Jerry Kelly, a seventh grader at the School of St. Mary in Lake Forest, lines a cardboard box with aluminum foil and places a small container of water inside. He then sets up a lamp above the box.
“We’re using solar power to get enough energy to cause the water to heat up,” explains Kelly. “We’re trying to purify the water.”
Kelly is working in the STEAM lab that was opened this term at the School of St. Mary. STEAM, which stands for science, technology, engineering, art and math, is a bit different from Kelly’s other classes.
“You get to interact and use materials you don’t use in other classes,” Kelly said, adding that “this is probably my favorite class.”
Students operate equipment ranging from heart monitors to tiny generators. At the end of each session, they do a video evaluation of their work in front of a computer camera.
Occasionally, a student raises a hand for science teacher Christina Moore, but for the most part the students are self-directed.
“Instead of me reading a lecture, it’s them,” Moore said. “They have control for themselves.”
“The teacher is now a facilitator,” said principal Venette Biancalana. “We want them to be able to problem solve and creatively and critically think.”
Part of problem solving is sometimes failing.
That is not necessarily a bad thing, said Kemi Jona, a computer science professor at Northwestern University who also directs the university’s office of STEM Education Partnerships.
“Failing is just another try,” Jona said. “It helps you see where you need to improve. It’s a different way of thinking about how you do work in a school context. What’s important is the attention and effort you put into it, not the grade at the end.”
Jona said STEM labs at schools started to increase in popularity when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created an entity called Fab Labs—fab as in fabrication—in the early 2000s.
STEM lab usage has been encouraged by the Obama administration as an attempt to support advanced manufacturing in the U.S. in recent years.
The STEAM lab at the School of St. Mary was two years in the making, Biancalana said, and happened thanks to a grant from the Lake Forest-based John and Editha Kapoor Charitable Foundation.
Science teachers go through training to work with students in the lab, although next school year St. Mary’s plans to hire a full-time STEAM instructor, Biancalana said.
The tasks are grade appropriate.
Fourth graders Ryan Hippel and Quinn Knight assemble circuits on a Lego-type board. They then attach a small plastic propeller, which flies into the air when they turn it on.
At a computer nearby, Ben Murfeld is using a program called Scratch that allows him to manipulate images. From the options he picks a penguin, attaches a bow tie to its neck and then creates a word balloon to show he’s talking.
Working on a computer is a bit different from Murfeld’s other classes.
More Top Picks Vestibular Migraine Symptoms And How Its Diagnosed
“Usually in the classrooms we use notebooks and stuff,” Murfeld said.
Twitter: @reporterdude