STEAM Lab K-6 opens at Allison Park Elementary School

The K-6 STEAM lab at Chartiers-Houston School District (CHSD) provides students with a wide range of technology education and hands on activities, where they focus on integrating technology into solving relevant problems. In this way, the district fosters higher order thinking skills as well as collaboration and communication among the students. Students gain the technical competency and thinking skills to transfer that learning into other subject areas.

CHSD seeks to embed these competencies throughout the curriculum, so that STEAM is not viewed as a pull-out program but as something inherent in all classes, like writing and math skills. Students have opportunities to work with programming, robotics and manufacturing using 3-D printers. In addition, CHSD is supporting this initiative with digital citizenship training in the library and programming content in the sciences at the elementary school. The intent is that this becomes the foundation for a K-12 coordinated STEAM-technology curriculum that all students, not just those in college preparatory classes, would have access to. Many thanks to the current school board, and former board members Rich Hall, Fred Rockage and John Kelley for their support for this project and our students, as well as Mrs. Katie Magyar and Mrs. Nicole Bockstoce for their leadership and work in getting this program off the ground.