The phrase is simple, but the implications are not. "Bringing Joy to Learning" is not just our district's and school's mission statement, but a mantra by which our school lives every day. From the moment you enter our school, you become part of our community. The culture at Clarks Creek Elementary School is inclusive; we believe that all students have strengths and differences that can be used to make the world a better place. We embrace our differences and work to bring out the strengths in others. We focus on the power of relationships and put our energy into learning how to build others up, while also learning to push ourselves to be better individuals. All of this happens under that ever present ideal that our goal is to bring joy to students' learning.

What better way is there to bring joy to learning than to engage students in STEM instruction? At Clarks Creek Elementary School, we are a community of learners that focuses on collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity. We believe that learning through STEM education provides the best vehicle through which to realize these goals, and that the skills students can learn by experiencing a true problem-solving curriculum will carry them into their futures with the best chance of success.

As we make decisions about our STEM programming, we involve stakeholders by requesting input and using that to help drive our decisions. We use our communications to make sure that all of these parties understand our dedication to STEM education. Our district is committed to sustaining the STEM programming we have in place and continuing to refine it to make it better and better. With the financial support we have and the long-range planning to continue funding, our continued growth down this path is assured. As our district as a whole is also committed to developing and maintaining rich STEM curriculum and instruction, we have also been able to make adjustments to our teacher evaluation feedback to reflect this. Teachers understand the expectations to instruct students through problem-solving curriculum and are given repeated opportunities to learn more about perfecting their skills and to meet with team members to plan collaboratively.

Perhaps more than anything, as we work toward celebrating students' strengths and differences, and teaching them to persevere and use those to solve the world's problems, we recognize that opportunities to experience all that STEM does to enrich the curriculum is vital for all students. At Clarks Creek Elementary, all students receive and benefit from this programming.

To see evidence of the culture of STEM at Clarks Creek Elementary, please click on the slideshow for each element. There you will find a summary slide, evidence documentation, and a description of each item provided for your consideration.