Baltimore County High School Increases Student Interest in STEM Disciplines Using High-End • Connected Classroom Gaming Technologies • Virtualization
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Baltimore County high school increases student interest in STEM disciplines using high-end • Connected Classroom gaming technologies • Virtualization “ Students at Chesapeake High are now far more focused on learning. The feeling you get now when you walk through Chesapeake High is that this is a school that’s committed to excellence.” Dan Scroggs, Manager Admin Support, Baltimore County Public Schools Customer Profile Company: Baltimore County Public Schools Industry: Education Country: United States Students: 103,832 Employees: 17,000 Web: www.bcps.org Benefits • Increased student engagement in Business Need science, technology, engineering Chesapeake High School, in the Baltimore County Public Schools and math system, was struggling to engage students’ interest in an economically • 50 students competed in an challenged area. Attendance and discipline were recurring issues, extracurricular game-development and the school district wanted to increase student interest in STEM contest disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) to better • District developing games based prepare them for future careers. on curriculum, rather than shaping lessons around parameters of Solution prebuilt games The school reinvented itself from the ground up, including the hiring of a new principal and teaching staff, and built a top-of-the-line 3D • Virtual high school gives students simulation lab, incorporating Dell desktops and servers with Intel® simulated access to out-of-reach processor technology. Students now learn math, science and social tools such as electron microscopes studies curricula using the same equipment that teaches astronauts • 8 months, from concept to and submarine pilots to drive their vehicles. One of many innovations completion, to build high-end in the school’s teaching toolbox, the gaming environment stimulates 3D simulation studio students’ engagement in learning. In classrooms across the country, student engagement is the name of the game—but that doesn’t mean educators are comfortable using games to engage students. For many, introducing electronic gaming into schools seems more likely to hinder than to help learning. Nevertheless, some school districts are bridging the gap between their classroom environment and students’ free-time activities. “‘Game’ is no longer a four-letter word in our district,” says Dan Scroggs, Technology at Work manager admin support for Baltimore “ Over the years, Dell County Public Schools (BCPS). “The Services gaming environment is where students Dell™ ProSupport has been a great are, and we aim to teach students partner. The people where they are, not where we are.” Hardware BCPS serves a diverse student population Connected Classroom we work with are of more than 100,000. Several years Dell UltraSharp 19-inch flat panel interested in what ago, Superintendent Dr. Joe A. Hairston monitors attended a demonstration of 3D Dell XPS 730x desktop computers with ® ™ ™ we’re doing and simulation technologies at Johns Intel Core i7 vPro processors Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Dell XPS 730x ARENA desktop want to help us Laboratory. The lab used large-screen computers with Intel Core i7 vPro processor become successful.” TVs and joystick controllers to simulate the experience of piloting space shuttles Able Planet True Fidelity headphones Michael J. Goodhues, CIO, and submarines. Dr. Hairston instantly Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System Baltimore County Public Schools recognized the technology’s potential Samsung™ 72-inch monitors to attract and hold students’ attention. Connected Infrastructure “Long before leading the school Dell Latitude™ 2100 netbooks system into partnerships to create the Dell OptiPlex™ 360 desktop computers Chesapeake High’s Virtual Learning Environment, I have always believed the Dell OptiPlex FX160 flexible computing nodes fastest way to get technology into the classroom was to look at what the military Dell PowerEdge™ R610 servers with Intel® Xeon® Processor 5600 Series was doing and what the toy stores were selling to parents and children. Dell PowerEdge 2950 servers When you give students access to Software current technology, their education Connected Classroom is enriched with higher academic CrazyTalk facial animation software performance. The foundation for all DI-Guy SDK human simulation that we do is our Blueprint for Progress, software which is about improving performance GL Studio® Toolkit outcomes for all students…and Dell iClone 3D Animation Software has been with us from the beginning,” remarks Hairston. Microsoft® XNA Game Studio My Own Biome custom-built Feet first for a school in need simulation software The district selected Chesapeake Presagis™ Vega Prime™ 3D application High School as the launch point for development toolkit its Learning in Virtual Environments, Seahawk simulation software from or LiVE, project. The school was already Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory overhauling its approach to education and reinventing itself from the ground SpeedTree® tree-modeling software up. “Chesapeake High supports an area Unity Web Player that’s in transition,” says Scroggs. “The Vortex vehicle and equipment neighborhood historically consisted of simulation software blue-collar workers in the manufacturing sector, and Chesapeake High primarily Connected Infrastructure prepared students for those kinds of Microsoft Windows® XP careers. But those jobs are drying up, and Windows Server® 2003 and 2008 R2 students in the Chesapeake catchment VMware® vSphere® were transferring to other schools.” Dr. Hairston designated Chesapeake Transformative power of High as a STEM academy, shifting gaming in education its focus to science, technology, It’s hard to overstate the degree to which engineering and mathematics. He this type of technology can transform a hired a new principal and secured learning environment. “From the first day, a state grant to buy equipment for students have taken to this environment the STEM program. Then the school like a bear to honey,” says Scroggs. began building a simulation studio “They are engaged immediately.” Now that mirrors the environment of the the district is working to ensure that Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. the games are teaching the engrossed Partnerships with the lab and with students all the right lessons. corporations including Dell, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin helped “At first, we tried to design games that the district bring the simulation lab to fit our curriculum around the Seahawk reality. “We’ve received a significant software,” says Goodhues. “Now amount of knowledge and guidance we’ve moved to the next level, which from outside sources,” says Michael is using our curriculum as a starting “ In the physical J. Goodhues, CIO, Baltimore County point and designing games from there.” Public Schools. “Schools may think For example, when science teachers world, our students they can’t afford to do this, but there identified the concept of biomes— can only look at are ways to get help. The partnership biological zones that accommodate model has made this project possible.” a particular type of life—as subject plant cells through matter students were struggling with, Construction took only eight months. the district engaged local university compound The studio has two seats, each of students to help. They developed a which is surrounded by five 72-inch microscopes, but in game called My Own Biome, which Samsung TVs arranged in a semicircle utilizes the 3D simulation lab to teach and powered by three Dell XPS 730x our virtual school, biome-related lessons from the ARENA desktop computers with Intel district’s science textbooks. “In order they can use an Core i7 processors. In an adjacent to succeed in the game, you have to lab, each of 30 Dell XPS 730x desktop electron microscope. learn the Baltimore County Public computers with Intel Core i7 processors Schools curriculum on biomes,” says connects to three 19-inch Dell That opens up Scroggs. “We’re not taking games UltraSharp flat panel monitors. Every and trying to put our curriculum into entirely new workspace includes headphones and them; we’re taking our curriculum a flight simulation joystick, and all can experiences to them.” and making games from it.” simultaneously display the same 3D Dan Scroggs, environment so that an entire class Gaming ideas are even coming from Manager Admin Support, experiences the same lesson at once. students themselves. The district Baltimore County Public Schools All of the equipment was sourced held a contest among its high school through Dell partner Data Networks. students; the winning ideas for games are being built by professional gaming On the Dell XPS computers, Chesapeake developers. “The interest this contest High deployed software developed generated among students was by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics unbelievable,” says Scroggs. Although Lab in a project called Seahawk. The the contest was time-consuming and software provides a geospatially entirely extracurricular, more than 250 accurate simulation of travel around the students showed up the first day, and Mount St. Helens area of Washington around 50 completed contest entries. State. As students move through the virtual environment, they learn physics, Increasing student engagement math and social studies concepts. Chesapeake High teachers and “This software requires the highest- administrators see the gaming level gaming equipment we could environment as a tool they can purchase at that time,” says Scroggs. leverage to stimulate