Issue 3 2016

2016 Issue 3

Develop, Innovate, Prosper

Communities in Oklahoma Rally Behind Diversifying Education and Building a Better Workforce Known as Oklahoma’s “STEM City,” Lawton is increasing student interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education by raising awareness of its importance throughout communities.

“Parents often call and ask me how they can contribute,” says Barry Albrecht, president and CEO, LawtonFort Sill Economic Development Corporation. “We have a lot of technology-based companies located here, and they’re helping to drive that need for a qualified STEM workforce.”

It’s not just Lawton that is focusing on promoting STEM education among middle and high school students.

Communities throughout the state are heeding the fact that education and economic development go hand-inhand. Tulsa, Shawnee and Oklahoma City all have initiatives to promote education in math and science programs.

STEM City “We’re preparing our young people for high-tech jobs and diversifying our economy,” says Albrecht. Some of the most advanced technologies are being developed at Fort Sill, he says, where the military and schools are working together to bring STEM education into communities. The military base impacts

nearly 26 districts throughout the state.

STEM education is the future. Almost every job in today’s world — from food processing to automobile parts — is related to math and science. “Our new focus has guided us into new target markets and target industries,” says Albrecht. “We’re getting more attention in information systems and software development. It’s industries like these that face a workforce challenge, and we’re meeting that need.”

Great Plains Technology Center in Lawton offers pre-engineering and biomedical science programs that have been existence for nearly 10 years.

Great Plains also has strong computer

science programs that have proved successful in preparing students for continued education and entry into the workforce. The center’s pre-engineering courses are offered at all three Lawton high schools.

“Fifteen years ago businesses were looking for incentives, but today the top question is workforce and education,” says Tom Deighan, superintendent of Lawton Public Schools. “My heart’s desire is that [Lawton] becomes recognized as a premier educator and that every one of our students graduates with a career, whether it’s off to college or a technical degree. We need people who are adaptable, and we want to become a graduation factory.”

Continued on page 7

Economic Impact of Oklahoma Tourism at All-Time High p. 3 Muskogee Opens First New Tech School in Oklahoma p. 4 OneNet Partners with Norman Public Schools, p. 6

THE STATE OF TECHNOLOGY America’s Newest Tech Hub

Oklahoma is at the frontier of technology in weather prediction, biosciences & agriculture, energy, unmanned aerial systems, and medicine.

Google Fiber’s interest in Oklahoma and others pursuing a tech boom in the sooner state.

39% increase in Tech Talent in Oklahoma City between 2010-2013 and a 29% increase in Oklahoma students graduating with a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) degrees 2009 - 2014

Best place to launch aTXsmall business, according to NerdWallet’s 2015 ranking. Now app programmers and software creators our finding homes in Oklahoma.

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US Cities for Tech Talent according to Business Insider in 2015, USA Today College also named Oklahoma City the third-best U.S. city for Millennial.

Prominent Institutions like The Samuel Noble Foundation, National Weather Center, OU Research Park. Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center and more.

Entrepreneurship Support focused on technology. Funding and support from i2E and OCAST as well as certified incubators like Emerging Technology Entrepreneurial Center (eTec) in Norman, Meridian Technology Center for Business Development in Stillwater, Center for Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurial Studies at Cameron University in Lawton.

“I have learned that this whole community functions very well together. The technology community here is growing very quickly. The local chamber has been incredibly helpful with introductions and recruiting opportunities. And i2E has been helpful, particularly with venture advisory and venture capital....My advice to other entrepreneurs in other parts of the country is to join me and take the leap.”

- Danny Maloney, Entrepreneur and Founder of Tailwind

For more informaiton visit: okcommerce.gov/business

Economic Impact of Oklahoma Tourism at All-Time High Thus, a dual purpose of tourism marketing is realized. It has a positive impact on the state’s image as a destination for leisure travel and recreation, while also enhancing Oklahoma’s ability to attract business investment. ~ Dick Dutton, Executive Director Tourism Governor Mary Fallin recently announced that three major research studies on the impact of tourism in Oklahoma show direct travel spending reached an all-time high of $8.9 billion in 2014.

That figure makes travel and tourism the third-largest industry in the state.

“Oklahoma has experienced a tremendous growth in tourism and recreation businesses, destinations and sites which greatly enhance not only our ability to attract visitors and improve Oklahomans’ quality of life but also creates jobs and revenue for our state,” said Fallin. “The money spent at these scenic spots and recreation destinations is a boon for local communities and the state of Oklahoma.”

The studies commissioned by the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department revealed that nearly 20.9 million travelers visited the state in 2014.

Visitor spending in Oklahoma generated $972 million in tax revenue, including $366 million for state government. That is a 15 percent increase over 2010.

The studies also showed that the tourism department’s most recent advertising campaign, which encourages visitors to “Come See for Yourself,” has had a return on investment of 7-to-1 in generating state and local taxes, said Oklahoma Department of Tourism Executive Director, Dick Dutton.

Dutton said the most exciting finding in the studies was the impact tourism advertising has on economic development.

“When out-of-state residents had viewed our tourism advertising and then visited the state, they were dramatically more likely to see Oklahoma as a good place to live, start a career and start a business,” said Dutton. “Thus, a dual purpose of tourism marketing is realized. It has a positive impact on the state’s image as a destination for leisure travel and recreation, while also enhancing Oklahoma’s ability to attract business investment.”

Full reports, a research summary infographic, and link to a Travel Impacts Interactive Website are available at travelok.com/industry_reports.

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Muskogee Opens First New Tech Academy in Oklahoma Instilling the principles of ‘agency’ helps students find personal relevance in their work and motivates them to participate actively, build relationships and understand how they impact themselves and their communities.

~ Brian Doerner Principal, New Tech Academy

New Tech Academy students in Muskogee took this photograph to illustrate their studies on racial amity recently.

The New Tech Academy practices project-based learning.

Muskogee Public Schools (MPS) became the first district in Oklahoma to implement a New Tech Network program with the opening of New Tech Academy at Alice Robertson Junior High School this school year.

tenets of “agency,” students see effort and practice in a new light, and associate both as growth paths and, ultimately, success, said Brian Doerner, Principal at the New Tech Academy.

MPS’s 2013 bond issue provided the funding to build a $4.3 million facility for New Tech Academy, which includes four collaborative classrooms, which divide easily with partitions into eight as needed, solar panels and a wind turbine.

“Agency is another major learning outcome for students, and it is actually 10 percent of the student’s grade in each of their New Tech Academy classes,” Doerner said. “Instilling the principles of ‘agency’ helps students find personal relevance in their work and motivates them to participate actively, build relationships and understand how they impact themselves and their communities.”

In addition, the Muskogee (Creek) Nation, City of Muskogee Foundation, Education Foundation of Muskogee, Dal-Tile and the Ruby Family Foundation made donations to get New Tech Academy off the ground. The Creek Nation donated $170,000 to purchase the New Tech Network program, and has pledged continued support.

New Tech Academy is employing project-based learning throughout every course the 200 seventh- and eighthgraders who attend take, including science, math, geography, English and more. Project-based learning has been a quality experience for both students and teachers alike at New Tech Academy. The students gain knowledge and skills through researching a “problem” with guidance from the teacher or “facilitator,” and through such research, they gain a deeper understanding of a topic.

The Three Pillars of New Tech Academy are trust, respect and responsibility. All three character virtues are stressed to New Tech students daily and in each class. Through the

Each teacher or “facilitator” at New Tech Academy has received a great deal of training for project-based learning. The training is rigorous and includes extensive, individualized coaching and guidance provided by New Tech Network.

Teacher Brett Nichelson said his early years of teaching were about controlling learning rather than interaction in the classroom. The New Tech training has taught him a different approach.

“With on-the-job training in the classroom, I’ve learned that interaction between students and a teacher/student relationship is the productive struggle which allows learning as a measuring tool,” he said. “For our students, having that trust and responsibility at this age and generation is crucial for students to have a buy-in value and achieve success.”

Students gather in the communal area for the first day of school at Muskogee’s New Tech Academy school.

The first project students at New Tech Academy participated in was this cardboard boat for Muskogee’s River Rumba Regatta.

They began the project over the summer before New Tech Academy had opened with science teacher Marybeth Flusche.

The team of 7th-graders won the Team Award at the event.

Working in groups allows students to build the skills they will need in the real world, New Tech Academy teacher Tyler Cramer said. They are able to bring their strengths to a group and share them with the strengths of others – something that isn’t always easy, but always contributes to a growth mindset. “They find out very quickly that communicating effectively is the quickest way to find a solution to a problem,” he said.

New Tech students and their teachers hope with every project to find a real-world solution and through that effort, to learn more about the world around them.

Heidi Flanary’s classes switch groups for each project and use a variety of methods to form their groups. “We’ve let the students choose one friend, or the teacher has chosen paired groups,” she said. “Other times we’ve used a spinner to choose groups randomly. Working together with different types of people takes the students out of their comfort zone to some degree. And it also pushes them to find their strengths to bring to the table.”

Students at New Tech Academy are already showing great improvement in student success – and in their attitude about education. If the students fail on a portion of a problem or project, the facilitator ensures that they “fail forward.”

“I have seen a greater care for grades received. The students know the grade they receive is a reflection of the effort they put in,” Cramer said. “If a student receives a poor grade, they seek my advice on where they went wrong and work again to correct it. They use all available resources to overcome a challenge instead of instantly asking me for the answers.”

New Tech Academy teachers Mackenzie Whitlock and Steve Thomas co-teach their geography and literature classes.

Among the projects they’ve completed was “The Long Walk to Water.” The project asked students to research water problems faced by the people of Africa. They found many African villages have to walk miles just to bring enough water home for their daily use.

“Our students experienced this walk by actually filling onegallon and five-gallon containers and walking for various distances around our large campus,” Thomas said. They also researched various ideas that would greatly reduce the unsafe water conditions in Africa. As they researched, they became aware that people all over the world face unsafe and shrinking water supplies – even in the United States.

“From this awareness, could there be born an idea that might greatly benefit people around the world?” he said.

“We hope so.”

For more information on New Tech Academy, please visit http://arjh.mpsi20.org/newtech, which includes slideshows of several class projects. For more information on New Tech Networks, please visit newtechnetwork.org.

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OneNet Partners with Norman Public Schools, OU to Boost Innovation, Cost Savings OneNet recently collaborated with the Norman Public School District and Information Technology Shared Services at the University of Oklahoma to form an innovative technology cost-sharing alliance.

OU Information Technology Shared Services was first introduced in 2011 as a way to reduce costs and realize statewide savings in Oklahoma by sharing services, hardware, software, training and expertise. The new affiliation with Norman Public Schools expands OU’s initiative to K-12 schools in Norman.

After Norman Public Schools faced a series of facility and hardware challenges, it became critical for the district to quickly find a cost-effective way to modernize and protect their data and computing infrastructure. On campus, OU had completed the Four Partners Place data center facility, a technology hub created to meet both administrative computing needs and the supercomputing requirements of OU researchers and faculty. To help make the connection, the two organizations turned to OneNet, a division of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education that provides Internet services for both the university and the public school system.

“OneNet works continually to ensure our state has the advanced network required for learning, exploring, and competing in today’s digital age,” said Chancellor Glen D. Johnson. “Innovative partnerships like this one are vital to extend those capabilities within communities across Oklahoma.”

OneNet deployed a virtual, high-speed interconnect from OU’s data center to Norman Public Schools, allowing the school’s information technology team to operate as though OU’s data center is an extension of the district’s own data center.

“Many of today’s applications are designed to be delivered from an on-site data center,” said Vonley Royal, OneNet’s executive director. “By extending OU’s data center capabilities to Norman Public Schools, the district can provide the applications that best meet their needs. This private interconnection removes limitations, improves reliability and offers opportunities for future growth.”

“Today, our district has modernized and streamlined much of its computing infrastructure, using server virtualization and moving the systems and data into OU’s facilities,” said Jack Green, director of technology services for Norman Public

Schools. The district pays a monthly fee that helps OU offset some of their data center costs.

The technology sharing allows both organizations to continue to focus more of their limited resources on students.

“Cross-jurisdictional sharing is an important opportunity for the public sector in Oklahoma and particularly for education,” said David Horton, an IT administrator at OU. “Technology resources are both critical and expensive, and it’s great when our teams can find creative ways to work together and bring value to our constituencies.”

“The cost savings are significant,” said Nick Migliorino, Norman Public Schools’ assistant superintendent of administrative services and chief technology officer. “The district would normally have to spend more than $400,000 annually, not counting the cost of the facilities, which could run as high as $2 million to build, maintain, and operate the facility.”

“Additionally,” Migliorino noted, “district data is securely partitioned from OU’s data, and vice versa. Each of the entities has its own security measures in place, even before connecting with servers.”

Aside from budgetary benefits, this collaboration enables other opportunities for the institutions to work more closely together. “OU has many programs that work closely with our future students,” said Aaron Bighorse, IT architect for the university. “In the past, technology was sometimes a barrier to those efforts,” he said. “Collaborations like this help remove some of those barriers, and the sky is the limit on what we can do together moving forward.”

Communities in Oklahoma Rally Behind Diversifying Education and Building a Better Workforce Continued from page 1 Through STEM Empowers OK, we will engage a new generation of scientists and engineers across Oklahoma... We could not ask for better partners than OCAST and OSSM. These organizations support new entrepreneurs and future scientists and engineers who are motivated to solve the world’s toughest challenges. ~ Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO, GE Primed for Innovation GE recently sponsored a week-long STEM program for up to 50 students at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM) and launched an open innovation challenge.

The initiatives are part of STEM Empowers OK, and will invite students from schools throughout the state to share ideas.

Much of the funding from the GE Foundation will support internships, mentoring and scholarship opportunities for

Oklahoma students, as well as a new summer GE STEM Fellowship program for Oklahoma teachers. The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) will manage the Open Innovation Challenge.

“Through STEM Empowers OK, we will engage a new generation of scientists and engineers across Oklahoma,” said Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO, GE. “We could not ask for better partners than OCAST and OSSM. These organizations support new entrepreneurs and future scientists and engineers who are motivated to solve the world’s toughest challenges.”

GE’s Global Research Oil and Gas Technology Center in Oklahoma City will be the company’s main source of involvement.

The STEM bug is spreading throughout the state due to many of the technology and science companies that are based there, driving achievement to new levels. In Lawton, the graduation rate recently exceeded the state average.

“We’re proof of what’s possible,” Deighan says, “when a community rallies around education.”

Global Company Adds Jobs in Ada, Okla. iQor has committed to creating 100 new jobs in their Ada, Okla. facility, while preserving the jobs for the more than 150 current employees. The Florida-based call center signed an agreement recently to expand their Oklahoma operations in order to accommodate their growing demand. “iQor is a valuable member of our business community, diversifying the Ada area economy while providing professional experience to many who may not be able or interested in manufacturing jobs, such as college students,” said Michael Southard, President of Ada Jobs Foundation.

“The Ada facility is one of T-Mobile’s perennial top performing in-bound call centers. iQor employees develop customer service skills and the eight-week training teaches conflict resolution techniques that can be used throughout their life.”

Representatives from the Ada Jobs Foundation, Oklahoma Department of Commerce, and Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education met with iQor Corporate Executives prior to the company choosing to expand in Oklahoma. “By establishing and maintaining partnerships with communities like Ada,” said Christie Myers, Business Development Director for

the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, “the Oklahoma Department of Commerce can build on existing relationships in areas across the state, reaching more companies and supporting expanding businesses.” “iQor offers high quality, value-added, technical support for a variety of customers across the world,” said Tera Bradstreet, VP of Operations for iQor. “The quality of workforce, high value for customer care, and facility is why we chose to expand in Ada, Oklahoma.”

As part of the agreement, iQor extended their lease through 2021 for the building located at the intersection of Kerr Research Drive and IRT Boulevard. In addition, iQor plans to make considerable investment in training of employees, equipment upgrades, and capital investments to the facility.

About iQor: iQor, based in St. Petersburg, FL is a global provider of business process outsourcing and product support services with 32,000 employees in 17 countries. Their awardwinning technology, logistics and analytics platforms enable them to measure, monitor, and analyze brand interactions.

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900 N. Stiles Ave. Oklahoma City, OK 73104-324

Upcoming Events

NEW PIONEER A PRODUCT OF THE OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

PUBLIC HEARING FOR DOE WEATHERIZATION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM STATE PLAN March 16, 2016 Edmond, OKACAA Office 1:30 p.m.

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Kimberly Hickerson

The Weatherization Assistance Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), enables low-income families to reduce their average annual energy bills by improving home energy efficiency.

The Oklahoma Department of Commerce is holding the hearing to receive comments on this year’s U.S. Department of Energy Weatherization Assistance Program State Plan which is administered through local Community Action Agencies.

For more information about the public hearing or the Weatherization program, contact Marshall Vogts, Oklahoma Department of Commerce, at 815-5374, Marshall.Vogts@OKcommerce.gov MEMORIAL DAY Monday, May 25, 2016 State Offices Closed

CONTRIBUTORS: Stefanie Appleton, Bryan Boone, April Goode, Wendy Burton, Crystal Villarreal PHOTO CREDITS: Oklahoma Department of Commerce, Muskogee Public Schools FOR NEW PIONEER SUBMISSIONS AND STORY IDEAS CONTACT: Kimberly Hickerson Editor-in-Chief - New Pioneer Oklahoma Department of Commerce 900 N. Stiles Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73104 (405) 815-5240 kimberly.hickerson@okcommerce.gov facebook.com/OKcommerce @OKcommerce OKcommerce.gov issuu.com/newpioneerOK