We believe that STEA2M is a pivotal way of learning how to incorporate real-world experiences into everyday classroom activities to prepare students for future success.

By providing students with opportunities to participate in STEA2M activities, South Effingham Middle School is helping them to develop the skills they need to be successful in the 21st century.

• At South Effingham Middle School, we believe that using the STEA2M Design Process is a crucial part of incorporating the 4Cs into the classroom. The design process is a problem-solving methodology that can be used to solve problems in a variety of fields, including STEM. By teaching students the design process, the school is helping them to develop the skills they need to apply STEM knowledge and skills to solve real-world problems.

• The SEMS Design Process is displayed in our main hall where many students/staff/visitors pass during the day.  This is a conversation starter with many visitors who come to our campus.

Students are provided with opportunities to work collaboratively and use the 21st-century thinking skills, engineering design process, and critical thinking skills that they have developed while actively engaging in STEA2M  activities during their inquiry, project, problem, and/or place-based activities, lessons, and units within the classroom. These opportunities allow students to also work toward solving real-world problems.

Examples of these opportunities include:

• STEA2M Extension 

• STEA2M Yearlong Projects - Recycling, Planters with Different Fertilizers, Composting, Human Body, Pollution, Hurricane Proof House and Barrier

• STEA2M Challenges

• CTAE Classes

• Learning Commons & Makerspace

• Classroom Unit projects

• Honey Ridge Learning Extensions

• Interdisciplinary Units

  • • Life-Sized Board Game

    • Entrepreneurship-Shark Tank project

    • Sixth-grade student describing a unit with content integration

    • 2022 Content Integration

• Creative design projects- Boats, Towers, Rockets, 3-D house structure, edible cookie dough, magnet painting, Out of this World Project, Egg Drop, Pumpkin Fun, Natural Resources Project, Composting, Catapults, Sling Strap, Rockets, Covid effects on Human Body

• Daily basis- teachers do various activities, such as Who's Coming To Dinner and Cup Stacking

• Collaborative Working through Padlet, Jamboard, Google Docs

• Clubs and Competitions that require students to be able to communicate their STEM knowledge and skills effectively to others.

  • • For example, the Technology Student Association (TSA) and the Science Olympiad Club provide students with opportunities to communicate effectively about STEM using oral, written, and visual representations. 

• TSA students participate in many competitions where they have to present their solutions to a STEM problem to a panel of judges. 

• Science Olympiad teams participate in regional competition where they participate competitions where their members design and build a bridge and/or tower that can support a certain weight. 

Teachers design lessons integrating the problem-solving practices of content areas to provide students with a framework for problem-solving. Teachers at SEMS are provided with opportunities to plan collaboratively weekly and are offered professional development to improve their use of the Engineering Design Process, critical thinking skills, the 4Cs, and other 21st-century skills.

• Teachers at South Effingham Middle School provide student learning experiences giving various opportunities for students to engage in authentic inquiry. This inquiry provides a time for students to ask questions, collaborate, identify problems, design, investigate, and analyze throughout different units. These experiences can be identified through the use of Project-Based Learning, Interdisciplinary units, and STEA2M Extension.

• South Effingham Middle School teachers are given weekly scheduled planning time to develop new and exciting STEA²M experiences for our students. These collaborative opportunities begin with our weekly PLC (Professional Learning Community) which includes Data Team meetings followed by STEA2M planning and/or professional development led by our STEA2M Coach and other building leaders. Grade level teachers consistently plan together, so that lessons are integrated across the curriculum and are uniform to create equitable learning opportunities for all students. Teachers have had many opportunities for professional development with presenters like Sally Creel (Sally Creel - Cobb County STEM Coordinator) and Allison Morgan (GADOE - STEM/STEAM Program Specialist) and conferences that can provide STEA2M resources. We have also received professional development through our partnership with Discovery Education for the last two years.

  • • STEA²M  w/ Sally Creel - Day 1  

    • STEA²M w/ Sally Creel - Day 2 

    • STEA²M Journals with Allyson Morgan (2020 and 2022)

    • STEMapalooza 

    • Discovery Education Coaching Days

    • GADOE STEM Forum (2022 and 2023)

Teachers in different content and grade levels have also had opportunities to visit other STEM-Certified schools.