Newsweek Spotlights ACPS Maker Program

MESA_Students Rewiring & Troubleshooting an Old Pinball Machine

Newsweek describes the Maker Movement as a “global community of inventors, designers, engineers, artists, programmers, hackers, tinkerers, craftsmen and DIY’ers.” In her September 8 story, Maker Movement Reinvents Education, reporter Louise Stewart noted the use of 3-D printers as a key resource and said of Albemarle County Public Schools:

It’s not just private school kids who are using this technology. Public schools are also beginning to experiment. Albemarle County Public Schools, for example, a 27-school district serving nearly 13,000 students in the area surrounding Charlottesville, Virginia, is developing classes like the one Simonoff took at St. Ann’s and assignments like the giant wheel project at High Tech High. Continue reading

Will Your Children Be Able To Get A Good Job In The Age Of The Smart Machine?

Robot at WorkEdward Hess, spouse of Albemarle County School Board member Kate Acuff and professor of business administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, reflects upon the importance of developing lifelong-learner competencies in our young people:

“Are you aware that smart robots and other smart machines have skills that we used to think of as exclusively human? Machines powered by artificial intelligence are reading MRIs and writing news articles; robots are helping the elderly perform daily tasks; and driverless vehicles are being deployed in the mining industry. It might sound like science fiction, but it’s actually science nonfiction. Continue reading