THE STEPPINGSTONE ACADEMY
BLENDED LEARNING INITATIVE
Steppingstone Scholars, Inc. (SSI) and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) have partnered to create a groundbreaking Blended Learning Initiative. BLI focuses on offering college level course content, college going knowledge and skill development to students who are underrepresented in upper level coursework because of academic tracking or lack of content available at their schools.
The Initiative will bring together Penn’s high quality online Coursera content, research capacity, college access program, and Summer Mentorship Program with Steppingstone’s successful academic and student development enrichment design, programming, and college preparation strategies.
ACADEMICS
Students will be offered two Robotics Blended Learning courses in this year of this pilot. They will receive in-person instruction 5 days a week with other Steppingstone and other district students and will be expected to do some coursework in development online at home. This course will be project-based and revolve around key skills in robotics including programming, physics, algebraic and geometry concepts applied to robotics functions. Classes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday will be fluid and built around applied robotics examples throughout the day. On Wednesday, we will also take day trips to colleges and discuss important themes about college applications including differences between private and public schools, liberal arts education, accessing support services at universities, and conducting research and science programs at universities.