A student taps his iPad, bringing up a short film. NASA-designed experiments immerse 12-year-olds in space technology. Families come to school on Saturdays to explore the world on laptops. Sound like a high-tech dream? Welcome to Henry County and Martinsville public schools.

Thanks to a long-standing commitment to cutting-edge educational technology, local students from third grade through high school are enjoying a technologically enhanced education that is drawing national attention.

“Technology is an integral part of the instructional fabric of our schools,” says Melany Stowe, communications coordinator for Henry County Public Schools. “For at least the last 10 years we have been putting infrastructure in place so that now we have almost a one-to-one student-to-computer ratio.”

Beyond Textbooks

A rapidly expanding iPad initiative, Beyond Textbooks, has helped make that ratio pop. In fall 2010 Henry County became one of four sites statewide to receive iPads for two fourth-grade classrooms, courtesy of the Virginia Department of Education, which provided the devices. Pearson, Five Ponds Press, Victory Productions, Adobe, MashON, McGraw-Hill and Inkling provided digital content, platforms and applications at no cost to VDOE and the participating school divisions.

Impressed with the initial 40 iPads for two fourth-grade classes, the school system used federal stimulus funds to buy iPads for each fourth- and fifth-grade student to use, for eighth grade history classes, and for two classroom sets that teachers can check out. In 2011-12 the system will have some 2,700 iPads.

“When I was in school, you turned the page and if there was a picture that was great,” Stowe says. “These kids can pat a picture with their finger and a minute and a half movie pops up. They can zoom in to see events. They can listen to text. It’s transformational.”

Motorola Partners with Middle School

An innovative partnership with Motorola has given Laurel Park Middle School, the only school in the nation to be selected for the program, a vastly upgraded tech capability. The company provided cell phones, computers and other equipment, and enhanced wireless infrastructure that gives homes in the surrounding area free Internet service. The program prompted the school to offer Saturday library hours for family access to computers and iPads that may be checked out.

NASA in the Classroom

Since 2002 Martinsville City Public Schools have enjoyed a partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Martinsville Middle School presents a special NASA-designed curriculum through its Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy (SEMAA), the only one of its kind in the state.

The 12-week elective, which nearly half the school’s students take, stresses hands-on learning in science, technology, engineering and math – subjects that once were stumbling blocks for the largely under-represented students in the system.

“We really want to target those students, get them interested in these areas, get them interested in going to college,” says Ann Stultz, SEMAA site director. Hands-on activities are a great way to do that. “We can say to a student, ‘Hey, you liked building a bridge with eggs and sticks – maybe you’d like to think about architecture as a career’ and point them in the right direction.”

Results have been impressive. Math and science scores have improved dramatically, and now K-5 students are also enjoying SEMAA activities.