Modules Facilitator Seth Bingham
Additional Washington County School District articles:
By Seth Bingham, Modules Facilitator
Lava Ridge Intermediate School
The biggest advantage of our
Modules program is that it
enables students to individually
pursue their interests. In Utah,
all seventh graders take a
CTE Introduction course. It is a yearlong class
where students spend one-third of the year in
Business Education, one-third of the year in
Family and Consumer Sciences, and one-third
of the year in Technology and Engineering.
During this course, students are exposed
to a wide variety of possible career pathways.
Identifying pathway options in seventh grade
enables students to further pursue these
pathways as they enter the CTE programs in
the middle and high schools. The students’
experience in my school’s technology and
engineering portion is largely Pitsco Modules.
In my technology and engineering lab, I
have 15 Pitsco Modules and two other stations
that I have created. With the students spending
only one-third of the year with me, by the time
I try to meet the other state requirements
for my class, the students will have time to
complete four to five Module rotations. This,
however, has been a huge plus for my program
because I have been able to make the class a
student-choice situation.
At the beginning of the trimester, a
brief overview of each Module is given, and
students select the Modules that are of most
interest to them. I am then able to create a
customized schedule. With a little planning
and creativity, I am able to create a schedule
that is centered around the student and what
he or she individually sees as career interest
areas. In addition, as I schedule each rotation,
I am able to put students in peer tutoring
groups that are strong and create a healthy
learning environment.
With this type of schedule, there are
some huge advantages. Students are
receiving cross-curriculum training (math,
science, language arts) in an area where they
have career interests. Student engagement
is extremely high. Classroom management
issues are very minimal. I owe much of this to
the fact that the schedule is student choice
driven. I have been running the Modules now
for more than four years. The first year and
a half, I was running on a random scheduling
basis. I then switched to a student-choice
model, and I believe students are much more
engaged. I believe they score better on their
Post Tests, and there seems to be a wider
gap between their Module Guide scores and
their Post Test scores (see graphic).
Overall, the Module system has been
a valuable tool in our class and school. I
would highly recommend it for technology
and engineering labs. I would especially
recommend it in a situation where there are
many more Modules than rotations. It gives
the student options. They are developing
math, science, and language arts skills
while participating in activities that they
have chosen and identified as an area of
career interest.