Allen ISD Where Eagles Soar Magazine Summer 2018 | Page 8

Picking Up STEAM at Green
Elementary
T
he school bell rings at Green Elementary signaling the
end of the school day and the beginning of a three-day
weekend. It’s a beautiful spring day and you might
imagine that the children would be bursting through the doors
to get home. Instead, a large group of students heads to the
back of the campus to enjoy one more hour of learning with the
STEAM Club.
The learning behind STEAM (which stands for science,
technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) encourages
students to blend concepts from each unit of study to
complete projects. Green is one of many Allen ISD elementary
campuses that offer a STEAM Club. Green’s club was formed
by Carrie Sledge, the school’s gifted-and-talented teacher.
Sledge first hosted a STEAM day for her students that
continued to grow in popularity. Eventually, she decided to
form a campus-wide club to give every student a chance to
participate.
“This club taught me that it’s OK to make mistakes as long
as I can learn from them and go back and fix the mistakes,”
fourth-grader Amelia Clark said. “I also like how Mrs. Sledge
will give us clues, but never the answer. It’s like a riddle to find
the right answer.”
Preparing to launch their newly constructed boat.
“We have about 55 students in the club, and they are always
asking me when the next club meeting is,” Sledge said. “This
type of learning fits every type of learner because it’s creative,
it’s hands on, and there is never a single correct answer.”
The STEAM Club is unlike what most would expect a
traditional classroom to look like. There are no desks or
chairs, just students working together in small groups to
complete the assignment. On this day, students were tasked
with creating a vessel from household materials that could
stay afloat and race across a small pool of water. Sledge and
fellow STEAM Club advisor Cara Lundberg (a fifth-grade
science teacher at Green) are purposefully vague with their
instructions and never say the word “boat” or describe the
best types of materials to use. Instead, they provide minimal
instruction and let the students figure it out on their own.
Sledge said this can be frustrating to students at first, but they
soon get the hang of it.
“At the first club meeting, they’ll ask us a hundred
questions about the parameters of the project, but we hardly
ever say yes or no,’” Sledge said. “By the second semester they
skip the questions and get straight to problem solving.”
For some students, being allowed the freedom to figure out
an answer is the best part about STEAM Club.
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Lots of bubble wrap and tape went
into this vessel.
All smiles as the boat races
across the water.
Two students contemplate
improvements to make their
boat waterproof.