Want to learn how your child can learn crucial skills to be successful in the 21st-century job market?
Wondering how STEM can make your child a curious, analytical, and strategic risk taker in the classroom?
In this article, you’ll discover how a STEM classroom will transform your child’s learning, and help them embrace the four identified crucial 21st Century Skills needed for Success…
Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Communication
According to Education Week, the number of available jobs in STEM fields is growing each year. The problem is, there are more job openings than there are qualified STEM employees, which means tech companies are willing to pay these individuals a higher wage and better benefits.
A good STEM classroom engages students in developing solutions to real-world problems and challenges through engineering and technological design combined with scientific and mathematical inquiry. Students develop a set of critical thinking, reasoning and creative skills that grow through research and collaborative teamwork. All the skills needed to be successful in the 21st-century job market.
What is STEM?
Livescience.com classifies STEM as a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. Rather than teach the four disciplines as separate and discrete subjects, STEM integrates them into a cohesive learning paradigm based on real-world applications.
In simple terms, STEM integrates SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING and MATH into the classroom using hands-on, real-world applications. Students in a STEM classroom are learning at a high level.
“[Science] is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world…”
President Barack Obama, March 23, 2015
A STEM Classroom:
- is active and exuberant as student learning is collaborative and project-based
- involves students working closely together in a hands-on way to solve real-world problems
- engages students in inquiry-based instruction
A STEM Student:
- is a curious, analytical, and strategic risk taker
- communicates effectively
- thinks scientifically, mathematically, and creatively
A STEM School:
- is collaborative and dynamic
- integrates STEM into all content areas
- establishes global connections
The Spark STEM Academies in CFBISD will launch for the 2018-2019 school year at Blanton, Freeman, Rainwater, Riverchase, and McLaughlin Strickland Elementary schools.
Every day students will participate in STEM challenges in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics focusing on collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking.
Spark is available at these CFB campuses:
The Elementary STEM Academies in CFBISD will engage students in developing solutions to real-world problems and challenges through engineering and technological design combined with scientific and mathematical inquiry. Students in our academies will become the future leaders in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
Applications for Admission open January 26, 2018
