Aviation Club
Learn about drones, how to fly a plane, aviation mechanics, space travel, how to become a pilot, fiedtrips, and lots more. We have a 4 seat Piper Cherokee plane at Discovery Middle/Empowerment High School campus. To join the Aviation Club please contact Ms. Paula Paradiso at pparadiso@swschools.org - Discovery MS, Ms. Vivian Martinez at vmartinez@swschools.org - Empowerment HS, or Mrs. Tosha Felder-Washington, Aviation Club Advisor at tfelder@swschools.org.

Chess Club/Tournament
Aside from being just a fun and exciting game, chess can teach kids (and adults as well) many different lessons and emphasize many other skills that they can use for the rest of their lives.
Research has shown that student chess players show a significant advancement in spatial, numerical and administrative-directional abilities, along with verbal aptitudes. The improvements held true regardless of the final chess skill level attained. What’s more, it has been shown that students experience gains in cognitive development and also perform significantly better in their regular school testing as well as in standardized testing.
It’s clear that the fun and challenging game of chess can have a positive effect on motivation and school achievement.

Craft Club
As a learning activity, arts and crafts havetraditionally been passed over in favor of more academic pursuits, but crafts – particularly developmentally appropriate craft activities – can aid learning in other areas like language, music, art, social studies, science, math, health, and nutrition.

Crafts have been around since the beginning of time when people made everything they used with their hands. Crafts were initially created for trading, selling, spiritual or artistic expression, as well as creating personal and household articles.

Today, crafts are a great pastime and educational tool for kids. Craft allows kids to explore ideas or concepts and then express it by making something to keep, entertain others with or simply look at for visual pleasure. It’s a perfect way to encourage creativity and self-expression.

Math Club
The Southwest Schools’ Math Club goes beyond math concepts that are taught in the classroom. Club members discover, discuss and apply problem-solving techniques to mathematical problems – both theoretical and real-life.
Math club is a fun and competitive activity that any student can participate in. It is a great way for students to develop intuitive thinking skills and learn new types of math. Students will not only learn new material, but will apply their previous knowledge from school to fun and challenging problems. Furthermore, they will learn to view math not as a set of rules or guidelines, but as an art. Math is a subject full of creativity and opportunity that many students enjoy. Besides the academic benefits, math club is also a great way to meet new people and develop teamwork skills.

Minecraft Competition
Minecraft is a game about breaking and placing blocks. It’s more than just building structures, the game encourages players to work together to create wonderful, imaginative things.
Minecraft is an open-ended “sandbox” game where you construct and play in elaborate worlds. Some kids recreate famous pieces of architecture, others express their creativity through grand designs, but the experience is simple: in the free-form Minecraft sandbox, you can build practically anything your imagination can think up.

Schools, like Southwest, which understand that experimenting is an important part of learning, clued in to research that found that Minecraft can teach kids creative thinking, geometry and even a bit of geology, and research shows they can learn experimentation, teamwork and problem solving skills, as well.

Robotics Club
Robotics Club participation allows our club members to be exposed to robot concepts and technology. Robotics engineering relies on math, science, creativity and teamwork – all skills that can be used in the classroom and in life.