use around specific tasks to preserve attention for handwriting, composition, discourse, and the linear thinking required by rigorous research. Neuroscience, she notes, supports that balance.“It’s technology and talk; simulation and Socratic seminar.” The district’s approach to artificial intelligence mirrors that posture. Rather than racing to blanket adoption, Vance County is training educators to use AI as a planning and feedback aid while keeping originality and judgment at the center of student work.“AI can accelerate preparation,” Bennett says,“but it cannot replace the human work of thinking, questioning, and collaborating. We’re being intentional about where and how it lives in the ecosystem.” STEM THAT MEETS THE MOMENT For students, technology and STEM are not abstract ideas; they are experiences. Through a statewide partnership,Vance County offers SPARK NC,a modular elective that exposes learners to high-tech career fields—cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, computer programming—by pairing self-paced coursework with live interactions with industry professionals. Students can try a module for two or three weeks, reflect on the fit, then stack additional modules to earn elective credit. “It’s a low-risk, high-insight model,” Ross-Putney explains.“Students can explore without fear of failure and discover where curiosity turns into commitment.” Down the road at the district’s Center for Innovation, exploration becomes kinetic. The facility houses the STEAM Early High School, the district’s Virtual School, a nontraditional program, audio and video production labs, and two signature experiences: the SLICE Lab—Simulated Labs for Interactive Career Exploration—and SLICE Medical. Here, students from kindergarten through twelfth grade rotate through immersive stations that simulate real work: drafting and building a structure, pricing and merchandising products, following recipes and managing a service line, performing CPR and learning first-response protocols, solving mock crime scenes, and more.The medical lab adds billing, intake, pharmacy, phlebotomy, and other health roles, all designed with feedback from business partners. 395 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 12 VANCE COUNTY SCHOOLS
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