FONTANA, CA – Southridge Tech Middle School students programmed robots, raced battery-powered motorcars, performed science experiments and displayed their college-bound spirit during the school’s second annual Educational Technology Showcase on Dec. 4.

Students exhibited their computer skills, navigating through more than a dozen digital learning platforms used in the classroom, including Microsoft, Google, Discovery Education, C-STEM and ConnectEd.

Southridge Tech seventh-grader Andrew Landeros demonstrated to his parents geometric principles he has learned through GeoGebra, an interactive geometry software app. Landeros, a member of the school’s Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program, is taking full advantage of the many tech options available at the middle school.

“I like working with computers, it gives me easy access to information on the internet,” Landeros said. “It’s helping me with my creativity, especially since I started learning how to code in Python.”

Southridge Tech sixth-grader Nick Delgadillo-Ponce described with great enthusiasm what he has learned about the motorized vehicles built for the school’s After-School Racing Club.

“We are learning all about different parts of a car, how to create the tires, how to replace the batteries,” Delgadillo-Ponce said. “I want to learn to build things like robots and animatronics. They are very fun.”

Southridge Tech was designated as a Microsoft Showcase School in 2018 and has incorporated a number of the tech firm’s software programs into its daily lesson plans, including OneNote, PowerPoint, Sway, Edge, Teams, Imagine, 3D Builder and Hacking STEM.

This year, the school added Discovery Education digital math textbooks to its curriculum, as well as reading and writing software including Google HyperDocs, EdPuzzle and NoRedInk.

“It’s truly amazing how easily the students connect with the technology platforms,” Southridge Tech Principal Dr. Roy Rogers said. “We are seeing a tremendous amount of creativity and innovation, which is inspiring our teachers to create even more challenging projects for the kids. We tie everything into a goal of pursuing higher education, and it’s really having a positive impact.”

PHOTO CAPTION:

FUSD_TECH_SHOWCASE: Southridge Tech Middle School seventh-grader Andrew Landeros demonstrates to his parents geometric principles he learned through a math software app during the school’s second annual Educational Technology Showcase on Dec. 4. The showcase highlighted the wide range of technology available to Southridge Tech students.