Mr. Davis’ Cleveland Computer Science Principles class developed a winning program in the semiannual CMU Academy competition. One of his student’s programs won in the unrestricted submissions category—unrestricted because of the coding languages and complexity that he used to develop the game The game can be played here! Congratulations to Cleveland! 

A huge group of students from Franklin, Lincoln, and Roosevelt traveled to Mt. Rainier for a day of learning and conservation work. Thank you to Ms. Fox, Ms. Speidell, and Ms. Wilson for organizing this incredible trip!

Business and Marketing students from Garfield, Roosevelt, Lincoln, and West Seattle competed in DECA, a career and technical student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs with a career interest in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. Across all three schools, hundreds of students attended area competition. Among these, 144 are going to state competition and over 10 students will proceed to International Career Development Conference for outstanding achievements in their competition areas. Roosevelt’s Green and Gold Exchange earned Gold Certification for the 2024-2025 school year– their marketing and school based enterprises were approved for the highest rating.

Nathan Hale Health and Medical students in Dr. Umdor-Singh’s class had Stop the Bleed training during Anatomy and Physiology classes. Training was provided by nurses who volunteer at the Office of Emergency Department. Meanwhile at Roosevelt, future healthcare professionals (HOSA members) earned CPR certification. These crucial trainings can save lives. This crucial training can save lives. We are grateful to Dr. U-S and Ms. Coulthard at Roosevelt for organizing.

Pasta, pizza, smoothies, crepes, and more! Ingraham students in Ms. Motter’s class have been busy making delicious creations this year. Follow the Ingraham Culinary Students scrumptious creations! Our culinary and hospitality teachers teach students food safety, with all students getting the opportunity to earn their Washington State Food Worker Card in Culinary Arts and Nutrition and Wellness classes. Students learn the ins and outs of creating delicious food, nutrition, and management.

Congratulations to the Parent Education Lab (PEL) at Alan T. Sugiyama for earning a quality rating of a Level 4 Center with Early Achievers! This rating is a remarkable achievement and highlights the quality of parent education available to SPS students who are parents. Congratulations to Ms. Visscher on this accomplishment! Learn more about the PEL.

Health and Medical Students Visit Seattle Children’s

Nathan Hale students visited Seattle Children’s Discovery lab to learn all about ELISA and how ELISA is used to detect the presence of antibodies in simulated patient samples using a color changing result. Special focus was given to the research and innovation side of work at Seattle Children’s. Thank you Dr. Umdor-Singh for organizing this incredible field trip!

Chickenados and Not to Scale in Robotics Competition

Ingraham Robotics went on an emotional rollercoaster at the Capek Semi Finals.  

The Chickenados (pictured below) finished first in the qualification matches and they picked Not to Scale as their alliance partner (two Ingraham teams uniting!).  Not to Scale finished 10th out of 24 teams.

Not to Scale won the Innovate Award (given for bringing great ideas from concept to reality–they totally deserve it!)  Which means they advanced to the Washington State championship, on February 1, in Seattle.

Chickenados had an outstanding year, and for many of them it was their first season. They had a relatively simple and fast robot that didn’t break, had well-thought-out code and a great rooky drive team!  

Read more about the upcoming state championship, which is for the top 24 out of 181 teams in Washington.

Roosevelt HS DECA State Qualifications

153 Roosevelt High School students competed in DECA (business and marketing student organization) in January 2025! 98 students qualified for state competition and 9 students qualified in first place. Huge congratulations to Mr. McGinn and Ms. Carter and all of the Roosevelt students who competed!

Denny and Mercer MS Students Program Ozobots!

Hundreds of students from Denny and Mercer middle schools tried their hand at programming and working with robotics during a large scale trip to Amazon. Students worked alongside Amazon employees to race their robots through a pre-set maze!

Nathan Hale Students Learn About Life as an EMT

Dr. Umdor-Singh organized an exciting field trip for her students to learn about EMT careers and undergo CPR training with the Seattle Fire Department on December 4. Students are still talking about how much the trip opened their eyes to different opportunities in the health and medical field. Their trip included a speed networking session with fire fighters and EMTs and students are now asking about internships and other ways to learn more!

Civil Engineering Careers with ACE Mentors

Students joined their mentors to learn more about civil engineering jobs as part of the ACE program. 139 Seattle Public Schools participate in ACE after school, meeting with career mentors and learning more about careers in architecture, construction, and engineering. Great to see this marriage of skilled trades, STEM, and creativity.

Hour of Code Partners Bring Computer Science to Life

CTE and Digital Learning partnered with industry and academic/research partners to bring exciting hour of code activities to grades 3-12! This week, we’ve had partners from University of Washington meet with our advanced middle and high school computer science classes, leading research talks, job talks and coding exercises for over 500 students. On the industry side of the field, we had representatives from Google, MineCraft, Microsoft and Amazon join classrooms. Early exposure to computer science, hearing multiple perspectives on the same field, coupled with technical training will help us prepare our students for post-secondary careers in tech!

Elementary School Robotics Teams Gear Up for December Competition

Over 20 elementary schools are exploring careers and STEM by competing in the First Lego League Robotics competition this December! Pictured are students at Lafayette and Arbor Heights. Students are preparing by building sets and coding robots ahead of the December competition.

Just like in the modern workplace, students divide into groups of researchers, project managers, coders, and building/materials managers to get the job done. Early exposure to coding, design-thinking, and working as a team is essential to connecting our students to careers of the future! Read more about FLL Robotics here or watch the video below!

Roosevelt HOSA Back to Work!

Career and Technical Education offers students leadership opportunities in our 9 pathways. At Roosevelt, HOSA helps connect students interested in health care with trends in the labor market of the future. Pictured below are students at leadership events last year and this’s fall leadership conference along with advisor, Ms. Coulthard! Find an opportunity at your school by checking out the CTE Student Leadership Opportunity page.

DECA Western Region Leadership Conference

On Friday November 8, Roosevelt high school DECA sent their 7 student leadership team to engage in networking, leadership training, and competition at the DECA Western Region Leadership Conference. Two students were recognized for outstanding achievement in the Marketing role-play event. The next step for Roosevelt DECA is the Area 2 competition on January 9^th  followed by the Virtual Business Challenge January 14-24^th. It’s never too early to start exploring careers– get involved at your school today!

Inventor of Bluetooth Technology Visits Chief Sealth

Ms. Martin and Ms. Dotrong from Chief Sealth HS hosted Jaap Haartsen, inventor of Bluetooth wireless technology in their second period classes. Mr. Haartsen described the technical and business processes of getting the Bluetooth patent in place, describing sharing spectrums via wifi, frequency hopping, and existing technologies that he synthesized to develop this innovative technology. We are very grateful to INVENT.ORG for helping coordinate this visit– what a treat for our staff and students!

Franklin HS Unified Robotics Compete in Renton

A good time was had by all at the Renton Liberty High School on Sunday November 17^th at the Unified Robotics competition. The Franklin HS team placed 5^th out of 10 in their Division, briefly holding second place. Their robot race-car performed reliably and even won the “innovation” award! Thank you to the volunteers, students, families, and administrators that made this happen!

Classroom to Career Day at Chief Sealth

Ms. Temple and Ms. Filley-Bentler from Chief Sealth held the second annual Classroom to Career Day at Chief Sealth International High School last week. Students enjoyed a BIPOC Speaker Spotlight presentation during which students heard about career and college journeys, followed by a huge career fair in the library featuring college, career, and internship program opportunities! How did this impact students? Below is some feedback:

• “I tried out some of the tools and equipment they brought, and it gave me a chance to experience that trade and see my future in it.”
• “It reinforced that health care is the path I want to pursue, and there are many options within that field to explore.

ACE Mentorship Kick-Off Draws a Crowd at Cleveland HS

Hundreds of ACE mentees , including 139 students from Ballard, Chief Sealth, Cleveland, Franklin, Garfield, Ingraham, Lincoln, Middle College, Nathan Hale, West Seattle, and Roosevelt gathered at Cleveland High School this week to meet their mentors and kick off a year of learning in architecture, construction, and engineering. Stay tuned for updates on SPS students participating in ACE this year, and check out the ACE website to learn more!

Ballard Videography Students Create PSAs

Wash your hands! Protect your hearing! Promoting local non-profit organizations! Ballard high school videography students created public service announcements both general, and for local non-profits. Completing work-based learning activities while learning technical skills and having fun are hallmarks of career and technical learning. See below stills from Mr. Bradford’s class! Check back for a live link to view student work.

Roosevelt Brings HMT/BioMed Equipment Speaker

Career Connected Learning Coordinator at Roosevelt, Mr. Rho brought in a speaker to share information on health management technology and biomed equipment technology. Learn more about pathways in health and medicine by visiting our pathways pages!

Nova Curriculum Night Brings Colleges, Programs to Students

Nova’s Career Connected Learning Coordinator brough college and career readiness partners to Nova’s curriculum night, welcoming Seattle Colleges tables, Seattle University, as well as Career and Technical Education and Pre-Apprenticeship Pathways. Students shared their careers of interest and talked with colleges and programs about different pathways to their futures!

Environmental Science Class Works with Port of Seattle Mentors

Environmental Science students from West Seattle High School got their hands dirty, working with Port of Seattle mentors to survey and design sustainable green spaces. Thank you so much to CTE Teacher Ms. Murdock for organizing this hands-on learning opportunity for students, connecting them directly with industry while exploring the science of the environment.

Pre-Apprenticeship Program at Interagency and Ingraham High School

Pre-apprenticeship at Ingraham and Interagency high school is in full swing with students learning welding, carpentry, and CAD Design!

High school students from all schools are eligible to join a pre-apprenticeship class at Interagency High School and Ingraham High School. Interagency is still accepting students into the program this semester and next semester. This pre-apprenticeship is a Labor and Industry-recognized training program. Students who earn certification can qualify for a priority hire for trades through apprenticeships and on Seattle Public Schools construction projects.

If you are interested in learning more, contact Jay Connolly at jcconnolly@seattleschools.org.

Coping 101: Nathan Hale Podcast Destigmatizes Mental Health Issues

Nathan Hale’s Coping 101 podcast was recently featured on the news! Based out of c89.5 which is located at Nathan Hale, students use the podcast to tackle sensitive topics relevant to young people today. Grateful to our student leaders and partners at c89.5 for helping bring this project to life. “This project won’t end the many pressures and challenges teens face, but as the name says, it can help them learn how best to cope”. Read more and learn how to tune in!

Garfield and Lincoln Technical Theater Students Win Thespys!

Congratulations to Thespy (theater conference) winners from Lincoln, who won in Set Design and Garfield, who won in Costume Design. Students in fields including stage management ,sound design, and costume construction and design won honorable mentions! Read more about the conference and our SPS students !

Career Quest and Skills Center Students Shine in Summer Classes

Seattle Skills Center students and Career Quest interns had a blast with various kinds of hands-on learning. Pictured below are images from: Career Choices (automotive week), Careers in Education (coaching edition!), Introduction to Medical Careers, Culinary Arts, and some student work from our Media Arts class. Thank you for a wonderful summer, teachers and students!