Carlynton introducing 3 new courses for 2020-21

Carlynton students in grades nine through 12 will be offered three new courses for the 2020-21 school year.

Two of the courses — Entrepreneurial Innovations and Entrepreneurship and Product Marketing — are designed to tie The Shop and its features into the curriculum of the district. The other course will be Robotics.

The Shop at the junior-senior high school features various stations such as a silk screen press, recording studio and media center. Ed Mantich, district curriculum supervisor, said the courses will be project-based.

“Students will create a marketable product from the different stations. The project will be from conception to marketing,” Mantich said.

Teachers initially designed the second course to determine what was required of the first entrepreneurial class.

“The first class will allow the students to get familiar with all of the stations of The Shop,” Mantich said. “They will learn the skills to operate the equipment.”

Mantich said The Shop is a wonderful maker space for the students during free time, but teachers decided to incorporate the features into the curriculum.

“The teachers are skilled and were very excited to get this going,” said Mantich, noting several teachers wrote the curriculum for the new courses and the district will not need to hire additional staff.

The Robotics course, which will be separate from the Robotics Club, is designed to teach students coding and calculating gear ratios.

“This will be an opportunity for those students who can’t be in the club because of other extra-curricular activities,” Mantich said.

The district received funds from the PASmart Grant for the purpose of expanding computer science teaching and learning. The Robotics course is a result of the grant. Mantich said the course will act as a feeder for the competitive robotics club already offered.