STEAM, an acronym and 21st century educational buzz word, stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math. It is important to understand that STEAM occurs in multiple combinations and content areas. It doesn't have to be all-inclusive to be effective. At HCES, STEAM is implemented into each one of our classrooms in multiple combinations throughout the year. Both 5th and 7th grade students created projects for this year's fair held on Tuesday, March 7th. 

 

STEAM Fair, the Physical Science yearly culmination project, incorporates all the components of the acronym through a hands-on, student-driven, peer-reviewed, project-based activity. 7th grade students began their projects during the first quarter of the school year by selecting, researching and building.  Then, during the third quarter, they formulated testable questions, experimented, collected data and wrote a research paper based on their findings in a cross-curricular assignment in Science and Language Arts.  While Mr. Davis managed the building and scientific process of the assignment, Mrs. Wiggins taught students how to write an abstract, construct a research paper, and put their findings into written form. 

 

To make the projects more engaging for our young learners, we went "old school" with trifold board presentations.  According to feedback from students, they really enjoyed talking about their projects with other students, especially the lower school students.

5th grade students worked with Mrs. Malone in the STEM Lab to create their projects. 

 

It should be noted that this project from conception to execution was done at school and 100% the efforts of the student. We are extremely proud of their efforts and accomplishments.