Joint Ventures

Description

Joint Ventures is a unique program. As the it's name implies it is a joint venture between normally unrelated subject/educational areas. It is the blending of Elementary, Secondary, Business and Science or the "business of secondary students assembling Science kits for elementary students".

The Beginnings

Ridgway High School is located next to the Santa Rosa City Schools district office. Because of this RHS was approached with the germ of an idea--that idea was for RHS students to maintain the FOSS (Full Option Science System--a program developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley and Encyclopedia Britannica) Science kits for the District's Elementary Schools. In addition to maintaining over 230 kits in Physical, Earth and Life Science, RHS students would learn the activities in each kit--thus a real life hands-on approach to Business and Science

Course Components

• Business

  Ridgway students meet as a class for two periods a day. Business credit is given for the completion of specific tasks which include: inventory, preparing and packing consumable items (for example: cutting paper into four inch squares then placing 100 of these squares into a plastic bag). Each kit must be refilled after each use, labeled, and placed in storage(warewhousing). Students are responsible for warehousing the kits, picking them up and delivering them to the various Elementary Sites.
  

• Science

  Science credit is given for the completion of Science related activities. Students are required to learn the Foss Science activities. Each student is required to present a science activity as outlined in the teacher's guide. They are evaluated by other students in the class according to their teaching style, knowledge of the activity and readiness.

• Tutoring

  The third component of the program is tutoring. Students are familiar with the materials in the kits and how the activities work. With this knowledge they are able to go into an elementary classroom and help the teacher with their science program. Ridgway FOSS tutors have become an invaluable asset to the Elementary Teachers in the Santa Rosa City School District.

  Ridgway High School

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  Ridgway High School/Linda Hagle