Every year, P-TECH hosts our week-long Summer Bridge event to welcome incoming freshmen. This July, students from every component district gathered together to get to know one another, become familiar with the campus and their new teachers, and learn about their upcoming opportunities in the P-TECH program at the OHM BOCES.

Our freshmen learned to make ice cream, designed paper airplanes, built catapults and fabricated rafts in a contest to hold the most amount of weight. They also designed logos to be printed on T-shirts as a part of the Positivity Project. Students explored the building as well during their campus scavenger hunt. Additionally, these students attended a field trip to the New York Power Authority's Energy Zone.

One of the most important parts of the Summer Bridge event was the P-TECH Induction Ceremony. This is when we recognized our incoming freshmen for their acceptance to Mohawk Valley Community College. Families, friends and component district administrators applauded our students for this accomplishment. Click the link below to see the article on the OHM BOCES website and view the entire gallery of photos. Congratulations to all of our freshmen!

During the first week of school, the Daneli Partners visited P-TECH OHM to work with this year's sophomores. Prior to this event, each student filled out a strengths assessment. When they arrived, they were able to view and analyze their results. The Daneli Partners taught the students about the different strength categories and how they can implement their strengths in school and the workplace.

They went on to work in partners and in groups to learn about their classmates' strengths as well. The students were able to learn which of their peers have similar strengths to their own. They were also able to discover which of their peers have different sets of strengths. Next, they discussed how they can best utilize their strengths for a team, and how they can work with others who have different strengths to compliment one another. Thank you to the Daneli Partners for your wonderful work with our students!

While teaching her students about the Engineering Design Process (EDP), Mrs. Lavallee, P-TECH's newest STEAM teacher, engaged her students in a challenge to design paper airplanes to travel over long distances or for long periods of time. They watched videos guiding them through multiple difficulty levels of paper airplane designs. From there, they designed prototypes to experiment with different designs.

After choosing a design type, the students worked in pairs to help test each others' airplanes. They recorded five trials for each. After these trials, they had the opportunity to modify their design to improve its performance.

The last step was a competition. The students used their final designs to compete against others in their class. The winners of each category won a small prize. The students learned about design and had fun!

Mrs. Wagner's ELA 9 classes completed their first presentation this month. Each student researched an important historical inventor. They presented to the class about this person's life, when they lived, what they invented and how this contributed to society. Further, they analyzed how these inventions or advancements are still in use or are impacting our day-to-day lives.

A partnership between the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES, Mohawk Valley Community College, and Mohawk Valley EDGE.

🌐 www.oneida-boces.org/ptech | ☎️ 315.793.8666

🗺️ 4747 Middle Settlement Road, New Hartford, NY 13413

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