Download the M.R. Hollis Innovation Academy STEM Partnership Report: Phase 1

Download the M.R. Hollis Innovation Academy STEM Partnership Report: Phase 2

Our partners provide the resources that make it possible for Georgia Tech and Hollis to collaborate.

From The Blank Foundation website: “The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation promotes positive change in peoples’ lives and builds and enhances the communities in which they live. We seek innovative solutions that enable young people, families and communities to achieve results beyond what seems possible today.” This partnership is made possible through a grant from The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Pipeline Project.

From the CREATE Lab website: “The CREATE Lab is both a technology breeding ground and a community partner. It is this unique combination that enables a new form of local change: one that empowers the citizens to chart their technology future and, most important of all, their community's prospects for quality of life.”

CREATE Lab provides technology, like robotics kits, to Hollis students and educates CEISMC and Hollis teachers on how to use them in an integrated STEM setting.

• January 2016 Dr. Lizanne Destefano, CEISMC Director, and Dr. Meria Carstarphen, APS Superintendent, discuss educational turnaround on the Westside.
• February 2016 Dror Yaron and Ryan Hoffman of CREATE Lab visit Atlanta as a potential member of thw satellite network. They meet with CEISMC and attend a Westside Education Collaborative meeting where they are introduced to Ayana Gabriel of the Blank Foundation, and future Hollis Principal Dr. Diamond Jack. CEISMC and Hollis agree to partner, contingent on the approval of Dr. Carstarphen’s turnaround plan.
• March 2016 The Westside Turnaround Plan is officially approved. M.R. Hollis Innovation Academy is set to open for the 2016-2017 school year.
• May 2016 CEISMC, CREATE Labs, and Hollis administrators visit Chicago to tour turnaround schools that Dr. Destefano had previously worked with. CEISMC submits a proposal to The Blank Foundation to obtain funding for the partnership with Hollis.
• July 2016 The funding proposal is approved by The Blank Foundation and the CEISMC-Hollis partnership officially begins. CEISMC and Hollis pre-plan for the year and develop the STEM curriculum.
• August 2016 Hollis Opens CREATE Lab visits Atlanta for a professional development event where they share an interactive mapping technology with Hollis teachers.
• September 2016 Hollis Hackers after school program begins. CEISMC and Hollis administrators visit Pittsburgh to tour CREATE Lab.
• October 2016 Sources of Urban Educational Excellence Conference takes place at Georgia State. Dr. Tamara Pearson, Dror Yaron, Dr. Diamond Jack, and Ayana Gabriel host a panel about the partnership called “School, University and Community Collaboration: Creating a K-8 STEM Academy in Atlanta Public Schools”.
• January 2017 CREATE Lab shares their Hummingbird robotics and Message From Me technologies with Hollis.
• February 2017 Hollis hosts STEM Night in collaboration with CEISMC
• March 2017 Hollis hosts the Nerdy Derby model car race. CREATE Lab visit?
• May 2017 Hollis and CEISMC host Becoming the Next end of year awards
• CREATE hosts Satellite Network meeting in Atlanta. All satellite partners visited Hollis.
• June 2017 Georgia Tech hosts summer programs. Hollis students attend Summer Bridge and Summer PEAKS. Hollis teachers participate in GIFT.

A Westside Story
CEISMC director Lizanne Destefano has a career of experience working in turnaround schools. In early 2015, Destefano knew it was important to launch a project that could connect Georgia Tech to Atlanta Public Schools. Around the same time, APS superintendent Meria Carstarphen was championing a massive revitalization effort that would close and merge multiple schools on the Westside. This Westside Turnaround Plan paved the way for a new K-8 STEM school, M. R. Hollis Innovation Academy. Hollis, with community input, chose to pilot a STEM signature program and the new school’s site was just two miles from Georgia Tech; CEISMC and Hollis made a perfect match... learn more

Hollis Hackers
Hollis Hackers, initiated by Hollis STEM teacher Nichole Jones, is an after-school program for 4th and 5th graders that connects students to STEM through hands-on projects. After Jones established the group, CEISMC brainstormed project ideas for the Hackers and eventually began co-facilitating it. Each week Hollis students stepped outside of the traditional classroom framework through an innovative and fun, project-based curriculum... learn more

Summer Bridge
As the end of the 2017 spring semester approached, CEISMC and Hollis staff began to ponder the upcoming year. Not far off in the distance was Hollis’ flagship year of middle school. Though the 2018 sixth graders will return to the same building, the path they carve will be entirely new. At CEISMC, those involved in the Hollis partnership saw an opportunity to facilitate the transition from elementary school, and came up with the Georgia Tech Summer Bridge program... learn more

Hollis Hackers piece on CEISMC website https://www.ceismc.gatech.edu/news/inspiring-next-generation-computer-scientists

Hollis partnership feature on CEISMC website http://www.ceismc.gatech.edu/news/ceismc-partners-mr-hollis-innovation-academy-integrate-stem-components-classroom

• Georgia Tech CEISMC 
• Hollis on Twitter 
• CEISMC on Twitter 
• The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation 
• Carnegie Mellon CREATE Lab 
• https://www.atlantapublicschools.us/HollisInnovation 
• Expeditionary Learning