On Nov. 2, Cass Tech senior Johnathan Jackson met former President Bill Clinton at Fellowship Chapel in Detroit while on the Presidential campaign trail with his wife, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Jackson’s obvious school pride was glaring because of the CT Academic Games sweatshirt he was wearing. Clinton took notice and asked Jackson,“Do you like the tech school?” Jonathan replied, “Yes I do sir.”
President Clinton responded, “I do as well because they are hard working and help bring technology to most of their students.”
Clinton now has another reason to be impressed with “the tech school.” In August of 2016 a group of Cass Tech science teachers found out that they were awarded a $300,000 grant as part of an initiative DPSCD’s Steve Wasko oversaw for six schools within the district.
“Cass Tech received a grant because we have developed an innovative way to improve our engineering department and this program is an internationally known program that has yielded excellent results in the last several years,” said vice principal Velma Snow.
The innovative ways that Cass Tech has incorporated into the curriculum came from Project Lead the Way (PLTW), is a national organization that develops Science, Technology, Engineering and Math curricula in schools and provides professional development training for instructors. Cass Tech has added two new STEM Pathways: Biomedical Science and Computer Science to add new STEM Courses to the curriculum. Five of CT’s Science teachers were involved in intense training so that the 1st year could be offered and they verified the importance of the curriculum.
“I think this program is important because it gives the students a really project based curriculum so that instead of just reading or having some activities they’re really just learning by exploring," Biology teacher Katherine Teany said. "As the teacher, my job is to facilitate that type of learning instead of just giving them information and having them find out on their own and sort of guiding them.”
Quantitative Analysis and Chemistry teacher Nathaniel Lewis added: “I think the Computer Science Principles class is important because it gives students real world experiences, they can apply concepts to create items that are sold in the market place and they can take those experiences and actually apply them for job opportunities. This is similar to vocational education experience.”
“Engineers create 90% of the jobs, that students are going to be able to get when they get out of high school, but only 4 percent of the population -- so we need to create more engineers," International Baccalaureate Physics and Robotics teacher Karl Balke said.
“The new STEM courses at Cass Technical High School empower students with in-demand, transportable skills, engage them in transformative learning experiences and prepare them for leading STEM jobs today and tomorrow,” Snow said.
Johnathan Jackson contributed to this report.
