas essential to project based learning. The organization will focus on projects in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), entrepreneurship, and the arts in an effort to prepare its members for a better tomorrow.
The founding members of the organization are the Stockbridge Advanced Underwater Robotics Team (www.facebook.com/StockbridgeRobotics), Stockbridge STEM Academy (www.facebook.com/HeritageExploratoryAcademy), Williamston High School InvenTeam (http://gowcs.net/inventeam), and Dewitt Creativity Group (www.dewittcreativitygroup.org). The purpose of including a wide base of organizations is to create a collaborative medium where the leading K-12 innovative organizations in both public and private schools benefit the region by accomplishing high-impact projects. Contacts and PVC piping alike will be shared between the CASIN members, creating a united front for the STEM initiative.
A rising number of teachers, such as Robert Richards, Jeff Croley and Jason Lafay, feel as if the future of education lies with hands-on, project-based learning instead of stuffy classrooms packed with thirty or forty students. CASIN will act as one of the spearheads in the movement to include more STEM subjects and classes in schools. The Underwater Robotics classes at Stockbridge, a hierarchy of project-based courses, serve as a prime example. Teachers, students, and family members attached to CASIN will be able to show traditional educational leaders that CASIN’s work isn’t a farce but an innovative, beneficial way of preparing for an ever changing job market.
Drawing bright, young minds from across the Capital Area will enhance the ongoing efforts of project-based organizations and provide a centralized front for embarking upon tangible regional projects. CASIN encourages schools to start their own project-based classes and welcomes them into their network of creativity and innovations.
###
We would like to invite all schools and teachers interested in joining CASIN to contact us or if you would like more information about CASIN or the organizations mentioned within this release contact Robert Richards at richardr@panthernet.net or Jason Lafay at lafayj@dewittschools.net