All staff meet in PLC once every week. PLC provide staff protected time to plan, create, review, and reflect on curriculum decisions. Learning logs are kept during each STEM PLC. These logs allow for the STEM team and administration to review input and feedback of planning as well as reflections on past practices. These logs also add additional insights to the Humanities teachers when it comes to opportunities for collaboration and integration.

The Lafayette School Corporation recognizes the importance of delivering a highly effective, innovative, and hands-on STEM curriculum as presented in the corporation's continuous learning plan. Currently an administrative intern is expanding the current elementary portion to specifically reflect the Sunnyside instructional model and curriculum maps.

The Master Instructional scheduling allows for two common planning/prep times for both the STEM and Humanities teachers weekly and/or every other day. During this team planning time, teachers design interdisciplinary lessons (see sample Hum & STEM design task). On a daily basis Humanities teachers integrate social studies and English language arts and STEM teachers integrate science and mathematics.

PLC meetings, led by a STEM and Humanities Leads, are a protected time for all staff (Humanities, STEM, Special Education, ESL, and Related Arts/Specials) to meet weekly for planning and cross-curricular integration. In addition to the weekly PLC, all staff are paired with a teammate with a common team time that meets every other day for additional STEM and Humanities time to collaborate.

On a weekly basis teachers have 40 minutes of protected PLC time to plan interdisciplinary lessons.

On a weekly basis teachers have 80-120 minutes of common department planning time to create interdisciplinary lessons.

On a weekly basis the STEM and Humanities teaching partners have at least 80 minutes of common planning time to create interdisciplinary lessons.

On a three week rotation, all PLCs meet to discuss common assessment data of interdisciplinary units.

*PowerSchool Student Information System dictates the format of schedule in terms of how it is presented in the evidence. For example, it reads Math and Science, but it is a protected instructional block of integrated STEM instruction.

With a focus on expanding our partnerships with the growing industrial belt of Greater Lafayette, our five year plan's focus is to maintain the integrity of current and established programming, yet bolster opportunities for our students to further explore vocational and career opportunities.

We look forward to articulating our curriculum with that of the new Greater Lafayette Career Academy. Bridging a curriculum gap between our elementary and secondary buildings, PLTW started at Sunnyside in the fall of 2020. All students will complete at least one module at each grade level.

Despite the National Science Foundations discontinued financial support of the Purdue SLED partnership with Sunnyside, the staff has remained committed to continued collaboration and planning despite funding of summer stipends. Each year Sunnyside teachers, under the guidance of Purdue's preservice teachers, receive a hands-on professional development on improving the integration of STEM and Humanities, along with discovering real-world examples to connect classrooms to local entities (water treatment plant, automotive assemble, and prosthetics).

With a commitment to STEM education, the Sunnyside administration annually budgets funding for the purchase of materials and resources to implement the required four engineering design tasks in each grade level.

In addition, Sunnyside firmly believes the key to any sustainability plan is developing the skills and crafts of teachers. One way to bring best practices of STEM to the staff is through what we've coined "The Answers Are In The Room" series. Each month, one grade level STEM and one grade level Humanities PLC is dedicated to a staff member who has volunteered to research, vet, and implement a best practice into their instruction. This staff member then presents as a professional development for their colleagues.

Often referred to as "The Broncho Way," Sunnyside Intermediate utilizes Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), with emphasis placed on communicating expectations for behavior. Good behavior is regularly recognized and rewarded. In 2020, the Lafayette School Corporation implemented a K-12 SEL program with Positive Action. LSC is in the process of a corporation wide PBIS approach to vertically align buildings to bridge the transition for students.

Recognizing that students' attitudes toward school and learning can shift throughout their lifetime, all STEM students are given the opportunity to present their learning and reflect on the entire process of a task or unit. STEM teachers utilize a pre and post assessment, but also will often take an inventory of the student's attitude upon completion of a task. These are often recorded in a journal where students are asked to describe their feeling, challenges, and accomplishments before, during, and after the task. As our Humanities teachers began incorporating employability standards, our STEM teachers began surveying attitudes of students as they began contemplating their future in the world of STEM.

The survey used aides in the development of future STEM design tasks to link academic standards to real-world application of skills used to meet the standard. (Friday Institute for Educational Innovation (2012). Upper Elementary School Student Attitudes toward STEM Survey. Raleigh, NC: Author.)

Our analysis of the survey's data often indicates a moderate level of confidence in the areas of engineering, science and mathematics, with a higher level of confidence in technology. Students are often more likely to stay clear of careers of science and math, but show moderate interest in careers around engineering and technology. The Sunnyside STEM team anticipates a positive shift in attitude and career exploration with the implementation of PLTW in our feeder elementary schools.

Using opportunities such as Parent-Teacher Conferences, Family STEM Night, and End of Year post evaluations, we value the thoughts and perspectives of our stakeholders. Such survey data has been used to guide decisions in curriculum, content, and opportunities such as Financial Literacy Night and Parent University. Also, surveys are frequently used as part of our continuous school improvement planning.

Based off the excitement organically generated with the opening of our MakerLab, our Digital Instructional Coach created a series of weekly STEM Challenges based off of student feedback she collected.

The Lafayette School Corporation uses a modified RISE evaluation to support teacher growth. During their first two years, STEM teachers are evaluated at least a minimum of three to five times. Veteran STEM teachers are evaluated three times each year. Teachers are provided feedback through our computer based Standard for Success evaluation program. Teachers are able to upload documents including exemplars of lessons and resources and they are provided with immediate feedback. Administrators are committed to weekly classroom visits fostering a collaborative learning culture. STEM teachers often invite administrator observation and participation in student led projects and activities. Our Digital-Instructional Coach provides weekly technology integrated professional development opportunities to meet teachers’ needs. Administrators hold formal conferences with individual teachers at the beginning, middle, and end of the year to enhance their practice and support their goals for growth. Our administrator who is certified in secondary mathematics leads STEM evaluations.

The Sunnyside MakerLab is a space designed for students to conduct research, collaborate with classmates, engineer prototypes, and engage in the fundamentals of computer science. Within this oversized classroom, students and teachers can find a wide-range of materials that accommodate a variety of STEM-related tasks. The MakerLab is a hands-on, collaborative space that encourages creativity as students work through the design process – identifying problems, brainstorming and designing solutions, testing, and redesigning their creations. In the MakerLab, students are doing more than just building, though; they are also getting hands-on experience with coding and computer science. During 2019’s Computer Science Education Week, alone, the MakerLab was visited by more than 300 students who explored the fundamentals of coding with Sphero Bolt robotics. Whether working on high-tech or low-tech activities, the MakerLab encourages a multitude of STEM skills and allows for these skills to be easily integrated into other curriculums.

As our students enter Sunnyside from eight neighborhood elementary schools, consistent communication is key for the two short years our students are with us. We have and maintain our own school webpage and social media accounts that we utilize to promote the partnerships in learning we have with groups such as Junior Achievement, Subaru of Indiana, and Evonik Labs, as well as to promote our own events to engage students and families. Teachers routinely use classroom tools such as Remind or ClassDojo, but also benefit from the use of email, texting, and phone conversations. A very popular piece has been our weekly Friday Frenzy!, a week-in-review video of learning.