Standard 3

Standard 3: School/program engages diverse STEM community in order to support and sustain STEM programs and initiatives.

Community support is crucial for the implementation and sustained success of our STEAM programs. We are fortunate to have the assistance of so many community businesses and leaders. Over the last few years, we have made a concerted effort to elicit new partnerships with community stakeholders. Community support is evident in our PBLs as they have a strong connection with STEAM community partners.

Many community members within STEAM professions participate in our Career Day. Career Day at CES is an opportunity for students to learn about STEAM jobs in and around our community. The counselor organizes experts in STEAM careers to visit our school as well as field trips in our community for students to learn about the jobs available for them here in Childersburg, AL, and the surrounding areas. These partners provide our students the opportunity to learn about and participate in a variety of STEAM career activities. They conduct presentations and offer their expertise to help our students get excited about STEAM. For example, a University of Alabama engineering student shared the engineering design process and explained how she and her team, @TeamSpaceCam1, was designing a tool to secure a camera in space for NASA. Also, Coosa Valley Electric Cooperative demonstrated the power of electricity and electrical currents. They also discussed the four different types of electricity. Students were able to observe and interact with live models to better understand how electricity is transmitted. There were many other visitors which included a nurse, producer of a TV station, veterinarian, EMA, optometrist, dentist, and banker.

Prior to STEAM Career Day, students learn about multiple intelligences and complete an interest inventory to see which STEAM career fields match their results. Then, the students explore multiple careers based on their results and collect information. This evidence is used to help determine guest speakers for Career Day.

We also have many STEAM professionals join us for STEAM Club Days to provide interactive presentations and activities for our students. For example, the deputy quality control manager from Nippon Oil in Childersburg, AL conducted a simulation of blending and testing oils and other substances. Group Manager at Nippon Oil, who is also an innovator at heart, worked on Lego Wedo projects with students. He gave feedback on their setup and helped students go through the instructions to put projects together and test them out. A controls engineer from Fleetwood Metal Industries demonstrated the different ways coding is used in manufacturing and compared it to coding Blue-Bots. He also assisted students in creating animations in Scratch Jr. The McWane Science Center brought Virtual Reality goggles. With these goggles, students traveled virtually around the world from the Brazilian Rainforest to Mount Everest, and from the depths of the ocean to outer space.

Our local community program, 4-H, also offers so many exciting STEAM activities to our 4th grade students each year. Each meeting is conducted using Parliamentary procedures, including the election of officers and the keeping of meeting minutes. During the school year, 4-H provides opportunities for learning about local flora and fauna, helpful skills such as tying knots for fishing, and character development. Students are also given multiple opportunities to showcase their creative sides. They participate in contests for cookie baking, Lego building, photography, speech writing, and birdhouse building. Each of these contests required students to be creative and follow the engineering design process as they plan, create, and improve their final product. The entire 4-H program facilitates STEAM learning for our students. You can easily see which STEAM components are present in the lessons that are presented as well as the creative contests in which our students participate.

Each year CES third-graders undertake another large STEAM project in which they use gardening to learn about how living things grow and develop. This project correlates with third-grade science standards 5 and 6. Students clean out the garden beds to prepare them for planting. Then, they plant vegetables, such as lettuce, carrots, kale, spinach, greens, and radishes. They also plant herbs. Flowers are planted during the spring gardening season. Mrs. Green, our honorary third-grade mother, comes out each year to help prepare our garden and to teach the students about gardening. Students also learn about gardening from a local farmer. Students visit Holmestead farms to learn about planting season, growing and caring for plants. Kim Goode, from our local 4-H Center, also visits with the students. She gives the students tips on gardening designs. The COVID pandemic has not stopped us from gardening or learning about gardening. We are still able to consult with a local farmer and greenhouse expert, Denise Vinsant, via Zoom.

Another purpose of the gardening project is to promote healthy choices. Students learn good eating habits, science, and math skills. Gardening introduces students to new and healthy foods and promotes physical activity in an outdoor setting. Students have a feast day where they eat the plants they grew and invite guests to eat with them. Through gardening, students have the opportunity to take skills they learn in the classroom and apply those skills in the natural world. Students absolutely love getting their hands dirty working in the garden!

As a result of the generous donations from local businesses, we receive the resources we need to plant a fall and spring garden. Home Depot and Lowe’s often provide the soil we need for our raised garden beds. CES parents and other community members also make contributions to our yearly gardening project. Talladega County Co-Op generously donates vegetable plants, seedlings, seeds, and herbs. Businesses, families, and other members of the community support this and many of our initiatives, not only by donating their time and expertise, but also by generously and repeatedly donating supplies to carry out our STEAM learning thereby enabling us to sustain these yearly projects.

Strengths

We have created multiple opportunities for our students to have access to STEAM professionals within the community. The programs involving our community and experts in the field of study allow our students to learn and practice communication skills.

Sustainability

We have experienced a large increase in the number of business partners, organizations, and community leaders that participated in our initiatives. We continue to seek out and maintain partnerships with our external stakeholders.

Opportunities for Improvement

Upon reflection of our self-assessment, we feel that it would be helpful to use surveys to gather input from our stakeholders concerning their needs in STEAM fields. To strengthen our partnerships with stakeholders, we could also create and distribute a digital newsletter to keep them informed about the progress and success of our initiatives, as well as the needs we might have in order to sustain the program.

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