About Us

Beaver Technology Center for Math & Science is a magnet school with a difference. Beaver Technology Center and its sister school, Watson, target students in grades 2-5 with a high interest in science, math and technology. We have a gifted mathematics curriculum, FOSS(Full Option Science System) and use many types of technology hardware and software applications to enhance our curriculum.

Beaver students, principals, and teachers are blasting into 21st Century technology this year with a grant from the GISD Technology Department. Our fourth graders will be using iPods in their math and science classes. We are using podcasting and iPod videos to communicate information. Beaver teachers and students are using a weblog, blog, to share ideas.

Wii do Gym!

Not only are they hottest video game system around, the Wii also has educational benefits! Believe ot or not, our PE teacher, Mrs. Murray has implemented the Wii into her PE rotation. The Wii does require some physical agility, coordination and team work, but it also requires the students to be able to strategize. "Wii" know you'll want to get involved!

Fourth Grade Meteorologists

Fourth graders participate in an award-winning school program that provides live weather data to teachers and students. The data is processed by WeatherNet software and applied to daily curriculum to aid individual learning in the real world and to help educators meet National Education Standards.
A WeatherNet System is a real-time commercial weather monitoring system. It measures outdoor and indoor temperatures, rainfall, relative humidity, light intensity, wind speed and direction and barometric pressure.
Each WeatherNet System provides instant online and on-air weather direct from each school location to its local broadcast affiliates. Both broadcast stations and schools benefit from AWS’ innovative combination of live weather and real-world educational curriculum. A complete weather station is equipped with an external rooftop WeatherNet monitoring system. You may access our school's weather page at Weather Report. Click HERE to view a sample of the Weather Script.

Have a green thumb?

Beaver is equipped with a full size greenhouse and an outside garden area with beds for seasonal planting. Students in all grades use the garden/greenhouse area to enhance their curriculum.

STARLAB Portable Planetarium

The STARLAB system is a portable teaching environment that can be brought right into the classroom. It consists of an inflatable dome that seats 35-45 students, a projector and projection cylinders that cover a range of topics from stars and constellations to native american legends. Students and parents alike love the special activities in the STARLAB.

Leapsters

Second graders at Beaver are equipped with Leapster Learning Systems. Each child receives a unit and game cartridge on a rotating basis. Students use the hand-held portable learning system with a variety of educational software. The award-winning Leapster offers the core benefits of computer software on a portable device.

Lightspan and Playstations

Third grade students at Beaver utilize Lightspan. Lightspan will be provided to students to work on at home using Sony Playstations. This program provides educational software in Reading/Language Arts and Mathematics that teach the critical skills and concepts that are currently taught in our classrooms. They also motivate and get students excited about learning, by using characters, stories, and interative games. The Lightspan software is delivered on CD and runs on Sony's Playstation.

Keyboard Instructors

Fourth grade students work to improve their keyboarding skills with a device called a Keyboard Instructor. At Beaver, keyboarding skills are necessary for the proper utilization of computer resources. The goal of the Keyboard Instructor is to provide an easy to use, complete and systematic keyboarding program. The keyboards are checked out to students for use at home. At the end of the week, scores are downloaded and printed for the teacher to review. Lessons are loaded to help the students improve any weaknesses in their keyboarding skills. We feel that this "new" approach to teaching keyboarding skills will create a unique educational opportunity to be shared between home and school.

LEGO and ROBOLAB

Fifth grade students build models and robots using a programmable LEGO brick as the brain of their models/ robots. After being programmed with ROBOLAB, the robots take action in their environment by interacting and making decisions based on the inputs that are around them. Two RCXs can even communicate with each other! The robots are fully autonomous, acting on their own with no support from the computer. If the behavior of the robot does not match the desired behavior, then they can be easily reprogrammed using the ROBOLAB software.
Users first build their inventions using the programmable brick and the LEGO pieces. They then create a program for their invention using the ROBOLAB software, an easy to use powerful programming language. Next, they download their program to the brick using a special infrared transmitter.
The ROBOLAB System prepares girls and boys of all ages for careers in engineering and science with excitement and enthusiasm. With the ROBOLAB System students will learn about today’s world of robotics, confined only by their imaginations.

PDAs are checked out to students on a rotating basis and provide the student with the latest technology to manage their time.

RAdio DJ's

"Good morning Beaver Stars and welcome to 95.7 Beaver KIDZ Star radio. We are so glad you tuned in to hear what is happening at Beaver Technology Center.” If you are within a mile of the campus, and your radio is tuned in to 95.7 this is the message you will hear. Beaver Technology Center has its very own radio station. Each week the student radio DJs bring you the latest Beaver announcement, as well as the funniest jokes. This is great way for the students and parents to get the 411 on all that is happening at BTC. If you are interested in trying out to be a Radio DJ, please contact the school office. Tryouts are scheduled during the first six weeks of each school year.

Safety Patrol

“Please walk, and have a great day”, is the first contact many students and teachers have when they arrive at Beaver Technology Center. Every year BTC selects responsible fifth graders to serve as Safety Patrol members. This position is designed to provide the students at BTC with a chance to serve in a leadership position. The dedicated students who participate in this position arrive each morning at 7:30 ready to start the day. There are several areas in the building where safety patrol members serve. The most important assignment is in front of the school. We call this position “curb patrol”. The students work outside each morning in the rain, sleet and snow. There are other safety patrol members inside the building stationed at key locations to make sure everyone is welcomed with a smile. In addition to morning duty, there are also students who work in the afternoon, assisting with afternoon dismissal. Safety patrol members are taught to treat each person with respect. They realize they are there to serve the students, staff, and parents at Beaver Technology Center.