Cave Spring Elementary’s STEM plans get a boost
The city’s Downtown Development Authority donates $5,000 to the elementary school’s program.
SOUTH CHAPEL
Carlton Chadwick Smith
Mr. Carlton Chadwick “Chad” Smith, age 40, of Lindale, passed away Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at his residence.
Mr. Smith was born in Rome, GA on June 27, 1976, son of the former Judy Diane Pegg and the late Howell Clifton Smith. He was employed with Suhner Manufacturing Inc. here in Rome and was of the Baptist faith.
Survivors include a daughter, Courtney Smith, Lindale; 2 sons, Sabastian Smith, Lindale, and Christian Hunt, Woodstock; his mother, Judy McIntyre (Daniel), Rome; a sister, Sabrina Dawn Smith (Dana Beebe), Rome; a brother, Jody Smith (Jennifer), Heflin, AL; several nieces and nephews and other relative also survive.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, March 25, 2017 at 2pm in the Chapel at Henderson & Sons Funeral Home, South Chapel, with the Rev. Ronnie Cowart officiating. Interment will follow in Lindale Cemetery.
The family will receive friends at Henderson & Sons Funeral Home, South Chapel, on Saturday from 12 noon until the service hour. At other times, they may be contacted at their respective homes.
Pallbearers are requested to assemble at Henderson & Sons Funeral Home, South Chapel, on Saturday at 1:30pm and include: Kenny Elrod, Danny Little, Paul Long, Jr., Charlie Garrett, Jody Smith, and Daniel McIntyre.
Henderson & Sons Funeral Home, South Chapel, has charge of the funeral arrangements. Carlton Chadwick Smith
Cave Spring Elementary School is closer to its dream of an outdoor learning center, thanks to a $5,000 donation from the city’s Downtown Development Authority Thursday.
“Cave Spring is the most supportive community,” Principal Trina Self said. “Anything our school needs, they will have it for us as soon as they know. We have always had support from the DDA and the business owners here.”
The school is working on state certification for its STEM — science, technology,
SATURDAY
Porcelain Art Guild One Community United engineering and math — program and the learning center is part of the plan. Self said it would likely be a pavilion with picnic tables that have power and internet connections for the school-issued Chromebooks.
Rip Montgomery, chairman of the Cave Spring DDA, said the donation came out of conversations he’d had with Self and Assistant Principal Tabatha Tierce over the past few months.
“We knew they were trying to get STEM certification and wanting a location where they can study the weather,” Montgomery said. “Hopefully, this will help them do a little more than they expected.”
Self said every grade level, from pre-K to fifth grade, has a yearlong project where they collect and analyze data. For example, kindergartners are “spelunkers,” working
Cave Spring Elementary School officials accept a $5,000 check from the Cave Spring Downtown Development Authority on Thursday. Pictured from left are Assistant Principal Tabatha Tierce, DDA Director Sandra Lindsey, Principal Trina Self, DDA Chairman Rip Montgomery, DDA member Billy Wayne Abernathy and businessman Curtis Burch.
with a Berry College geologist to track the temperature inside the city’s namesake cave.
There’s a robotics initiative, two makerspaces, coding lessons and even
a “Doing Research In Person” DRIP Lab that includes a fishpond and aquaponics — where students grow lettuce and cabbage for the fourth grade’s rabbits.
“This donation is a godsend. It’s a very expensive program to initiate,” Self said.
While the outdoor learning center is still in the planning stage, Self said she expects STEM certification to come by the end of this school year or, certainly, by the fall. And she’s excited by the possibilities the program opens up for her students.
“We’re trying to teach them to solve problems; every grade level uses the engineering process,” Self said. “Our kids are becoming creative thinkers. They analyze things, and if it doesn’t work, they go back and try something else.”
Montgomery said it’s good for the city when the school is a vibrant place of learning.
“We had the money to do this and I couldn’t see a better use for it than putting it toward the kids and the school,” he said.
Animal Rescue Foundation