Category: You Should Know..

The Linguistic Academy of El Paso is expanding with support from the Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Education Development (CREEED)! This $150,000 grant will allow the Linguistic Academy to expand their innovative language immersion program. The expansion will include ten new classrooms, a teacher workroom, computer lab, library, and meeting rooms. To read more about the grant, see the CREEED announcement in English or Español.

In these challenging times, many parents seek face-to-face instruction. KTSM covered this trend in a report aired on October 1. You can view the report below or read the story on the KTSM site.

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Charter school district sees rise in enrollment while a local public school district sees a drop As the pandemic continues presenting changes and challenges for schools across the country, a charter school district in El Paso sees a jump in enrollment. www.ktsm.com

Burnham Wood Family of Charter Schools has again taken the lead when assuring that our students have every opportunity to succeed, whether it be through face-to-face instruction or virtual live streaming of classes. Superintendent Dr. Gonzales stated:

"We have learned that children learn best in a face-to-face pedagogical environment. Most educational experts proclaim that receiving lessons in a purely technological setting causes most children to perform at a 30% deficit from the traditional teacher-to-student and student-to-student setting. It is difficult to substitute solely technological classrooms for person-to-person classrooms. That is not to say that students did not learn and progress in a distance learning program, as some students actually received better grades in some classes and preferred the virtual learning platform."

On Tuesday, September 8, 2020, the district welcomed its first group of students to begin face-to-face learning on all campuses, grades Pre-K3 through 12th grade. Schools began their combination model for the delivery of instruction. Dr. Gonzales offered in his "Back to School" message to parents and families:

"The combination model provides choices. A student may choose to attend school on campus and be involved in direct face-to-face instruction. This model is the same as the historic method of instruction delivery. Other students may choose to to receive the same instruction, but through a virtual platform. That is, these students will receive their instruction via an electronic device away from the campus setting. Both sets of students will receive the same instruction from the same instructors at the same time via face-to-face teaching and live streaming to students who are at home. The choice for on-campus or at-home learning is totally up to the parents. All our campuses have been contacting parents to ascertain which instructional delivery method is preferred by the parents and students. All classes will be in real-time (live). Tutoring will be available to any student who would benefit from tutoring."

Following the high expectations of excellence set by our superintendent, Dr. G, for all students across the district, the Da Vinci Robotics Program has reached even greater heights. Students enrolled in Da Vinci’s Robotics classes under the direction of engineering teacher and district robotics coordinator, Alfredo Muñoz, have been identified as one of only two teams in the nation that will be sending a self-created experiment into space. Leading up to the final decision on the two winning teams, Da Vinci Robotics represented two of the four final teams competing to send their self-created research project to the International Space Station.

The DETECTS Initiative invited high school teams from all over the U.S. to submit their proposed research designs. Sponsors, The University of Alabama at Huntsville, and SPARC Laboratory then evaluated the proposed projects for their effectiveness in meeting all challenge criteria.

The DETECTS challenge presented to students a year ago involves:

• Two-semester, hands-on, space payload programming and testing challenge
• Students designed a small Raspberry Pi experiment to be performed in Low-Earth orbit
• Students will learn:
  • Basic Python programming
  • Basic circuit design
  • Experiment design and testing
  • Communication skills
  • Teamwork

Da Vinci’s Space Bound Winning Team and Project

• Project Manager: Xavier Litman
• Chief Engineer: Sebastian Banuelos
• Design/Programming Lead: Seth Rodriguez
• Design/Programming Member: Jessica Marquez
• Test Engineer: Kimberly Cardona
• ACE Lead: Alexandra Rodriguez
• ACE Member: Jasmine Looney

The Toscani project has several objectives:

• Measure temperatures in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and identify any relationship between the on-Earth seasons and the temperature in LEO
• Attempt to identify regions with the most greenhouse gas emissions
• Measure the constant vibrations on the International Space Station (ISS) and any major changes in these vibrations to eventually identify how often the ISS gets re-boosted into orbit.
• Potentially calculate the kinetic energy of their Raspberry Pi

Da Vinci Team Named to the Top 4 National Finalists

• Project Manager: Jonathan Herrera
• Chief Engineer: Reagan Rubio
• Design/Programming: Jonathan Gutierrez, Angel De Los Santos
• Testing: Francisco Villagrana, Isaac Gomez, Ivan Iniquez
• Marketing: Juan Santos, Alex Castro

The GammaGang project aimed to measure the amount of radiation in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and compare it to the levels on Earth using a modified digital camera, shown to the right.

The District is very proud of our Da Vinci Robotics Teams! Our appreciation goes to all those involved for the many long hours spent on these top-quality projects. These students serve as excellent representatives and ambassadors of what it means to be a student at Da Vinci School for Science and the Arts.

Congratulations to the following elementary teachers who recently were awarded their ESL certification:
Jamie Livingston: 2nd grade teacher
The Linguistic Academy of El Paso
Cristina Ortiz: 4th grade teacher
Howard Burnham Elementary
Lorraine Shetty: 2nd grade teacher
Howard Burnham Elementary
Miyeon Tombosky: 1st grade teacher
Vista Del Futuro
The ESL initiative to "GET CERTIFIED" is one that the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Gonzales has encouraged all district teachers to undertake. The list is certain to grow with many more teachers scheduled to test for their ESL certification later this summer. In recognition of the teachers’ efforts Dr. G. plans to approach the School Board regarding a stipend for all teachers with ESL certificates.