Clelia McCrory knows a thing or two about getting kids to learn.
Shed taught for 24 years before moving in 2004 to ESSDACK, an education service center in central Kansas.
So, when her son, Sam, came home perplexed about his geometry class, McCrorys mind got to wondering. How could a solid student well versed in math, science and other subjects struggle so mightily in geometry?
McCrory approached another of her sons instructors, who taught computer-aided design. The instructor pulled Sam aside and showed him how geometry was used in CAD operations.
Once he could visibly see things like surface area, volume, that kind of thing, it started to click, McCrory said. These were things he already was doing, but when he was able to work backwards, the formula made sense.
Her sons geometry grades improved, as did some of his fellow CAD classmates.
It got to the point the geometry teacher wondered what was different, she recalled. All of the CAD students were getting it, and the other kids werent.
The episode got the principal, teachers and especially McCrory wondering: what other subjects could be made easier by using real-life problem-solving?
There are many, McCrory noted.
Even better, she came up with another epiphany.
If a computer-aided design lesson could help a student learn geometry, perhaps the geometry class could be adjusted slightly to help a student better learn computer-aided design or other engineering concepts.
(A layman would call such practices problem-solving.)
McCrory found her new passion.
She worked with scores of teachers to implement engineering-based concepts into classes like geometry and algebra.
By 2014, she had convinced the Kansas Department of Education to approve blended courses, which essentially increase state funding for some basic classes, provided they offer instruction directly related to career and technology education (CTE).
