Our STEAM theme: Engineering a Global Perspective is integrated throughout content areas, making our program unique and innovative. Each value-added project is based on our school's six value-added standards.
Teachers refer to these value added standards on their daily lessons slides to show students the connections to classroom projects.
• Identify questions and use critical thinking to guide their own investigations
• Use the textbook as a reference tool rather than as the main or only source of information
• Use data collection tools to observe, analyze, and report results
• Use technical drawing to enhance understanding of scientific concepts
• Analyze community issues and needs to identify problems
• Plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions
• Cultivate partnerships with local and community professionals in the STEAM fields
• Participate in service-learning projects/activities aligned with the value added standards
• Contribute to online, collaborative citizen science and engineering projects
• Reflect on the investigative process and the role of the Arts in designing solutions
• Employ the engineering design process to generate new ideas, products or processes
• Engage in a variety of reflective processes to focus learning and achieve deeper understanding
• Use creativity and critical thinking skills to express ideas, identify problems, engineer solutions and make informed decisions
• Use digital tools and media rich resources to express personal learning in a creative format such as Everest Trek (math), Model UN (social) and Destination Imagination (after school)
• Engage in a wireless technology-rich environment, to seamlessly integrate technology and communication into the learning process
• Use effective design elements to create engaging and powerful communication
• Collaborate, interact, and publish with peers, experts or others, using a variety of digital media tools
• Create and build an e-portfolio to demonstrate learning, record progress toward goal and house products/accomplishments
• Analyze how human nature influences STEAM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, the arts and math)
• Draw conclusions about the effects of STEAM disciplines to student experiences and in our lives see how human nature influences STEM and explore
• Seek and engage in a culturally-rich learning environment by exploring diverse global perspectives
• Interact with students and experts from culturally diverse backgrounds through video conferencing and Web 2.0 tools (interactive information sharing)
• Revise opinions, when evidence supports the change by exploring divergent perspectives encountered through academic experiences
• Contribute to online collaborative projects with classrooms across the globe (Weaver Lake, Africa, and China)
• Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge about societal and global problems
• Explore societal issues, problems and ethical dilemmas
• Apply STEAM skills and understanding to examine social issues, solve real problems and make concrete decisions
• Develop achievable action plans to solve authentic, real-world problems
• Demonstrate leadership and confidence by implementing action plans toward societal change
• Evaluate social action outcomes and make necessary revisions