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University of Notre Dame Center for STEM Education Article
School Team of the Month
Immaculate Conception School
Annandale, New Jersey
What is the focus of your STEM Blueprint work this year? Allowing students to work collaboratively has been a challenge this year with a hybrid schedule and physical distancing. We decided to focus our attention on completing our Innovation Lab, which will be a creative space available to all grades. We hope to make this a versatile area where students can brainstorm, test out their ideas, and come up with solutions to problems. Our short-term goal is to set up the space and provide teacher training on the use of the area, materials, and equipment. Our long-term goal is to have the lab available for students during class time as well as for independent projects.
We also want to utilize our middle school team PLC this year to align our curriculum, both horizontally and vertically, so that we can better work collaboratively to plan cross-curricular learning experiences for our students.
What exciting STEM experiences are happening at your school this year?Coming out of the 2019 Summer Institute, we knew we wanted to utilize the sixth-grade STEM class for a student-driven project. And because recycling has long been an interest of the students at our school, last year’s sixth-grade STEM class focused on the implementation of a recycling program at our school. They worked hard to research, plan, and communicate their findings and ideas with the school community, yet when the pandemic hit in the Spring, the project came to a halt. As seventh graders, the same students will have the opportunity to continue their work, building off their research and plans from last year. This will include ordering recycling bins for classrooms, creating procedures, and educating the rest of the school community about how to recycle at school. They have also been researching composting, and our goal is to eventually set up composting bins at school, once we have lunch at school again. Relatedly, a student from our parish community has been working to build a garden for our school for his Eagle Scout project, which ties in perfectly with our seventh graders’ STEM project. A school garden is something that our students and administration have wanted, and it worked out nicely that a student from our community was interested in becoming involved and making that dream a reality for us. It will be a great way to give students the hands-on experiences needed to gain a better understanding about composting and sustainability.
In what ways have you been able to engage other members of your school, local community, or other STEM Teaching Fellows?Renovations for our Innovation Lab started last spring during the closure and are still ongoing. Teachers, maintenance staff, administration, students, and parents are volunteering their time and lending their talents to transform the space. Our retired art teacher replaced the carpet with a creative tile floor design. Some parents chose cheerful colors and repainted the walls while others relocated and re-shelved books in the new library. Teachers are repurposing old shelving and tables into moveable standing workstations and white board tables. The room is now being stocked with supplies and we are researching the purchase of a 3D printer and large format printer. Our plan is to provide professional development training to our colleagues so the space remains functional and accessible to all students. Check out the transformation of the space!
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