How do Ohio’s students & teachers benefit from the OSLN?
The OSLN design concept is simple: small schools, big footprint— enhancing the learning experience of students inside and outside of the network. The approach is purposeful. It’s designed to lead to transformative change in Ohio’s education system.
Benefiting Students
Certainly students enrolled in a STEM School or engaged in a K-8 STEM Program of Excellence will benefit directly from a challenging, collaborative and relevant learning environment. But the impact goes well beyond the Network. For instance, an engaging, rigorous and cutting-edge curriculum is essential to student success. The OSLN shares and exhibits quality STEM curriculum that demonstrates promise in enhancing student achievement. Schools both inside and outside of the network can gain from this ongoing sharing and real-time feedback, benefitting all of Ohio’s students.
And it’s also clear that student success in the 21st century “solutions” economy requires a foundation built on STEM-literacy. The OSLN works to achieve this literacy by providing a consistent and reliable support system through its connected users. The end result: creative students who are innovators, inventors, collaborators, problem-solvers, critical thinkers and strong communicators.
In numbers, the OSLN will train and connect more than 100,000 students over the next 10 years to jobs in the Ohio’s 21st century economy. This number will only increase as the network matures and expands.
Benefiting Teachers
Research indicates that teachers have the single greatest impact on student success. Thus, it is crucial they have access to effective professional development tools and resources. Similarly, a dependable and consistent shared network is important. Just as the OSLN provides cutting-edge STEM curriculum resources, it also passes along innovative STEM teacher professional development components, instruction suggestions, assessment ideas, and community engagement concepts. This sharing impacts network participants and creates spillover to those outside of the network.
