A new initiative in Delaplane, the STEAM* School will serve local homeschoolers and community members by providing learning and service opportunities. Families will collaborate with local businesses and organizations to answer the following question:

How can I use STEAM to benefit my community?

STEAM School Pedagogy

We believe that all children are valuable, special, talented and smart. We believe that children learn best when they are treated with respect, given choices, allowed to play, and taught developmentally appropriate skills within meaningful contexts. This means, rather than complete a worksheet about the weather, students go outside and experience it for themselves. Instead of being asked to memorize lists of facts about events, students learn through story, performance or travel to the historical site. Math is taught for use in real and meaningful situations, such as sharing snacks with classmates, following a recipe or planning a bake sale. Children learn to write through art, story-telling, letters to loved ones or by composing emails. Children learn how to be useful, helpful, self-sufficient and how to use their skills and talents for the community.

STEAM teachers provide meaningful contexts for developmentally appropriate learning.

STEAM students direct their learning within that context.

Day to Day

At the STEAM School, learners will:

• engage with real world problems using STEAM skills and knowledge
• spend time each day outside exploring and playing
• sing, dance, create art, learn languages, play with musical instruments, and learn to read music
• learn life-skills such as food preparation, cleaning, organizing, and being a positive community member
• learn to read and write for a purpose
• learn to use mathematics for a purpose
• conduct research on topics of their own interest
• visit and use the library for a purpose
• go on monthly field trips for hands-on science and social studies lessons
• visit local farms and experience the farming process
• cultivate an on-site garden and enjoy the products of their labor
• participate in fundraisers to benefit their co-op
• participate in community service

Join us in building a school for the future.

Preparing students for the careers of the future means providing them with opportunities to develop the skills of the future. Check out this neat graphic on the predicted work skills of the year 2020 from the Institute for the Future. Design thinking, media literacy, collaboration and interdisciplinary understanding may be required of our future workers.

Source: Institute for the Future www.iftf.org/futureworkskills

*What is STEAM?

STEAM is the new STEM, with a focus on integrating art with science, technology, engineering and mathematics. STEAM’s interdisciplinary approach leads to deeper understanding of all the subject areas. For an early learning example of STEAM in action, watch the video in the article from PBS on STEAM.