Diverse communities, diverse school districts, gear up for new STEM programs

When policy leaders talk about what makes an effective STEM initiative, they often explain that it's not enough to establish single, one-off STEM schools. The key is to grow those programs across a state or nation in ways that keep the essential DNA of what makes a good STEM school -- while reflecting the needs of individual communities.

This fall, three school districts in very different communities will begin -- or substantially expand -- STEM programs in their classrooms, taking the best of what STEM has to offer and applying their own local spin.

In Butler County, the 840-student New Miami Local Schools will expand high school STEM offerings after fully implementing STEM in grades K-8 last year. That will make New Miami the first K-12 STEM district in the state.

The Perkins Local Schools in Sandusky will open this fall to new STEM programs at Perkins High School and Briar Middle School. Briar is converting each of its grades to STEM, while the high school is implementing STEM course by course.

Meanwhile, the Reynoldsburg City Schools just east of Columbus is launching the eSTEM Academy in grades 9 and 10, adding a grade each year until grades 9-12 are all part of the school.

In this article, STEMscape takes a look at what those students and teachers will see when they return to school in the fall.

New Miami

New Miami implemented STEM in grades K-8 last year, says Robert Fischer, principal at both New Miami Middle School and New Miami High School. While ninth-graders took an introductory course called STEM I last year, they'll notice a more robust STEM curriculum this fall.

"Last year we enrolled all of our freshman students in the STEM I class, which was an introduction to technology," Fischer says. "Any other sophomore, junior or senior that we were able to get in we put in there as well."

This coming school year, those students will be taking STEM II, a course to familiarize students with technological design, technological issues and "how the impact of technology is part of our daily life."

Additionally, New Miami High School will beef up high school science and math classes and pursue more cross-curricular projects using technology. Fischer says the school is working with the Butler County and Warren County educational service centers, as well as the Ohio STEM Learning Network (OSLN) to "take our current curriculum and make sure that we're aligning things cross-curricularly, not only with the STEM standards, but with the state standards."

Down the road, the school hopes to add advanced design and technology classes for juniors and a "capstone" project for seniors.

Fischer says that as the school moves slowly but steadily toward a more robust STEM environment, all students -- as well as the community -- will benefit.

"Because we're such a low-income school, one of the things we want to do is some job shadowing and getting our kids to see how the things we're teaching them at school impact their daily lives," Fischer says. "We want our kids to be able to seek those opportunities."

Perkins High School

An increased emphasis on team teaching and a nine-period school day will be two of the more noticeable differences when Perkins students begin school this fall, says principal Chris Gasteier.

Instead of implementing STEM on a grade-by-grade basis, the school will take a course-by course approach marked by increased collaboration. For example, students in the school's tech-prep class will be led by both a physics teacher and a computer teacher.

"That's going to be kind of a physics and robotics class combined," Gasteier says. "It will be a double period for us, and they'll be team teaching with the same kids."

A team-teaching approach will also be used for a Holocaust course taught through the English and social studies departments as well as for an art and technology course taught by one of the school's art teachers and a computer teacher.

"We're working it in slowly -- but there are three or four other classes we're going to pilot this year to see how they work," Gasteier says. "This will be very new, we've not done it before, but I suspect we'll be doing a lot more cross-curricular teaching the following year and, certainly, we're looking at problem-based learning, project-based learning. Every student has an Apple MacBook, and we're hoping that will make the flow of information back and forth between teachers a little easier and also from teachers to different classes."

Schedules are being refined as curriculum is modified, he says. By expanding to nine periods from seven last year, teachers will all have a common planning period.

Meanwhile, Perkins will be planning the eventual implementation of four academies -- think of them as majors in a college program -- in the arts, the humanities, STEM and entrepreneurship. While students in the STEM academy will be fully immersed in the STEM approach, students in the other academies will be able to take STEM courses.

Briar Middle School

Stephen Finn, principal at Briar Middle School, says conversion of that school to STEM is reflected in the creation of six teacher teams -- two for each grade -- which will each be accountable for about 100 students.

"They will have those kids all day long with the flexibility that they can design their day accordingly. So, for example, if they want to work on a project all day long, that group can make that decision."

Each team, which will include core course teachers as well as a special education teacher, will work together in a four-room area to promote collaboration and so students don't have to stray far from home base.

"We're going to start slow and hopefully end up big. Each team has already decided some of the projects they're going to work on -- some of them are individual team projects and some of them are grade-level projects."

Reynoldsburg eSTEM Academy

"When school starts, the kids will notice that what's very different is that the classes are very integrated," says Leslie Kelly, eSTEM Academy principal. "So the kids should clearly be able to see the connection between their math class, their science class and their humanities classes. Their classes will all have a strong inquiry base, and we also have an environmental theme that is cohesive throughout the program." Hence, eSTEM.

Kelly cautions that the environmental bent of the eSTEM Academy should not be misunderstood as "one where we just talk about why we need to save the trees -- it's really about kids understanding their footprint and how their footprint impacts the world."

Kelly says environmental issues emerged during discussions about how the schools new STEM curricula could relate to the local community. A new building, which will house the program starting in 2011, will be a LEED certified silver building, complete with geothermal heating. Not just that, but "we have some of the richest wetlands in (nearby) Licking County. So we are going to do a little wetland reclamation out there, we are going to be building an Ecolab that we can use as an outdoor classroom. And we are going to have an agricultural site where we can look at doing some planting and growing."

While eSTEM Academy will have a robust program of its own, Kelly says collaborating with other schools will be important as a way to enrich students' STEM experience. The academy isn't wasting any time; already on the drawing board is a collaborative design challenge with other OSLN schools that is focused on amusement parks.