STEAM Academy
We are working with Paulsboro Public Schools to fund an academy focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics beginning in September 2019. Students from pre-school through grade 12 will experience enhanced programming including robotics and expanded course offerings at the high school level.
Ready for the Future by 2024
YEAR 1 STEAM ACADEMY GOALS
-
Create a Maker Space/Design Studio at High School
-
Expand RCGC STEAM options for students in grades 9-12
-
Expand robotics program to include all students PreK-12
-
Modify wood shop for tradesman and engineer-tracks to design and build solutions to real-life problems
-
Begin Curriculum Refresh across disciplines
-
Begin Professional Development for Teachers
YEAR 2-4 STEAM ACADEMY GOALS
-
Grant seeking and management of funds secured
-
Comprehensive Professional Development for Teachers, Administration, and Staff
-
Curriculum Development across Pre-K-12 in all disciplines
-
Upgrades to infrastructure in all three schools: Maker Spaces, and Design Studies
-
Extend public awareness and fundraising campaigns to complement grant funding and school budget
YEAR 5 STEAM ACADEMY GOALS
-
Full implementation of STEAM Academy is live across all three schools in grade levels PreK-12
-
Teachers and staff fully proficient in newly-launched STEAM curriculum
-
Ongoing rolling five-year planning and implementation in place to monitor, refine, and refresh STEAM curriculum to ensure the educational experience remains in alignment with academic best practices and needs of the economy and industry
Why STEAM?
Demand for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math
-
New Jersey has the highest density of and demand for STEAM jobs in the U.S.
-
STEAM jobs pay well and include both blue collar and white collar career paths.
-
Demand for STEAM related jobs/skills in the U.S. is expected to increase at four times the rate of all other occupations during 2019-2029.
Giving Our Student a Competitive Advantage
Opportunity presents itself in the alarming STEM shortage in our country.
While Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics are drivers of innovation essential to our nation’s goals—economic prosperity, international competitiveness, national defense, clean energy, and health and wellness for citizens—creative solutions also require the influence of artistic minds.
Educational leaders around the globe agree that a strong workforce skilled in STEAM concepts is essential to global competition. Nationally, scores on average among U.S. students are lagging behind other developed countries. A PreK12 STEAM Academy will position the district with a competitive set of academic programming that prepares graduates for in demand careers in our region and beyond.
Practical and Ambitious
STEAM ties subjects together in an interdisciplinary manner to better reflect the rapidly changing business and professional world. This life-long career and life readiness way of educating and learning is adaptable to our rapidly changing global world. It is a contextual curriculum where subjects are coordinated to support each other under a formal educational structure of how science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the broad spectrum of the arts relate to each another in reality. This framework not only includes the art of aesthetics and design, but also the divisions of the liberal, language, musical, physical and manual arts.
