Highly Capable Class
Come Ready to Challenge Yourself!
Goal of STEAM
Wallace and Priscilla Stevenson’s 4th-6th grade STEAM class for highly capable students will encourage creativity by presenting students with a problem or challenge that has many potential avenues. Students will contemplate, design, build, and later explain a solution that complies with specifications. For example, in one project students will design, build, and test bridges that they construct from balsa wood. Guided by the engineering process, students will evaluate where their bridges failed and redesign them to be stronger. Students will generate original designs using the engineering design process.
The goal of STEAM is to foster a learning environment in which students are guided to produce original ideas, objects, and structures according to certain specifications using concepts and skills from Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. Students will be immersed in hands-on inquiry and open-ended exploration.
Our STEAM class adopts a nontraditional approach: All teacher-led class discussions regarding concepts and skills will occur near the completion of a unit. Throughout a project, students will be given time to explore strategies for modifying and improving their original ideas. Students will be guided to discover which concepts and skills are relevant and how they can incorporate this information into the project. Decisions about solutions will be student generated in collaborative groups.