Video:

Transcription:

Sally Ride ES Student Announcer: I am Anthony Torres at Sally Ride Elementary, and I love being here at this school because it's like being an astronaut in training while I'm still in elementary school.

Announcer: Presented by ADDITION Financial Credit Union. Here's OCPS Superintendent, Dr. Maria Vazquez.

Dr. Vazquez: Hi everyone. Scott Howat, OCPS. Chief Communications Officer is back with me.

Scott Howat, Chief Communications Officer: It is great to be here. It's so great to be back.

Dr. Vazquez: Well, welcome. So Scott, you know that in recent conversations with superintendents across the state of Florida, the topic has been around the power of public education. So, I thought it was a great time to highlight why Orange County Public Schools is so great, the best choice, and what sets us apart.

Scott Howat: There is a lot that OCPS offers that charters and private schools don't offer. Things like the arts, athletics, extracurricular activities, and things that the voters of Orange County, through the one-mill referendum, have made possible for our students.

Dr. Vazquez: And that's true also for some of our academic programs. Right. So let's take a look at what's happening in our biomedical program.

Greg Smith, Horizon HS Teacher: Register all of your vitals. The biomedical program is actually a three-year program with a fourth-year option. Students come in, and they have an opportunity to really explore different careers within the medical field.

Liana, Horizon HS Student: This class has given me a really great opportunity with different lab equipment, and it's given me a lot of practice, and I feel like it's really set me ahead multiple years, because A lot of people wouldn't learn any of this stuff until their sophomore or junior year of college, and I'm a junior in high school. So I feel like it's just been a really incredible opportunity as someone who loves science.

Dr. Vazquez: Oh my gosh. Science at a whole new level. Biomedical incredible. It is. It was. And you, you saw what she said. These are programs that our students can access in high school; before that, or maybe if you're attending a charter or private school, they won't be able to access them until they get into college. 

Scott Howat: So, it's an incredible opportunity for those students in that biomedical program. There's also FFA, Future Farmers of America, and vet programs for students right here in Orange County. Let's take a look.

Allison, University HS Student: I really like it because we have dogs, we have chickens. I have a sheep at the farm. We have all that stuff, and it's a great experience. I started my freshman year, and from the start, I knew that I wanted to get into agriculture. I want to be a livestock vet. So, this was really helpful for me to like, get up there.

Hayley Cheatham, University HS Teacher: For veterinary, they learn to be a veterinary assistant. They take either the CVA or the animal science certification. So they end the class with certification. It's a four-year course, and they learn how to care for small animals and large animals.

Kaylin, University HS Student: I want to be a large and small animal veterinarian. So, this class helps me tremendously, teaches me everything I need to know, from how to restrain an animal to what medicine to give them. And just learning about them in general.

Dr. Vazquez: Oh my gosh. Talk about hands-on learning. Incredible. 

Scott Howat: That's awesome. And they can leave high school and get a job right away.

Dr. Vazquez: Yes, they can. I love the blue jackets. You know, they're so proud of the work that they're doing, the impact they're having. And so, the emphasis on Agri science and the careers that are available to them as part of it, I just love it. So now let's take a look because every high school has either a robotics engineering class or a club. Take a look at what they are doing.

Alex, Apopka HS Student: This magnet program. We do lots of different things related to engineering. This class specifically is robotics. So in this class throughout the year, we go to different competitions. We build robots for those competitions. We code them, we test them here in the classroom. And then we host some of our own competitions as well.

Mike MacWithey, Apopka HS Teacher: Vex Robotics is a nationally recognized robotics competition. They call it the foundation. And the foundation creates a new game every year. This year's game is “Pushback”, and in this game, you can see that the students are in teams of two versus two, and they take and collect blue or red objects, and try to score or outscore.

Dr. Vazquez: I just love that. Right. Talk about the integration of math, science, reading, and writing, and that application that is definitely state-of-the-art, and the jobs that are going to be available and are available for our students in that field. We know we can't fill all of the positions that are out there, so what a great opportunity for them in Orange County Public Schools high schools.

Scott Howat: The Competition, it looked like a sporting event to me. Yeah, it was really neat.

Dr. Vazquez: Yeah, like what you would see on television, right? Attacking. 

Scott Howat: We can't forget the debate. Highly competitive skills that will help our students for a lifetime. 

Dr. Vazquez: Let's take a look at that.

Tyler Cheung, OCPS Program Specialist: The OCPS Debate League is a place that we opened up two years ago. Our whole purpose is to give debate teams in the district a chance to scrimmage with other teams. There's a big pool of debate out there, and it can often be intimidating, but the OCPS Scrim League is a place for newcomers and veterans alike to get a chance to practice within the OCPS environment.

Donald D’Orto, Lake Nona HS Teacher: I love the skills that it brings out in students, confident speaking, the ability to be able to really share ideas, and also to do it in a civic way that's friendly but competitive at the same time. They can still be competitive on the floor, but be great friends stepping out. 

Scarlett, Apopka HS Student: I really like the OCPS debate team because it helps me grow not only my vocabulary, but also the ability to use my voice out in the real world.

Scott Howat: Wow.

Dr. Vazquez: I know, right? To be able to share her voice in a manner that is civil and then walk away and still be friends. Because we need to be able to have our children understand the power of being able to problem solve, to communicate, articulate their ideas in a manner that is civil, and then be able to walk away, and as she said, still be friends. I, and that is an area that has been growing over the last several years. LA last year, I went to one of the competitions. They are intense.

Scott Howat: My goodness. It's incredible.

Dr. Vazquez: The research that those students are doing. You talk about critical thinking. They've got it. So now let's look at what's happening with our aquaponics program. Listen to what students at Wekiva High School are doing.

Nya, Wekiva HS Student: Our garden has a system where we use fish to provide nutrients for our plants. And so how our system works is we have these two tanks that have Koi fish.

Rooney, Wekiva HS Student: There are two tubes. The blue tube transfers water into the tank. The green transfers oxygen. The water goes in through this small tube into the tank. This bigger tube, this big blue one, tanks the fish waste or ammonia through gravity. It gets transferred from the tank into this algae tank. This algae is what breaks down said ammonium into nitrites and then nitrates.

Amy Shova, OCPS Sustainability Coordinator: It's amazing for them to take the curriculum of math and intertwine it with sustainable gardening, with the aquaponics.

Hai-Anh Nguyen, Wekiva HS Teacher: I show them volume, surface area, and grade ratio conversion. A lot of mathematics applies in aquaponics.

Dr. Vazquez: So impressive.

Scott Howat: Wow. I mean, just the combination of the math and the knowledge that they get within aquaponics, and those gardens look incredible. 

Dr. Vazquez: Yeah. I do not have a green thumb, so hats off to them.

Scott Howat: Maybe I should try doing it with water in the future, because with dirt, it doesn't work.

Dr. Vazquez: No. So we could go on and on. You can find more of these stories on the slice.ocps.net. You will be hard-pressed to find anything better than Orange County Public Schools. We also have a webpage on ocps.net where we list everything that sets OCPS apart. Type, “Compare OCPS” into the chatbot at the bottom of the page. I loved having you. And thank you all for watching. Don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe. We will have more on our podcast. Just go to wherever you get your podcast and search for Mondays with Maria. Have a great week.

Announcer: For an extended conversation on today's topic. Listen to the Mondays with Maria podcast available wherever you get your podcasts. Mondays with Maria is presented by Addition Financial Credit Union. Count as in for every step of your financial journey. Learn more at Additionfi.com. For more OCPS news and information, visit TheSlice.ocps.net. I'm your announcer. Emily Hannon, a student at Audubon Park School. Thanks for watching, and have a great week.