Mrs. Stump's (Front L-R) Mrs. Stump, Kiley Murphy, Madison Westfall, Kinlea Church, Caelan Harper, Cassie Fowler; (Middle L-R) Zenna Zwoll, Lily Mitchell, Yasmin Beard, Destiny Knight, Brook Arnold, Ethan Jarvis; (Back L-R) Seth Periso, Shane Dooley, John Glekler, Kasey Milliron, Zack Collins, Jaron Jett
Mrs. Toppings' Class - (Front L-R) Cole Anderson, Emily Good, Brook Swisher, Emily Bell, Joel Basnett, Michael Frederick, Brandon Marks, Preston Allman, William Marks, Keeley Sturms; (Back L-R) Mrs. Toppings, Amelia Cain, Eli Dickey, Akeara Webb, Lindsey Schoolcraft, James Starcher, Hayden Bajcar, Anthony Schoo, Ariety Hickman, Brayden Alfred, Bryan Boggs
Submitted by Amy Nicholas
Technology Integration Specialist
Calhoun County Schools
STEM is an acronym that has been created to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in education in order to encourage students to pursue careers in these fields.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting has issued a STEAM challenge for WV students in grades 3 to 5. They added the "A" to put art into traditional STEM lessons.
Teachers and students were challenged to choose 4 of the 10 lessons, one in each of the STEM areas, and complete the corresponding art projects that go along with them.
In completing these lessons, students and teachers are eligible to win up to $500.00 in prize money to purchase technology for their classroom.
Along with their students, fifth grade teachers Deborah Toppings and Gina Stump have risen to the challenge. When asked, students found the lessons fun, creative, and unique.
They learned what it would be like to be colorblind, created tessellations with an iPad app, engineered a chair out of cardstock, and explored geometry concepts by making quilt squares and bubbles.
Overall this was a very positive experience for the fifth graders. They have already won through the experience, so getting money for technology would be a bonus. Keep your figures crossed for them.
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