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RHMS STEAM Program
The goal of our selection process is to create a process that puts students' interests in the program at the forefront of the selection process. Each year Mr. Soash, RHMS's STEAM Program Director meets with every class of 7th and 6th graders at RHMS and every class of 5th graders at Frances Meeks, McAllister, and George Washington Carver elementary school to promote the program and STEAM Program Parent Info Night. This night coincides with the opening of the application process for all students.
The STEAM Selection Committee each year reviews the process with feedback from parents, teachers, and students to streamline the process for all involved as well as get the best perspective on the applicants. We emphasize that the program is not exclusively for gifted or enrichment students as it had been for many years in the past. The program is intended for students who are interested in the experiences the teachers within the program create and that students do not do more than their peers, but they do learn the same standards as their peers using different methods.
When students apply to the program they do so by completing two simple pieces. First, they fill out a Google Form that provides the basic information such as grade, name, parent name, and contact information. Afterward, they ask their current teachers to fill out a teacher recommendation form for them to apply to the program from the class set that the program provides to every 5th, 6th, and 7th-grade teacher on this side of the county. These recommendations are completed by the student's team of teachers and do not ask for a student's grades, but their interest in working with groups, giving or receiving feedback, solving problems that don't have one specific answer, and their greatest strengths as well as weaknesses. These forms are then submitted to the front office of each school and sent to Mr. Soash. From there each application is redacted of all personally identifiable information including grade, gender, special programs(504, ESS, ESOL, Gifted, etc.) Each form is then given an identification code and linked to the online personal information that was filled out at the first part of the application process.
After the application period closes every teacher recommendation is reviewed by three teachers based on the teacher's impression of whether or not the applicant would be interested and willing to participate in the program. Each application is scored based on a scale of 1-10 and given a score based on the mean rating from all three reviewers. The students that have a mean that is above the middle possible score are invited back for the second round of the application process. In this step, the students are placed into groups at random and given a simple engineering design challenge from a bank of possible options to prevent students and parents from preparing ahead of time. Selection committee teachers then move throughout the room during the challenge and rate the students on their ability to communicate, cooperate, critical thinking, and collaborate. The students are then given a short period of time to complete the task as a group and record their data and observations as well as a few reflection questions about their interest in the program, strengths they feel they have, and what animal best represents them. The total scores for each round are then combined and all information that has been gathered for each student is made available for the Selection Committee to rank their final choices and determine who fills the available slots for the STEAM program.
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