The American School of Asuncion was proud to host the 2nd Annual Virtual Music Fest. This artistic and intellectual event was a collaboration with 5 other international schools in Latin America and Europe, including Colegio Nueva Granada in Colombia and The American School of Paris in France. This event is taking place virtually from Nov 4th - 6th and there are a limited number of middle and high school students participating. Students will experience a series of workshops held by professional music educators on topics such as vocal performance, instrument techniques, improvisation, and orchestrating digital music. ASA is proud to be a regional host and leader of artistic, intellectual, and academic virtual events through our partnership with other LACIS schools. These types of events provide a similar community and team building experience as sports, while also enriching students' lives with diverse and authentic experiences. During semester 2, students will have the option to participate in a Virtual Art Exhibition and a Virtual STEAM Conference. Details will be shared through the bulletin and elective teachers.

This year, ASA partnered with the Paraguayan Space Agency (AEP) to plan and present at the international Space Week. This was on Oct 4th - 10th and ASA shared a 1 hour video of our space science units and projects from multiple grade levels. This included the Jules Verne inspired Journey to the Moon projects in 5th grade, the Mission to Mars projects in 8th grade, and various engineering design projects from the high school STEAM electives, such as astrophotography and Arduino circuitry. There was also individual student contributions to our presentation, such as a 3D model of the solar system created by a 6th grade student and an exploration of star mapping software by a high school student. Find the official broadcast from the Paraguayan Space Agency on their YouTube channel.

ASA is a Common Sense School which we actively teach digital citizenship as part of our curriculum and are invested in a safe and secure online environment for our learners. This year during the month of October our counseling team and specific classroom teachers emphasized the need for digital citizenship skills, especially during our period of virtual learning. Staying safe, smart, and secure online requires digging deeper into your digital habits and asking yourself questions such as: "How can I keep my private data safe and secure?" or "How can I use media in healthy ways that give meaning and add value to my life?"

Pathways give students an idea of what life can look like after they graduate, often giving them this glimpse while they’re still in school. Students in pathways courses access learning experiences where they collaborative engage in authentic inquiry to create solutions to real-world problems. Students take the role of a scientist, developer, engineer, designer, or analyst through practical and theoretical experiences. These hands-on and real-world experiences include activities that develop career awareness, career exploration, career preparation, and on-the-job learning. Pathway opportunities provide young people with the vision, experiences, and skills they need to be successful in life. Students are also more engaged in their coursework if it’s connected to things they might do in their careers.

ASA students regularly participate in the OMAPA National Math Olympics and 2022 is no exception. This year ASA had several bronze, silver, and gold medals winners in multiple categories. The more math and science we know the more we can reshape our future. ASA helps lead the way for our community by providing our first-class facilities to national STEM competitions and events.

Every year during the month of December the focus is on computer coding. ASA participates in the global Hour of Code where every student spends an hour learning the basics of coding through fun and engaging activities. This is to demystify ‘code’ and show that anyone can learn the basics of computer science. It’s a necessary skill for the future, has great earning potential, and kids love it! ASA is onboard and opportunities are already scheduled for students from grades K-12. Computer science is a key piece to the STEAM program initiative we are developing and as always we appreciate the community support.

The American School of Asuncion, in collaboration with the Paraguayan Space AgencyAgencia Espacial del Paraguay, invited Dr. Jorge Kurita Nagasawa, engineering director at the Paraguayan Space Agency, to speak to our student body regarding space sciences and the current state of the Paraguayan Space Agency. As one of the Paraguayan Space Agency’s missions is to motivate students in the field of space science, we reached out to Dr. Kurita to share his experiences and insight regarding the recent successful launch of the Guarani SAT-1 and subsequent successful deployment from the International Space Station. These classroom visits targeted students who study space science as part of their grade-level curriculum.

ASA is developing partnerships with several community organizations that support and endorse STEAM learning. These partnerships are ongoing relationships that are slowly developed through collaborative event planning, such as the STEAM Expo and the Maker Faire, student participation, and promotion.

The ASA Design Cycle was selected by the STEAM Team committee in November 2019 to serve as the unifying approach to making, engineering, and design at ASA. This model is by no means perfect, but it does represent a common language and framework that teachers of all disciplines can use to guide students in making projects, collaborate together, and build transdisciplinary making experiences for our students.

Maker experiences and the ASA Design Cycle are based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) engineering framework of Define, Develop and Optimize. Teachers utilize the Understanding by Design (UbD) lesson philosophy and planning approach to ensure that there is a clear emphasis on standards and a vision of the assessment. Maker experiences are typically integrated units that fuse standards from multiple disciplines and are developed in coordination with the established curriculum at ASA

On Sept 10th and 11th, ASA teachers and staff kicked off the very first STEAM Educators Conference! This event included ASA teachers as well as other teachers from internationally-minded schools in Asuncion, such as Liberty and Trinity. The two-day conference focused on deepening STEAM educational pedagogy, teaching tools, and sharing experiences of best practices. Our amazing teachers explored the ASA Design Cycle and how using inquiry, creative thinking, and design engineering skills can help stimulate lifelong learning in our students. We also explored a variety of STEAM tools and resources, such as creation tools like TinkerCad for Arduino simulations, data repository websites like DataNuggets for scientific data sets, and coding tools like CodeHS and P5.js. ASA teachers are moving in the direction of the STEAM vision of creating authentic and relevant learning experiences where “ASA students design innovative solutions to 21st-century challenges through collaboration, communication, and creativity.”

Since the start of March, ASA has been inviting females leaders in the topics of science, math, engineering, art, and technology to come to our Makerspace and meet with high school female students. Females students are more likely to stayed engaged and committed to STEAM subjects when they are encouraged and supported by female role models. The purpose of this initiative is to ensure that our high school young ladies are able to meet the amazing female leaders of Paraguay and abroad that lead and contribute to STEAM subjects. During the month of March ASA hosted the following females leaders in STEAM:

• Maria Peroni - Architect, urban planner, ASA alumni, and alumni from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design

• Paula Burt - Coordinator of the Avina Foundation clean water sustainability

• Celeste Gonzalez - United Nations Development Program and Paraguay’s Environmental Ministry

The entire 8th-grade class pioneered a community connection with the National University of Asuncion (UNA) through a half-day visit to the College of Agricultural Sciences. Students studied the vast collection of mammals, fish, reptiles, and birds on display at the museum by sketching images of various creatures and labeling parts of their bodies that improved their survivability. They also explored the collection of 1000s of insects from butterflies to beetles and further documented the differences in physical structures through note-taking and diagrams. All students also explored the large research fields used by the university to study plant and insect interactions that impact agricultural production. This academic field trip is closely aligned with the biology topics that students are learning in middle school as well as being a key opportunity for students to explore college and career pathways. ASA looks forward to developing more community collaborations with the top university in Paraguay.

Every year teacher leaders from around North, Central, and South America come together for an educational conference hosted by AMISA (American International Schools in the Americas). These conferences bring the best and brightest minds together to share modern teaching strategies, educational research, and global educational trends. This year the 2022 AMISA Educators Conference was hosted by Graded School in Sao Paulo during the month of March. ASA sent seven STEAM educators to attend the conference and present various workshops on modern STEAM teaching and learning strategies. From our elementary school, Lilian Gonzalez presented about tech tools to facilitate learning for young students. From the high school, Katie Barnett-Rivas and Kerry Lederman co-presented on community connections and female leadership in STEAM subjects. While teachers are temporarily gone during these conference opportunities, the resulting energy and new ideas that they bring back to ASA always make the investment worthwhile.