Thousands of students from more than 170 local schools descended upon the Honda Center this week for a day of hands-on STEM lessons courtesy of the Anaheim Ducks.
The Orange County Register covered Thursday’s standards-based activities, which were sponsored by the Ducks’ charitable foundation in collaboration with organizations including Cal State Fullerton, Honda and the Discovery Cube.
Kids learned about energy, engineering and other science-related subjects with a hockey angle. Later, Ducks players skated in on the action, testing out hockey pucks that were created by students using a 3D printer.
“Every year we get the ‘aha’ moments with the guys just as much as we get with the kids,” Jason Cooper, the Ducks’ manager of fan development marketing, told the Register.
Here are some other education stories worth sharing:
- Twenty-five Orange County middle and high schools have earned the state’s highest level of recognition as 2019 California Distinguished Schools. The local campuses are among 162 secondary sites to claim the designation statewide.
- A bundle of proposed laws put forth by the chairman of the state Assembly Education Committee and his Democratic colleagues would significantly curb the growth of charter schools in California.
- Other bills introduced by state lawmakers aim to increase spending for career technical education, improve collaboration between districts and county mental health systems, and create a new statewide student information database.
- A Garden Grove girl with autism who was considered nonverbal as a toddler is now thriving as a senior at an online school. Not only does she have a greater understanding of her anxiety disorder, she’s got big plans to expand her coding skills at Santiago Canyon College.
- The Fullerton and Anaheim Elementary school districts were recently awarded a combined $1.4 million in state grants to boost music and arts education. A few weeks ago, we reported that a consortium led by OCDE received $1.4 million as part of the same program.
- A local student who once lived in motels and was featured in an HBO documentary will graduate from Saddleback High School in Santa Ana with a 4.4 weighted GPA. Dilan Oezkan, 18, was also profiled by the OCDE Newsroom in December.
- Orange County is well-positioned to combat human trafficking and the exploitation of children, writes County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Al Mijares, who spoke Friday morning at a two-day human trafficking conference hosted by Vanguard University in partnership with OCDE.
- A state senator is proposing new legislation to ban student suspensions for behavior that’s deemed “defiant and disruptive” at all grade levels. Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill in 2012 but passed a law two years later that applied only to grades K-3.
- More than 1,600 students from schools across the country presented their virtual business plans at a “Shark Tank”-style competition held at the Pasadena Convention Center.
- And finally, Read Across America events were held across the county Friday, with many schools welcoming VIPs to read to their students. Because the annual celebration of childhood literacy is tied to the birthday of Theodor Geisel — better known as Dr. Seuss — the Orange County Register had a few Dr. Seuss facts to share, from over here and under there.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with our local education coverage by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroom, subscribing for emailed updates or following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.