Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Washington Elementary Transforms into STEAM School

  • By Yvonne Marquez
  • 09/12/19

Wide Hollow Elementary School recently changed their name to Wide Hollow STEAM Elementary to reflect their new focus on incorporating science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics across their curriculum.

The Washington school transformed its computer lab into a STEAM lab. It was funded by a $10,000 grant from the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The Washington school transformed its computer lab into a STEAM lab. It was funded by a $10,000 grant from the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. The lab is now equipped with the following:

  • Art supplies;
  • Age-appropriate robots;
  • Five collaborative digital microscopes that project onto large monitors;
  • A 3D printer;
  • Podcasting stations;
  • Video production station; and
  • A die-cutting station.

Students also have access to programs like Makey Makey, which allows them to design and code using ordinary everyday things.

An emphasis on STEM lessons have increased over the last year so the lab was created to engage and prepare students from a younger age, but also incorporating art and creativity into the process.

Wide Hollow teachers are also starting to incorporate STEAM concepts into core course topics.

“Our main emphasis really is this is a way for students to…communicate, collaborate, solve complex problems…and then be creative,” Principal Rick Ferguson told the Yakima Herald. “Those are skills that are needed in any job, because we really don’t know. A lot of the jobs these kids are going into don’t exist currently. But those four things, the four C’s, they’re going to need those skills.”

About the Author

Yvonne Marquez is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • FGCU Breaks Ground on New Health Sciences Building

    Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has launched construction on a major new academic facility that leaders say will reshape healthcare education in Southwest Florida for decades to come, according to university news.

  • Dallas ISD Voters Approve $6.2B Bond Package

    Dallas ISD voters have approved a record-setting $6.2-billion bond package that district leaders say will modernize aging campuses, eliminate portable classrooms and reshape learning environments across one of the nation’s largest school systems.

  • Deferred Maintenance Issues Growing at Universities, Gordian Reports

    U.S. colleges and universities are falling increasingly behind on facilities maintenance and repair, according to Gordian’s 13th annual State of Facilities in Higher Education report. The deferred capital renewal burden has reached $156 per gross square foot, an 8% increase over the previous year.