A DIY Approach to Boost STEM Engagement in Rural Schools
From Walmart parking lots and youth centers to local schools, the
GOBSmobile—named after the district’s goblin mascot and short for “Greater
Opportunities for Better Success”—provided book loans; science experiments and
demonstrations; storytime for younger students; and reading materials and
supports for secondary students’ Advanced Placement courses.
If students couldn’t come to school, Gilley, the district’s executive director
of federal programs and instructional technology and the GOBSmobile creator,
was determined to bring the lessons to them, in their communities.
It’s Not What You Know; It’s What You Share: Reach out to all departments in
your district, not just academic departments, to find creative ways to solve
problems.
Use What You Have: Many districts already have the elements they need to build
their own mobile labs and other big-ticket projects that seem too expensive at
first. Before retiring equipment, from buses to laptops, think about how they
can be used in new ways.
Technology Isn’t Just for Tech’s Sake: Ensure your district’s technology
integration plan builds on, rather than distracts from, hands-on learning. It
is equally important to train teachers in how to use new tech tools in
creative ways as it is to buy new devices or software in the first place.
“Mobile technology integration impacts students by reaching them where they
are,” Gilley said.
It shows families that “the district realizes the impact of the digital
divide,” she said. “Families can’t always travel to you, and [the] district
needs to continually find ways to think outside of the box to help all
learners and their families.”
Gilley, a 25-year education veteran, started as a business teacher but served
as a technology coordinator in the St. Joe and Bergman school districts in
Arkansas before moving to the same position in Harrison in 2011.
She has a do-it-yourself approach to solving education problems: Bring
everyone together and use everything you’ve got.
On paper, the district, about 140 miles north of Little Rock, was in a better
position than many of its rural counterparts when COVID-19 first shuttered
schools in spring 2020. Eighty-five percent of families in Boone County, where
Harrison is located, have access to broadband internet, and the district had
already provided K-12 students with laptops and preschool students with touch
pads.
In practice, however, students, just over half of whom come from low-income
families, often had spotty internet connections.
Gilley and other educators worried that students would disengage without
access to more hands-on learning, particularly in science, math, and reading.
The GOBSmobile emerged to make sure that didn’t happen.
“We were way far ahead of the game as far as 1-to-1 technology, which really
helped us when COVID hit,” said Jay Parker, the principal of Harrison High
School. “And a lot of that is due to Susan Gilley. She’s instrumental in
seeing a vision, getting feedback, and then doing whatever it takes to
overcome the obstacles that make most people give up and say, ‘Well, we can’t
do that because of this.’ She finds a way.”
Families can’t always travel to you, and [the] district needs to continually
find ways to think outside of the box to help all learners and their families.
Susan Gilley
Gilley, 59, had picked up on the bookmobile idea years before the pandemic,
while attending a technology conference. But with standard bookmobiles
averaging $200,000 for a new one, it seemed out of reach for the district. The
widespread school disruptions at the start of the pandemic provided both the
impetus to get a mobile classroom up and running and the manpower to put one
together in-house.
She worked with Travis Graham, the district’s operations director, and the
transportation department to retrofit a 2000-era school bus with a worn-out
interior but working engine and frame.
Transportation workers, who were sidelined during the school closures, went
back to work, ripping out the old seating and hardware. They scavenged shelves
and materials from an abandoned junior high school, while Gilley worked with
librarians to collect leftover books from elementary school libraries that had
been updated. Local graphic design and welding businesses gave the bus’s
interior a fresh coat of paint and a grill decorated with an open book on the
exterior.
“Even as we planned, we just kept putting more stuff in it,” Gilley said. “I
was like, I want this to be more than just books. I want students to be able
to do everything on it.”
Gilley ensured the bookmobile was welcoming to students. A countertop spans
the entire length, and it has separate work areas for science experiments,
math puzzles, and art kits; six tablets loaded with Osmo coding games; and
three laptops with an attached 50-inch flat-screen television that teachers
can use to project lessons from a computer.
The other side has bright blue bookshelves, comfy pullout cushions for
reading, and storage for free meals the district delivers to students during
summer months. The bus also operates as a mobile hot spot for families with no
or unreliable internet access, with Wi-Fi extending about 300 feet.
Students at Harrison Middle School are engrossed in projects and activities
provided by the GOBSmobile, a mobile learning library for local kids, on Jan.
24, 2022. The school bus takes its’ name from the Harrison School District
mascot, the Goblins.
Students at Harrison Middle School participate in STEM projects and activities
inside the GOBSmobile, a mobile learning library and STEM lab in Harrison
Public Schools in Harrison, Ark.
Liz Sanders for Education Week
“Kids love the technology—the Osmo’s apps, the Chromebooks—but we also have a
lot that’s not technology, like marble mazes and magnet building kits, the
electric snap circuits, which are a big hit,” said Tracie Thomas, Harrison’s
only high school librarian, who also doubles as a STEM teacher on the
GOBSmobile two days a week.
“I think sometimes kids have access to [smart] phones and iPads, but to
actually get them away from that and building and exploring stuff on their
own—that is something they really enjoy and isn’t something they have access
to at home.”
A creative, cost-effective solution
All told, the bus cost about $57,500 to build and operate this year, including
$10,000 to staff it with a driver, a librarian, and a paraeducator.
The district also received a $20,000 state grant for take-home books and
science-, math-, and literacy-project packs for students.
“I think this has been a ‘COVID lining’ in the pandemic,” Gilley said. “I want
[leaders] to realize that it doesn’t really cost that much money to get
something like this done because most districts probably do have a bus that
they could use for this purpose.”
Charles Hodges, an instructional-technology professor at Georgia Southern
University, who studies rural STEM education, said the mobile STEM and
computer lab is an “evolution of the traditional bookmobile” that could boost
students’ science and engineering engagement in rural areas.
“That’s a pretty good, creative solution because families in rural areas don’t
always have the best internet access—or any internet access at all,” Hodges
said.
Access to science opportunities can vary widely from school to school in
districts spread out over hundreds of square miles, he noted, “so if funding
for some of those cool technologies—like Osmo and little robots and things
like that—if they don’t have enough to sprinkle them out across the county,
then putting it in a mobile lab where they can drive it around and everybody
can have some access to it, that’s a pretty creative solution.”
The remote learning projects, along with STEM and literacy lessons, have
helped students weather the academic disruption and blunt learning loss over
the summer and during remote instruction, Thomas said.
Gilley is building on the progress she made during the pandemic and plans to
expand services to reach more students. High school students are learning to
program robots and other science and engineering activities during school
visits from the bus this semester. They will later serve as mentors for STEM
activities to elementary school students.
With the bus’s classroom and Wi-Fi features up and running, Gilley has started
working on plans to add solar panels to the roof and a side awning to create
shade for outdoor classrooms. The district intends to expand summer activities
to include wellness workshops, with free dental and hygiene supplies. It’s
also using federal COVID-relief money to add Wi-Fi to all school buses, to
create a fleet of mobile hot spots.
A student-focused problem solver
Gilley’s portfolio expanded during the pandemic to include directing federal
programs, writing grants, developing teacher training, and even monitoring the
district’s COVID-19 infection rates.
Her ability to wear many hats has earned the trust of staff members, who come
to her with thorny problems, according to Thomas, the librarian.
“She actually does about four people’s worth of jobs … and she is so kind and
nice and easy to work with,” Thomas said. “I think those kinds of leaders are
your best, because you’re not intimidated or scared to go to them and you can
learn so much from people like that.”
That was the case when Parker, the principal of Harrison High School, wanted
to help graduating seniors who couldn’t afford to buy laptops as they headed
off to college.
He approached Gilley for help, and she came up with a workable solution for
students.
The district replaces its 1-to-1 devices on a four-year cycle, so Gilley
offered seniors the option to buy their school-issued laptops for $5, close to
their fair market price. After all the seniors have the opportunity to buy a
laptop, the remaining laptops are offered to the community for $10 each, with
the proceeds going to cover the cost of devices for homeless students, who are
able to keep their laptops for free.
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