St. Thomas School near Seattle has concentrated on beefing up the school’s science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education for the past several years and plans to strengthen it even more in the future.
The independent private school in Medina, Wash., which has 330 students, is not alone. Makerspaces — a key element of STEM education — are popping up in classrooms and libraries across the U.S. Research from School Library Journal indicates that maker activities at elementary and middle schools increased by 4 percent from 2014 to 2017.
For its part, St. Thomas School has built two dedicated spaces to bolster STEM education, and plans to build a two-floor, state-of-the-art learning space called the Center for Leadership Innovation by 2020. It will be not only the new home for STEM education, but also a new academic program focused on leadership and innovation that aims to expose children to the skills they need in the workforce, says the center’s director, Kimberly Mecham.
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Each Tuesday is EducationTuesday here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts about educators and all things STEM. Adafruit supports our educators and loves to spread the good word about educational STEM innovations!