RHMS STEAM Program

Professional Learning & Action Plan

Focus Area #1: CTSO's And HS Alignment

After meeting last year for our artifact review and certification process our first priority was to partner with Richmond Hill High School to evaluate their CTSOs that have been successful and how we can best align at the middle school. After talking with school leadership it was abundantly clear that there were several organizations on the high school's campus that had the best success rates. Those CTSOs being TSA and FBLA they already fit very well into the program and the curriculum we offer.

After additional conversations we decided that the CTSOs would not be just open to STEAM students during ELT time and after school, but the entire school to have the opportunity to embrace in an afterschool format. After giving teachers over the summer to think about it we secured the commitment of one of our teachers to start Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). Once the year started the club where they meet at least once a week to support local initiatives and prepare for upcoming assessments as well as FBLA sponsored competitions.

Richmond Hill Middle School_STEM_STEAM_Action Planning Document.docx

The STEAM program has placed an emphasis on preparing our teachers with what skills they feel they need as well as the objectives that align with the goals for our school and program. The STEAM program meets each week as a PLC for 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, and Connections and monthly as an entire STEAM program committee. In addition, the program meets outside of school hours with times during the summer on weekends to plan and prepare for what is coming up the following day and the following year.

Focus Area #2: Plan PBLs With Local Community Partners

This summer, teachers from across the RHMS STEAM program participated in a summer professional learning experience from the Georgia Department of Education, where they worked with professionals in different fields to create more robust and authentic project-based learning experiences. These experiences were integrated into the STEAM program and many have already been or are in the process of being implemented with the community partners that we collaborated with during the externships.

Focus Area #3: Focus on plans to transition from STEM to STEAM

Richmond Hill's local magazine Reflections profiled the RHMS STEAM program last year in their November 2021 issue. The main point of interest in this article revolved around why RHMS rebranded from STEM to STEAM. The biggest reason came down to a misinterpretation from the outside community that the arts was never a part of our program. The arts always have been and will be a part of our program and what we offer our students. Like any other component of our program, we are continuously looking at what we do, how we do it, what works, and what doesn't work to maximize the experience for our teachers. As our program has expanded, teachers have changed, and we've turned our attention toward STEAM program certification. An emphasis on the arts in our professional learning has been at the forefront of what we do to serve our teachers best.

As part of our ongoing commitment towards professional learning for our teachers with an emphasis on the arts, we have taken various steps. Some of these steps in professional learning have already been taken, and a few others are in the final planning stages for the second semester for teachers and students.

The first significant step involved completing an application for a GA DOE STEM/STEAM professional learning grant. These funds have been used to target 6th grade, 7th grade, and Connections classes, where we have identified from the teacher and student feedback to be the areas that could benefit from the most focus and support. RHMS has partnered with Science Friday to bring their Director of Audience and Education Director to Richmond Hill to work with our teachers to understand phenomena and their application in all subject areas, and how teachers and students communicate their content is the most crucial component for everyone in any learning experience. This ongoing process has aided our teachers in how they plan their instruction and how they include the interdisciplinary content they aim to create, including art.

Plant A Garden To Treat DiseaseStudents are challenged to plan and plant a garden that will grow produce rich in micronutrients to address specific illnesses in this applied agriculture and nutritional sciences lesson.

We've also used guidance from the Georgia Department of Education and virtual specialists to refine our practices. For example, our engineering design process was given a brief overhaul this summer as we analyzed it to ensure that it appropriately reflected our values. With feedback from Ali Beck from Tybee Maritime Island Maritime Academy, our EDP was given new life by providing it explicitly stated with a focus on the arts instead of relying on it just being talked about in classrooms, lessons, or implied for students. This updated EDP was also included in every engineering notebook, which for the first time since the program's inception, we have been able to give to every student in the program free of charge.

2022-23 Arts Integration.pptx

In addition, we've also created a professional learning series that we've conducted during PLCs and in our monthly committee meetings. These professional learning sessions included a session by Ali Beck about arts integration vs. enhancement, a session by Theatre Arts teacher Matthew Krueger about how to use acting and sports to teach students about verbal and non-verbal communication, sessions about media, and art styles to help define what art is by using Duchamp's Fountain to lead a discussion.

Moving forward for the second half of the 2022-23 school year, we hope to finalize plans to work with local artists such as Front Porch Improv in Savannah and artists from Arts on the Coast here in Richmond Hill.

Artist Statement (2).pdf

To help new teachers get a feel for STEAM for themselves, we took several groups to the Tybee Maritime Academy, where Ali Beck graciously hosted our teachers. By doing so teachers could see firsthand what a STEAM school looks like and compare it to what we do on our own campus to identify areas of strength, weakness, and questions they have about what we do and why we do it.