Full STEAM ahead with STREAM

Office of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Corpus Christi held a professional development day for second through fifth-grade teachers June 4 and sixth through twelfth-grade teachers on June 5 at the Education Service Center. On these same days, early childhood and first-grade teachers attended their development day at the Early Scholars Academy run by the Education Service Center, Region 2.

In the June 4 session, Shari Weaver from STEM Education Center Worcester Polytechnic Institute tasked the second through fifth-grade teachers to use everyday objects and all the elements of STREAM to design a prototype of a transportation system where children in Columbia could get to school using a safe zip line. The real world problem is the children in Los Pinos do not have a school bus and they have to use a zip line to cross over a canyon to get to school.

In the June 5 session, Weaver tasked the sixth through twelfth-grade teachers with designing an eco-agricultural system to provide a sustainable food source on Mars. NASA is currently researching methods that will enable astronauts to grow their own food while living on the surface of Mars.

In both sessions, teachers had to use all elements of Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering and Art and Math.

According to Nannette Quintanilla-Hatch, Associate Superintendent of Catholic Schools, teachers are shown how they can integrate STREAM with their students, "so they use basic materials at the beginning just for the designing and prototyping. They are supposed to design it and draw it out," she said. "It's a way to incorporate all the areas of STREAM into completing one project, covering Science, Technology, Religion, Art, Engineering and Math in project-based learning. They solve problems creatively, by using different areas of the curriculum."

Weaver said, "what makes Catholic schools unique is you have that ethical aspect built in, which I think is truly valuable. It's something I would like to happen at other schools, maybe not a religion so much as having students look at the ethical side of science and more explicitly building that in," she said. 

"I think [in Catholic schools] they are already doing that–because it's already built into their persona. You have more opportunity and flexibility in the Catholic schools to design and integrate and can solve real-world problems with this religious and ethical base," Weaver said.