Thomasville Middle School has received a $25,000 grant from the Alabama Middle School Computer Programming Initiative Competitive Grant Program.
The funds will be used for computer science implementation. The grant, written by Nicole Knight and Elizabeth Ledkins, will be used to purchase the “We Build It Better” curriculum by Flight Works Alabama. This fully immersive curriculum is skill-centered, provides project-based learning and career exploration activities.
TMS students will have the opportunity to take their ideas from imagination to finished product. Students will use the engineering process to design, build and market their own product while learning valuable problem-solving skills.
The course will be offered as an elective to seventh and eighth grade students beginning in the fall of the 2023 school year. A teacher will attend a weeklong training this summer at the Flight Works Aerospace Center in Mobile to learn how to provide instruction and use the materials included with the curriculum.
“We are so excited for our students to have the opportunity to learn about computer programming and manufacturing while having fun,” Knight, Curriculum and Instruction Coordinator for Thomasville City Schools. “The real-world skills they learn will benefit them throughout life.”
“Offering computer science will be advantageous for our students,” said Eddie Armstead Jr., TMS principal. “We are living in a digital society, and they will develop high-level reasoning skills that can be transferred to other learning, such as problem solving and creativity.”