Letter: ROUGH DRAFT / City Council / Euler Lake

*Need Answer First: regarding technological networking capabilities at Euler Lake

City of Detroit City Council

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Detroit, MI ?????

Ref: Kellogg Recreational Center at Euler Lake

Dear Honorable Members:

By way of introduction I am Jim Ross, president of 21^st Century Digital Learning Environments.

Our company is a leading-edge creator and developer of digital educational learning environments with a particular emphasis on K-12 education and the urgent transformative issues facing our traditional classroom educators as they migrate to competitive 21^st Century digital methodologies and modalities.

For the past year we have embedded ourselves at Northwestern High School in partnership and under the direction of Dr. Shedrick Ward, Director of the Detroit Public Schools, Science, Math and Technology Resource Center. Our company has also become deeply involved in a “pilot program” known as the AIM Program (Achievers In Motion) which is also under the direction and guidance of Dr. Ward. Additionally, it should also be noted that the AIM Program enjoys the full-support and insightful leadership of Northwestern High School principal, Ms. Patricia Pickett and her administrative staff and teachers.

It is as an extension on behalf of these seminal efforts and some resultant outcomes that I am writing to you today. This past year has been characterized by an exhaustive investigation of the innate challenges facing today’s educators, students and parents in our public education institutions as they engage in the daunting task of educational reinvention. Further, the hallmarks of this task have only been exacerbated by the urgency of the now all too familiar global competitiveness and economic pressures being exerted on our nation as a whole and not coincidentally on our state in particular.

The year has been an illuminating journey recently culminating in a National Science Foundation (NSF) ITEST Grant proposal in partnership with the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The tenants of the pending NSF Grant proposal (enclosure document) are regional (Southeastern Michigan) in nature and focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) components coupled with non-traditional creative and innovative instructional practices and follow-on entrepreneurial outcomes.

21^st Century Digital Learning Environments is the NSF ITEST Grant designated liaison to business, industry and government and it is with this NSF Grant initiative in mind that I am contacting this honorable body. Please suspend your current understanding of traditional recreation centers for the moment and imagine the following scenario;

• The Kellogg Recreational Center at Euler Lake reinvents itself and becomes the student-centered Southeastern Michigan Regional STEM Center for K-12 Education & Innovation

• The initial partners in this regional endeavor include the National Science Foundation, the University of Michigan-Dearborn, City of Detroit, Detroit Public Schools, Oakland Schools, Macomb Schools and all other K-12 education entities seeking STEM-focused technological solutions and engagement opportunities

• This regional partnership would be supported by private industry, business, government and the non-profit sectors which are themselves all currently struggling with similar resultant global competitiveness challenges that will require a technologically prepared workforce

• The Regional STEM Center would provide technologically-connected, real-world, immersive environments in the emergent arena’s of alternative energy (Solar, Wind, Water), bio-technologies(alternative fuels, etc.???), nano-technologies(health, etc.???), robotics (???) environmental issues(global warming, etc.), research and development of 21^st Century K-12 Instructional Technologies (Methodologies, Modalities, Curriculum Development, Professional Staff Development, etc.) and would also serve as an accelerated incubator for discoveries as yet unimagined. Additionally, the outstanding natural occurring resources (forest, lake and solitude) represented by Euler Lake are in it’s own right a unique scientific laboratory while also allowing for the creation of a dynamic technological learning environment that provides an appropriate backdrop conducive to deep-study and reflection which are the baseline elements for all creativity and innovation

Today we must prepare our students to be technologically savvy critical thinkers, problem solvers…….life-long learners………….

OTHER:

The realization regarding the City of Detroit’s pressing budgetary concerns, etc……………However,

Detroit Renaissance and ONE-D initiatives.

Informal Invitation to Witness: AIM Discovery Program 2007

CLOSER:

We believe it is imperative that Michigan, Detroit and a united Southeastern Michigan “MUST LEAD” this national competitiveness response endeavor.