March 18, 2014 Contact: Tim Gerszewski Sanford Media Strategist – Sioux Falls Region (605) 366-2432 /
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Innovative South Dakota education initiative grows South Dakota Innovation Lab entities formalize partnership (Sioux Falls, SD) – A formal relationship between the South Dakota Innovation Lab (SDIL) partners will provide for an expanded list of South Dakota schools to be reached. Sanford Research, the PAST Foundation and South Dakota’s Mid-Central Education Cooperative recently signed an agreement to further grow the SDIL, which develops programs in rural South Dakotan schools. The SDIL’s programs help youth problem solve in ways that are relevant to their lives and communities. New SDIL sites include West Central/Humboldt Elementary, Mitchell LB Williams Elementary and Mitchell Middle School, Deuel, Estelline, Deubrook and Wolsey/Wessington. The original pilot SDIL schools are Armour, Crow Creek, Platte-Geddes, Marty, South Central, Lower Brule and Wessington Springs. The program also aims to build new skills for rural teachers--including those on South Dakota’s reservations-using high-quality professional development, community engagement and culturally relevant and holistic educational programs. “The SDIL is designed to change the paradigm of what a school is--to make learning more a reflection of life and a place where inquiry-based problem solving and doing projects is the norm,” said Dan Guericke, director of the Mid-Central Education Cooperative. SDIL schools are making a difference in their communities. In Lower Brule, students learned about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by solving perhaps the largest problem faced by their community – lack of housing. The students constructed “micro homes” and auctioned them off. Platte-Geddes students recently learned about biology through the lens of agriculture and livestock, which are high-need career areas within the region. Students learned about genetics, anatomy, physiology and the environment by modeling the “perfect cow and pasture.” Through SDIL, rural communities with similar opportunities and challenges can share teachers, ideas and resources. By integrating transdisciplinary problem-based learning (TPBL) with community-relevant issues, SDIL provides South Dakota’s rural schools with a process and resources that ensure students receive a robust and rigorous 21st-century education.
“Transdisciplinary problem-based learning isn’t new, nor is community-relevant curriculum. But integrating the two is, making SDIL responsive to the needs of rural American education,” said Jill Weimer, PhD, associate scientist at Sanford Research and assistant professor at the Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota. “Rural America has significant challenges in providing meaningful student participation in 21stcentury careers; our vision at SDIL is to fill the demand and need for skilled labor in STEM disciplines.” The SDIL was started in 2011 and is a partner in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), led by former President Bill Clinton. CGI identifies programs that increase employment, advance access to education and skills development, strengthen energy security, and promote an environment for business growth and innovation. For more information about the SDIL, go to sdinnovationlab.org. About Sanford Research Sanford Research is a non-profit research organization formed between Sanford Health and the University of South Dakota. Sanford Health is an integrated health system headquartered in Fargo, ND and Sioux Falls, SD and represents the largest, rural, not-for-profit healthcare system in the nation with a presence in 111 communities, nine states and two countries. In 2007, a transformational gift of $400 million by Denny Sanford provided for an expansion of children’s and research initiatives, one of which was to find a cure for type 1 diabetes, and has given Sanford Research significant momentum in its goal of becoming one of the premiere research institutions in the United States and the world. Most recently, subsequent gifts of more than $200 million by Mr. Sanford have paved the way to establish Edith Sanford Breast Cancer Research and Sanford Imagenetics. With a team of more than 200 researchers, Sanford Research comprises several research centers, including Children’s Health Research, Edith Sanford Breast Cancer, Cancer Biology, Center for Health Outcomes and Prevention, Sanford Applied Biosciences, and the National Institute for Athletic Health & Performance (NIAHP). About Mid-Central Educational Cooperative The Mid-Central Educational Cooperative is an intermediate education agency made up of 14 member schools located in south central South Dakota. It is one of 13 such agencies in the state and has been in existence since 1977. The Cooperative serves its membership by providing special education services, distance education services, staff development, grant development and administration, and technology support,. It also serves as a means for sharing other personnel and fiscal resources among its membership with the goal of providing efficient and effective services to its membership. The Mid-Central Educational Cooperative also seeks to work with other agencies with the goal of developing educational services for all schools. About the PAST Foundation PAST Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to making education better by promoting transdisciplinary, problem-based learning delivered through an integrated science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) approach. PAST provides professional development at the scale of entire communities, with a specialty in rural STEM teaching and learning improvement, and has piloted these programs in South Dakota. PAST Foundation provides teachers with a process to deliver meaningful education. “Meaningful” differs for every learner. The PAST designed tool kit enables entire communities to transform traditional classrooms and reach every learner. The results are engaged students, empowered teachers, and a community actively involved in student success. ###
