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OPAS Workgroups 2007 - Succeed Strategy

Archive of Prior Meetings' Agendas

links to Detailed Notes follow agendas
Workshop 2006 Final Report
OPAS Diversity Committee 2006
#1 - February 22, 2007 - Agenda and Summary
#2 - March 22, 2007 - Agenda and Summary  
#3 - May 10, 2007 - Agenda and Summary
#4 - May 24, 2007 - Agenda and Summary  
#5 - July 26, 2007 - Agenda and Summary
#6 - September 27, 2007 - Agenda and Summary
#7 - November 15, 2007 - Agenda and Summary #8 - December 20, 2007 - Agenda and Summary
#9 - February 21, 2008 - Agenda and Summary #10 - April 24, 2008 - Agenda and Summary
#11 - May 22, 2008 - Agenda and Summary #12 - July 18, 2008 - Agenda and Summary
#13 - August 6, 2008 #14 - September 25, 2008 - Agenda & Summary
#15 - October 23, 2008 - Agenda & Summary #16 -
#17 - December 18, 2008 #18 - January 15, 2008

Agenda #18- January 15, 2008

Meeting Objective Update on OPAS & related activity; approve critique document
3:30 - 3:35 A. SAME number: 1.888.285.4585 id 353291
3:35 - 3:45 B. ETIC & OPAS Activity
  • ETIC Funds -- EBL and additional - xlsx
  • February 4th Meeting -- All-OPAS Workgroups, ETIC CSTF, ETIC Student Marketing
    • What do we need to do to prepare for this?
    • Key accomplishments
      • Outreach documents
      • Community Conversation model; collaboration with TechStart model
      • PLTW critique
      • Help other groups polish grantsmanship
    • Priorities for the next biennium
    • Best practices
    • Do we need specific inputs or resources from other workgroups?
  • Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth Family Academic Programs
    • Robotics, PSU, April 4, 2009
    • Currently brainstorming/contacting potential breakout session leaders
    • CTY agrees to 50 "outreach" slots (25 parent-child pairs) which they will subsidize $30 of the $80 cost; OUS is targeting underrepresented populations for these spots, probably within the Portland Metro area due to transportation issues & limited slots
 

C. Review of the PLTW Brochure

  • Critique statement - last chance for input! - docx - pdf
3:45 - 3:55

D. Open action items / Round table

  • Community Conversation: The retrospective document has been blessed -- Jo needs to finalize it -- pdf.
4:10 - 4:15 Next Meeting -- February 4 Face to Face -- & March 26 -- shall we change that because of Spring Break?

Agenda #17- December 18, 2008

Meeting Objective Update on OPAS & related activity -- we are hoping for a SHORT meeting today
3:30 - 3:35 A. SAME number: 1.888.285.4585 id 353291
3:35 - 3:45 B. ETIC & OPAS Activity
  • ETIC update as emailed and posted Dec 9 - link
  • Motivate Workgroup's Pilot Project "Engineering/ Technology After-School Champions" has been funded $50K by Lemelson and Intel -- several of these champions are also minigrant recipients; Terrel Smith in Sherwood seems to have a particularly visionary program reaching into feeder elementary and middle schools using stipended teachers and high school near-peer mentors. The target activities are "robotics" (FLL?) and OGPC
  • Prepare Workgroup continues to wrestle with in-class CS alternatives; they like cs4hs which shows the relevance of CS to science and math teachers; they are working with TechStart on that. Prepare is also working on an analysis of implementation costs for PLTW, with an eye to fine-tuning any disbursement of funds.
  • Tim Brower continues to carry the PLTW flag to schools, and is starting talks with various Workforce Development bodies, including Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian, with an eye to perhaps tying to apprenticeship programs.
3:45 - 3:55

C. Follow up on the Community Conversation Workshop

  • The retrospective document has been blessed -- Jo needs to finalize it -- pdf
  • Minigrants status -- Natasha in absentia - pdf
  • Other minigrant news:
    • Mark Gullickson's Girls Team took first place in programming at their local
    • Don Domes' Girls Team got an invitation to state. Don and Jo also had a discussion -- he thinks he has a handle on what it takes to make these teams successful.
3:55 - 4:05

D. Review of the PLTW Brochure

  • Jo may still have not sent a copy to Anna -- she is trying to confirm
  • DRAFT critique statement - docx - pdf
4:05 - 4:10

E. Other items?

4:10 - 4:15 Next Meeting -- January 22 -- do we want to change that in light of the upcoming All-OPAS meeting on Feb 4?

Meeting Record for December 18, 2008 - in process

Summary - in process

Agenda #15- October 23, 2008

Meeting Objective Update on OPAS & related activity
3:30 - 3:35 A. Phone in 1.888.285.4585 id 353291 - We are back to ATT; no calling in even 6 minutes early
Meet and greet -- Chris Brooks has ceded his role to Natasha Macdonald
3:35 - 3:45 B. ETIC & OPAS Activity
  • Update on the ETIC POP (see file from WebDAV)
  • Motivate
    • Engineering Coach Champion Pilot – working with the Lemelson Foundation.  David Coronado and especially Ryan have been working on helping making the “based-on-athletics” model more inclusive and measurable: metrics, quality-of-experience metrics and indicators, enrichment model better internalized
    • Kris Nieman has gotten approval for a mandatory survey on students’ middle and high school OST activities to be administered during Welcome Week at PSU.  Jo has also talked with Brett McFarlane at OSU; he is open to something similar.
    • BEC is targeting 50 companies for NEM this year, up from 28.  They have a new Business Development Director, Mark Read.  They are also partnering more closely with OMSI.
  • Prepare is currently being chaired by Bruce Schafer, as Walt Mayberry has had to concentrate his efforts on some ORTOP judging issues. They are looking at working more closely with the ETIC CSTF.
  • Jo is collecting info on Jackson County 4-H for Best Buy; Craig asked for ideas for a donation to a community-based, educational 501(c)3 prior to the opening of their Medford store. Roger Rennekamp provided a great set of facts and links, Jo will write a letter and email it (with a prettily printable pdf).
3:45 - 4:30

C. Update on the Techstart Minigrants

4:30 - 4:45

D. Plan for review of the PLTW Brochure

  • Jo sent copies to Mary Bunn, Gayle Yamasaki, Jill Tucker.  Eda?
  • Comments from Jo, Mary Bunn
  • Jill has comments, but she is hosting Nate Ball from Design Squad today. She was hoping to phone them in, but ...
4:45 - 4:50

E. Other items?

4:50 - 5:00 Next Meeting -- Thursday, November 20 (due to Thanksgiving)

Summary: Three members of the Succeed Workgroup attended the October 23 meeting, and welcomed Natasha MacDonald, Executive Director of the Techstart Education Foundation, as a formal member. Natasha continues to work on implementation details for the minigrants arising from the Community Conversation Workshop held August 19. Preparation for that workshop and subsequent grant application review temporarily changed the committee membership. Those ad hoc members and the current members are in agreement that we hope to continue the Community Conversation workshops, including finding more best practice models. Jo submitted her write-up of the day to Eda, after her comments, the document will be submitted to Don Domes, Don Kirkwood, and Chris Brooks before posting it for general distribution.
ETIC Status (Jo):  ETIC has designated $1.3M for OPAS in the base budget, with  additional asks with increases of $409K or $800K.  This is a substantial reduction from the OPAS ask to ETIC of $4.5M; this reduction was applied proportionately across all segments of the proposal.  OPAS has a 6 to 9 month window to consider changing this mathematical approach to prioritizing some approaches and eliminating others, and submitting those recommendations to ETIC. Bruce has posted a spreadsheet which may help in this exercise.  More business planning is needed to be ready to move on the OPAS plan starting July 1, 2009.

Best Buy: In a previous meeting with Natasha and Jo, Craig Brown from Best Buy talked about the possibility of gathering his store managers, and possibly some BestBuy Foundation people, in a room in late January or February and having 4-5 groups present their programs. We would hope to start some ongoing relationships for both in-kind, cash, and volunteer time donations. One issue is how to choose the most appropriate 4-5 groups. Jo will talk to Bruce to get his opinion about devoting staff time to such a meeting.
Project Lead The Way: Jo will mail out additional brochures and we will review the materials at the next meeting.
The next meeting is Thursday, November 20, 2008 due to the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Respectfully submitted, Jo Oshiro, November 11, 2008

Agenda #14 - September 25, 2008

Meeting Objective Debrief "A Community Conversation: Diversity in the CS Classroom"
Rank and fund minigrant applications
3:30 - 3:35 A. Phone in 1.888.285.4585 id 353291 - We are back to ATT; no calling in even 6 minutes early
Meet and greet
3:35 - 3:45 B. Report-out on A Community Conversation: Diversity in the CS Classroom
  • Don Kirkwood
  • Jo Oshiro
  • Eda Davis-Lowe
  • Chris Brooks
3:45 - 4:30

C. Review *6* Minigrant Applications -- Minigrants for Reviewers updated for late submissions Tuesday, September 23 3:00 pm (new application on pages 9 & 10) - rollup as of 3:50 today available from Jo

  • Do any fall out -- non-compliance, other reason?
  • Who rises to the top?
  • Rank them
  • Funding recommendations
  • Any feedback to give to the applicant?
4:30 - 4:45

D. How much money do we actually have

  • Any partial funding or prorating we need to do?
4:45 - 4:50

E. Report on other activity

  • Best Buy -- Jo & Natasha
  • UncorkEd
  • Update on the ETIC Proposal: Governor's office talks have resulted in a plan to re-package the ETIC proposal focusing on the areas of recruitment (possibly synonymous or overlapping with pre-college), retention, and clean tech. May involve regrouping elements from non-OPAS parts of the proposal with OPAS parts.
  • Project Lead the Way presentation August 5 at ODE/COSA sponsored conference for administrator and teacher-leader teams may have sparked an attitudinal change towards PLTW within ODE
  • Pathways activity may pick up again, focusing on CS/IT, with more support from CCWD
  • OUS has another POP in -- Dalton Miller-Jones' work; beautiful brochure -- Breaking Barriers: a report of Oregon community forums on college access and success -- the POP itself is described as Taking Back Oregon's Future
4:50 - 4:57

F. Other news?

4:57 - 5:00 Next Meeting -- default date would be Thursday, October 23

Meeting Record for August 25, 2008 - in process

Summary in process

Agenda #13 - August 6, 2008

Meeting Objective Planning for "A Community Conversation: Diversity in the CS Classroom" event, August 19, 2008 at North Salem High School, 9:00 - 5:00 (8:30 reg/ coffee)
  Phone in 1.866.232.8377 conference ID 3090# -- Say your name -- Meet and greet
3:30 - 3:35 A. Meet and greet -- Guest Tom Thompson, ODE
3:35 - 3:45 B. Review Agenda for the Event
  1. Best Practices in Diversity in the K12 Classroom – overview (30 minutes? Speaker?)
    1. Exemplars
      1. Don Kirkwood - 45 minutes
      2. Don Domes -- ESL engineering aide - 15 minutes
  1. Brainstorm best practices – break into groups, use prompts. Recorder/facilitators: Jo and Chris (2 hours)
    1. What materials needed? Flip charts?
  2. Box Lunch on site – (30 minutes)
  3. Continue brainstorming (1 hours)
  4. Report back of small groups (30 minutes)
  5. Reflect and write – initial implementation plan – coffee break (45 minutes)
    1. Eda's template planning documents
      1. (teacher's) Strategic Implementation - pdf
      2. (teacher's) Plan of Action pdf
  1. Share plans (45 minutes)
  2. Fill out the Equity minigrant (1 hour)
3:45 - 4:30

C. Discuss Prompts for Facilitated Brainstorming Session

  1. Develop a list of key components for your existing and especially new CS programs
  2. What factors help or prevent you from starting and keeping a CS program/class? {avoid “bitch” session” à therefore, may want to skip this part?}
    1. Students
    2. Administrators
    3. State-national mandates
    4. Parents
    5. Teacher background
  3. Which of the "Best Practices" discussed do you like the best?
  4. Specifics – Recruiting:
    1. How do you recruit new students?
    2. Does your current recruiting favor some certain group? Sibs of previous students? Certain math teacher's students? Band kids? Chemistry students but not physics students ...
    3. What are your particular barriers?
    4. What pieces do you have that North Salem/Hillsboro doesn’t? :
      1. What are some unique opportunities in your location?
        1. Students
        2. Parents
        3. Community
        4. Local higher ed?
    5. What North Salem/Hillsboro pieces can you use?
      1. Which do you see as "easily" do-able?
    6. Are there other partners you should engage?
      1. Strategic thinking: where is the building administrator on this?  How to gain support of building administrator?
      2. Community businesses/colleges/individuals
      3. What particular district or building goals can you link to?

 

4:30 - 4:45

D. Discuss application problems/ selections

  1. Registration application form – doc - pdf
4:45 - 4:50

E. Other materials for the event day – approve or rework?

  1. Minigrant application - doc
  2. Event Agenda/ flip side annotated roster with contact info (Jo)
  3. “Fostering STEM Diversity” white paper - pdf
  4. Additional resource links?  Suggestions?
  5. Solicitation “kit” for in-kind donations – boilerplate letter (Jo and ?)
  6. CD of resources (Don)
4:50 - 4:57

F. Other agenda items

  1. Update from the Steering Committee (Jo)
4:57 - 5:00 Next Meetings

Meeting Record for August 6, 2008 - in process

Summary: The Succeed Workgroup met at SuperQuest at WOU on August 6; collaborators also present were Chris Brooks, Don Domes, Natasha Macdonald and Ron Tenison.  The focus was planning for the August 19 Workshop “A Community Conversation: Diversity in the CS Classroom”.  Agenda and additional materials were set, and the top priority was identified as recruiting teachers to attend.  Ron Tenison volunteered to email a notice to the OCSTA listserv, and others committed to personally contacted likely teachers.

The August 19 workshop was held in North Salem. Eda Davis-Lowe, Don Kirkwood, and Don Domes presented best practices in diversity and instances of particular implementations to 10 teachers. A brainstorming exercise focused on particular challenges to and resources for implementing best practices in a teacher’s local environment. A group discussion on the necessary and sufficient conditions for pioneering a CS program, or any technology program, at a school finished the day. Initial feedback from all participants was positive.

Prior and subsequent activity sparked by the need for substantial door prizes at recruiting events may result in an ongoing relationship with Best Buy, which Jo is pursuing.

Respectfully submitted, Jo Oshiro, September 5, 2008

Agenda #12 - July 18, 2008

Meeting Objective Good progress on nitty-gritty for "A Community Conversation -- Diversity in the CS Classroom" event
3:30 Phone in 1.866.232.8377 conference ID 3090# -- Say your name -- Meet and greet
 
  • Chris Brooks and Dick Knight agreed first priority is that Succeed meets its goals; they are willing to work around that
  • Chris commits Techstart minigrant funds $500 - $1,000 total of $5,000 – heads up at $5K, may be able to go as far as $10K.
  • Bruce commits $2,500 for stipends & refreshments -- budget worksheet -- xls
  • Eda commits workgroup.
  • Jo commits to looking for laptop doorprizes
    • Intel -- do not donate new or used for doorprize/raffle
    • IBM -- long, long lead time for very few machines
    • Free Geek -- linux only
    • Best Buy still a possibility -- need to follow up; maybe with Chris Brooks or Don Kirkwood coming along?
 

Planning Minutia

  • What Date? Chris Brooks and Eda Davis-Lowe expressed a preference for August 18-19
  • Reserve Room (Don)
  • Start Calling Candidate teachers (Jo? Don?)
 

Draft Agenda for the Day (totals 8 hours including breaks) -- need to tweak?:

  • Best Practices in Diversity in the K12 Classroom (speaker Eda? 30 min incl Q&A)
    • Exemplars
      • Don Kirkwood - 45 minutes
      • Don Domes -- ESL engineering aide - 15 minutes
  • Brainstorm best practices (2 hours)
    • Break into groups – recorder/ facilitators (Jo, Chris)
    • Collaborate on prompts (see next agenda box)
    • What pieces do you have that Don doesn’t?
    • What pieces that Don has can you use?
    • What are some unique opportunities in your location?
    • What are your particular barriers?
    • Are there other partners you should engage?
    • Strategic thinking: where is the building administrator on this?  How to gain support of building administrator?
    • Develop a list of key components for existing and especially new CS programs
  • Box Lunch on site – (30 minutes)
  • Continue brainstorming (1 hours)
  • Report back of small groups (30 minutes)
  • Reflect and write – initial implementation plan – coffee break (45 minutes)
    • Eda's template planning documents
      • (teacher's) Plan of Action - doc - pdf
      • (teacher's) Strategic Implementation - doc - pdf
  • Share plans (45 minutes)
  • Fill out the Equity minigrant (1 hour)

Reference documents:

  • OACTE Report - Don Kirkwood (Oregon Association for Career & Technical Ed)
    • slides - ppt - color pdf
    • ODE's "Guidelines, Scenarios and Resources for Offering Credit in Applied Academics - pdf
 

Brainstorming prompts:

  • (Chris) Collaborate on key points we want to cover, make workgroup points of view transparent to attendees to reduce redundancy and confusion
    • Which of the "Best Practices" discussed do you like the best?
    • Which do you see as "easily" do-able?
    • What are your local opportunities/resources?
    • What are particular challenges at your school?
    • What particular district or building goals can you link to?
    • What factors made you able to start and keep a CS program/class?
    • How do you recruit new students?
    • Does your current recruiting favor some certain group? Sibs of previous students? Certain math teacher's students? Band kids? Chemistry students but not physics students ...
    • ...
 

Other materials need to be developed/ polished?

  • Minigrant application -- see pages 6 & 7 of "Propagating CS Success" - doc - pdf
  • Day's roster
  • Day's agenda
  • Day's resource links (OPAS White paper "Fostering STEM Diversity"? Don's OACTE report?)
  • Day's webpage (Jo)
  • Solicitation boilerplate for donations in kind (pizza!)
  Action Items
4:57 - 5:00 Next Meetings

Meeting Record for July 18, 2008

 

Summary: Three members attended the July 18 Succeed Workgroup meeting, welcoming Don back from his Habitat for Humanity vacation in the South Pacific. Much activity has taken place with the project formerly known as “The Propagator”:

OPAS-related activity updates: