Ms. Montalvo uses hands-on learning as means for students to engage with they are learning. She believes it gives them an opportunity to visualize and understand the topic much better than lecturing could alone. She find that students retain more and it also encourages students to improve their critical thinking skills. As an example, Ms. Montalvo took her AP Environmental Science class on a field trip to conduct a hands-on river water quality investigation with the Bronx River Alliance. Ms. Montalvo believes that students will be more engaged at school if they see that what they are learning in each class can connect together and apply to the real world.

Ms. Johnson believes that engaging lessons improve student access because engaging lessons get students excited to interact with the ideas in the lesson. Ms. Johnson believe that incorporating relatable real-world problems into each lesson is vital. She cited challenges with implementing STEAM at school. While our school does all five components of STEAM separately, there are few ways to collaborate across disciplinary lines. The main challenge is finding time to collaborate across disciplines.  Ms. Johnson tries to give students opportunities to be creative in the classroom during lab times. She also sees independent reading as a time for students to be creative. She believes that when reading, students have the opportunity to apply their creativity to the questions they ask when engaging with the text.