Letting the Cat Out of the Bag in Caswell County Schools

Today quickly transformed from an ordinary day into an extraordinary one in Caswell County.  Our regional support team met in Yanceyville to learn more about the amazing things occurring with Caswell County Schools.  Caswell County is located on the North Carolina-Virginia border and is very rural.  The county, located in the Northern section of the Piedmont region, is heavily rooted in agriculture.  The county also is located near Greensboro, Burlington, Hillsborough, and Chapel Hill.  Caswell County Schools has 1 high school, Bartlett Yancey Senior High School, 1 middle school, and 4 elementary schools.  This is one of those school systems that can be easily overlooked due to its size, geographic position, and rural nature.  After today’s visit though, the “cat is out of the bag” and this system is definitely one that should be on everyone’s radar.  

Our visit started with a presentation with the local community college, Piedmont Community College, sharing the close and supportive relationship they have with Caswell County Schools.  The system is not quite large enough to fully support an early college.  However, this has not stopped the two organizations from putting their best thinking forward and figuring out to best support their students.  Rising juniors who meet minimum requirements are invited to participate by joining the campus of Piedmont Community College via dual enrollment and graduating with both a high school diploma and a college associate degree, which is free of charge, occurring within their 4 years of high school.  Additionally, many students also enroll in various courses leading to certificates and degrees including Agribusiness, Digital Effects and Animation, Human Service Technology and often include articulation agreements with many universities.  These opportunities are offered with no cost to students.  Piedmont Community College reported that students shared “They were glad that they did it as it helped with time management and they learned to do their work first when they got to the university level.”  Medina Jones, director of Secondary Curriculum, CTE, and Accountability for Caswell County Schools, reiterated the importance of both the schools and community college working together as partners and the importance of leveraging their relationship to benefit students and the community.

Caswell County Schools has also created a Business Advisory Council that focuses on helping students to obtain post secondary credentials and strengthen post secondary partnerships.  They have purposely sought a diversified council to represent the various businesses located within Caswell County.  Currently they have 22 members on the council that has grown from an initial 12.  One of the most interesting aspects of this endeavor involves the creation of a Career Technical Student Organization (CTSOs) that is composed of student leaders from the various CTE student clubs.  The CTSO allows for students to have mentors who help them create career plans aligned to their strengths and interests with an opportunity for internships and career acceleration.  

As if these opportunities were not enough, Caswell County Schools has also created a transformative experience for their students involving drone technology.  Caswell County Schools received a substantial grant from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) for the integration of Computer Science.  The system contracted with STEMERALD City headed up by Jeffries Epps to provide the necessary equipment and training for the creation of the Drone Technology program at Bartlett Yancey Senior High School.  Mr. Epps shared that 150 students and 2 CTE teachers have completed the grid flight activities to date.  Goals of this program is to prepare students to pass the FAA 107 exam and become FAA certified drone pilots.  Once students pass this exam, they are certified for life.  

What I found most exhilarating about this program is the integration of microbits to control the drones through coding.  Too often, when students use drones, they use a remote control to direct the drone to perform various actions.  However, Caswell County Schools has realized the potential of moving their students from simply directing the drone with a remote to being creators of directing the drone through coding.  This creates value for students in that they have to actively engage with coding to ensure that the drone behaves as they wish.  Through the use of coding, students learn the foundations of computational thinking including algorithms and conditionals.  Students have moved from being merely consumers of technology to creating code to transform the actions of their drone.  

Drone technology teacher Brian Totten shared a powerful analogy as he spoke passionately about his experience instructing students.  He indicated that this program was like “eating spinach cookies, the students were eating the cookies not knowing they contained spinach.” Mr. Totten’s analogy is very apropos.  By using the excitement generated by drones, the school has capitalized on getting students to learn how to code in an authentic way without realizing that what they are learning at a high level.  Fellow CTE teacher Deauti Harris added that this program actively engages students, boosts their self esteem, and challenges them to think in creative ways.  She shared that students are learning how to communicate and collaborate together and increasing their soft skills.  

The highlight of the presentation involved a live demonstration by senior Jayquan M who demonstrated how he could quickly code a simple set of directions in a matter of seconds to direct the drone to move up in the air and move in various directions.  Jayquan shared that students taking the class often figure out how they could use drones in their chosen career.  I loved that students are already being challenged to think about they could remix the use of drones in various careers.  Jayquan is planning to study Criminal Justice and he shared that drones could be used to monitor crowds or assist with solving crimes.  He also shared that other students have discussed how they could code drones to create effective virtual tours of homes being sold by real estate agents.  Currently many students have realized that drones could be used to help farmers survey their land to more effectively make decisions about irrigation.  Additionally, the footage collected by drones could be transformed to create 3-d topographic maps. 

The story of Caswell County Schools needs to be widely shared as an inspiration for other schools.  Caswell County Schools has limited resources and has figured out how to leverage their thinking to strategically support the needs of their students to change the trajectory of the lives of their students.  By creating active engagement of their students though authentic learning experiences as mentioned earlier, Caswell County Schools have improved student outcomes.  The school system has refused to settle for less than the best for their students even with limited resources.  It is this type of inspiration that our schools need as they seek to engage students after the disruptions caused by Covid.  It is also these practices that schools must employ to cultivate their students by having them create powerful and transformative products with technology that engages them in problem solving and creative thinking. 

​Now that the cat is out of the bag, be sure to learn more from the amazing work that Caswell County Schools is doing with their students.  Caswell County Schools is so elated over their elementary, middle, and high school alignment of drone and micro:bit exploratory experiences that will create a K-12 digital and learning articulation and implementation! ​

Today was one of those days that turned out to be AWESOME. We visited @CaswellSchools and learned first hand how they were transforming education and creating better outcomes for our their students through drone technology courses #nced @CTruittNCDPI @ncdpiDTL #ncbold #ncdlcn pic.twitter.com/zsTNHJYqQM

— Brian Whitson (he/him/his) ➡️ SCASL & NCBOLD (@scibri) April 5, 2022