SANFORD, Fla. – If you’re looking for new educational opportunities for your child, magnet school applications are now open.
Magnet schools offer specialized areas of study, including arts and STEM. News 6′s Julie Broughton visited Pine Crest Elementary School of Innovation in Sanford, to see how elementary students are becoming 21st Century learners.
“It is a magnet school here in Sanford. And in my opinion, one of the best-kept secrets we have,” said Principal Dr. Ryan Gard-Harrold. “I’m tired of it being a secret because people need to see all the amazing things that we do here.”
Gard-Harrold gave Broughton a tour of the campus, starting in the school’s innovation lab. That’s where four-graders were working with a humanoid robot named NAO, learning the fundamentals of coding.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
“So they’re able to program it to do humanlike things. So talking, standing up, sitting down, playing sports, acting like animals can get it to tell stories,” explained Nicole Chavez, a computer science teacher.
Savannah, a 9-year-old student, shared her excitement about working with NAO.
“It just gives us the vibration of the schools. It also gives off that it’s fun,” she said. Savannah says she programmed NAO to mimic a mouse. “It was exciting and I felt lucky that I got to be the first one to do that.”
Christen, another student, tells News 6 he loves hands-on learning.
“It keeps us up with the newer technology and helps us have fun while learning,” he said.
A key part of the curriculum is learning to troubleshoot and solve problems when things don’t go as planned.
“And I think that it’s so important that we don’t instill in our students that if you don’t make that ‘A’ that you didn’t achieve,” Gard-Harrold said. “We want you to fail at this because you’re going to learn from that. And if you’re learning together collaboratively, you’re going to problem solve together through that process, too.”
After a stop in the innovation lab, Broughton met Pepper, the robot receptionist, who serves as an ambassador and reinforces the school’s mission.
[Central Florida’s magnet schools: What are they and where they located?]
“As we see with our students, they’re always teaching us new things. Pepper does the same thing through technology as well. She’s always got a new trick for us,” said Gard-Harrold.
The school also features an e-sports lab, the only one of its kind in a Central Florida elementary school.
“One of the reasons we put it in place here is we want to make sure that our kiddos know that there truly is an opportunity beyond what they see daily and what they think their future could hold,” Gard-Harrold explained. “The future’s wide open for them.”
Gard-Harrold says the three pillars of Pine Crest are imagine, create, and connect.
“So nothing will ever take the place of what foundational skills look like that need for reading, for writing, for mathematics. But those things get embedded into everything that we do daily. So it’s really bringing in that problem-solving component tied to all of the traditional that you see,” he said.
Magnet school applications are open until March 1.
Students do not have to be zoned for magnet school, but must live in the county. For more information on how to apply, visit Seminole County Public Schools by clicking here.