At Gowan Science Academy we believe in learning without limits. Our dedicated teachers and staff offer a rigorous curriculum. This teacher created curriculum pushes students’ thinking, allows for limitless solutions to students’ ideas, and provides students access to all the materials they need to make their learning successful. Teachers collaboratively plan their STEM focused curriculum not only horizontally (across the grade level) but also vertically (across all grade levels).
Located in the Crane District in Yuma, Arizona, Gowan Science Academy was launched in 2013. On campus you find four hundred twenty Gowan Gators in kindergarten through sixth grade. We share a physical campus with H.L. Suverkrup in an agricultural community on the Arizona-Mexico border. Students come to us with diverse experiences: some have families in the military, some have international backgrounds, and others have local roots going back for four generations.
Gowan Science Academy teachers and a staff are hungry for professional development and always searching out opportunities to improve. Partnering with NAU staff through the APS STEM School for the Future grant allowed staff to define their vision and mission. We were able to create goals to set on the path of a strong fully integrated STEM curriculum in all grade levels.
In March 2017, Gowan Science Academy was selected as an APS STEM School for the Future. Through the work of this grant, we were able to refine and focus our mission which set us on a clear STEM path of true subject integration.
At Gowan Science Academy, we define STEM as the integration of at least three content areas. Content areas are defined as science, technology, engineering, mathematics as well as English language arts. In order for technology to be considered a component of integration the students must be using the technology at the adaptation or higher level according to the Arizona Technology Integration Matrix.