NARRATIVE

At Winfield Elementary School, we are excited to offer our students numerous opportunities to engage in STEM learning beyond the traditional classroom. Through our wide variety of clubs and organizations that offer in school and extracurricular opportunities, students are offered opportunities to experience adult-world connections and extend STEM learning.

Some of our clubs integrate all STEM fields such as Robotics, while others focus on community-oriented projects that focus on STE(A)M leadership skills such as Peer Helpers. The goals of the Peer Helpers program are to build resiliency skills in youth, educate students on the prevention of unhealthy behaviors, and support students through life struggles that commonly shift their focus from academics.

Our students travel each year on various field trips, both locally and around our state. Through these trips, our students have experienced how our local businesses function, how products are assembled, and our military’s day-to-day operations. Art shows, community festivals, and STEM expos are now a part of our annual school plan. These shows and festivals allow our students to interact with our community and build strong relationships.

Through the Journey's after-school program, students can participate in classes such as karate, yoga, pottery, gardening, and the visual arts. Instruction from a local master gardener occurs on a regular basis, as well as regularly scheduled art lessons presented by a local artist. Our high school student tutoring team provides tutoring for our elementary and middle school students at The Shirey House Internet Café, an extended classroom of our district high school.

Additionally, students are encouraged to participate in the local theatre program and school Drama classes, which produce plays performed at the PastTime Theatre and Freedom Theatre. Students from our campuses travel by bus to the theatres to see their peers perform in these community theatre productions.

Strength- Our strength is in Engagement and Implementation. Our extracurricular opportunities are widely available to every student in the school. Each student has the opportunity to participate in many, if not most, of the offerings that are provided. Our instructors of these activities are passionate about their craft which inspires students to learn and grow in their activity.

Opportunities to Improve- One opportunity to improve in Engagement would be to increase the number of students participating in extracurricular activities. Many of our students are involved in multiple opportunities, but a significant amount still participates in none, despite the widespread availability and implementation. These activities not only help build school culture but inspire students to train in fields that could lead to an amazing STEM career. Another opportunity would be to offer online participation options for students that are involved in multiple extracurricular activities but have the desire to be involved in STEM.

Robotics

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The earlier we introduce children to coding, the more comfortable they will be when presented with more in-depth learning opportunities in middle and high school. Also, early exposure to coding helps teach children how important it is to understand computers as the valuable tools that they are rather than merely fun playthings. Learning the fundamentals of coding provides students with skills that will serve them well in virtually any career they choose. Plus, there are few things that ignite and excite a room full of learners like a coding class, especially when the coding is used in conjunction with robotics.

Children learn with all of their senses, and robotics aligns more naturally with the active, hands-on development of young students. Studies have shown that a multi-sensory approach activates a larger number of cognitive connections. When working with robotics, students are emotionally and physically engaged, which results in active learning and enhanced long-term experiential recall.

With each grade level, there is a development of exposure to coding and robotics. The focus is two-fold. First, the use of coding and robotics reinforces curriculum standards. Second, students learn skill sets that will enhance learning and prepare them for college and their careers. Children want to learn how to code and the lasting benefits of building these skill sets include logical thinking, problem-solving, persistence, collaboration, and communication.

Students arrive at the middle school well versed in coding and ready to program Bee-Bots and Dash and Dots. Those students who have a desire to pursue coding can join the middle school robotics team, which competes in VEX Robotics Competitions. We give credit to this coding and robotic knowledge to the fact that coding begins in our Pre-K classes as they learn with "Code-N-Go Mouse." The progression flows from grade to grade at the elementary level as students learn to code using the Blockly language to program the Code-N-Go Mouse, Bee-Bots, and Dash-N-Dots.

Communication and collaboration are critical skills to prepare young people for the world outside the classroom doors. Robotics challenges offer students opportunities in all forms of socialization, including listening skills, and considering and evaluating alternative perspectives. Robotic challenges offer students exciting opportunities to build and express their imaginations. There is an authenticity of purpose inherent in bringing the seed of an idea to fruition: from the brainstorming phase to the construction of artifacts that have real-world value. The desire to create is nothing new. A combination of hearts, minds, and bodies has always contributed to the betterment of our world. Robotics values ingenuity and the limitless possibilities of creation.

Journeys

The Journeys 21st CCLC After-school Program serves many students with a wide variety of activities and interventions to help with academic enrichment, especially math and reading skills. In addition to homework help and academic enrichment, Journeys provides many other socialization skills, technology training, and the Arts. The program serves as a valued service in keeping children safe who may otherwise be latchkey kids without adult supervision or placed in other unsafe situations.

The program sends children home with the majority of homework completed, test preparation, and other work finished which helps with creating a positive relationship between the school day and the home.

STE(A)M lessons or activities are included in each after-school and summer program day. Since family involvement is the basic dynamic of the Journeys Program and the piston that drives students achievement, our goal is to be an avenue that makes family time better. This project taps into the family as a vital resource and incorporates workshops for parents to assist them in the use of programs along with strategies to increase the learning of their children. Homework is redefined to mean not only work done alone but also interactive activities shared with others at home. Homework will link schoolwork to home life by providing the home with access to the same curriculum that students work on at school as well as the use of 1-1 initiative laptop computers, Virtual Reality, and computer labs, the Journeys Program now not only extends learning into the home, but also allows the whole family to become involved in what their child is learning at school, regardless of education or economic status. It affords parents the opportunity not only to see and be informed about what is transpiring at school but also participate in the educational process.

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Students in the after school program completed a Candy Dispenser Challenge using the Engineering Design Process and working in collaborative groups. Students created their design with tape, cardboard rolls, scissors, and paper. We then tested the candy and students reflected on how to improve on their design.

Journeys dash

Peer Helpers

Students attended a training where they learned how to best help their peers!

Teachers also received training about the program and how it would be implemented at WMS!

Peer Helper Curriculum

Peer Helper Faculty Training

Career Day

Students at WES get to experience a multitude of STEM careers through our annual Career Day! Students not only dress as the career they are interested in, they are able to speak with a multitude of professionals in different STEM fields.

WES has an upcoming Career Day scheduled for May 2022.