Arlington School & Family Magazine March/April 2018 | Page 29

Pearcy Elementary
Maximizes STEM Labs
By Ryan Pierce
As you walk toward the end of the
long hall at Pearcy Elementary,
toward the two new STEM labs, you
may hear a lot of noise coming from
inside the last two rooms on the right.
“It’s not quiet,” Pearcy Principal
Codi Van Duzee said.
It’s the sound of excited discussion
and even some laughter – the sounds
of students figuring things out,
working together, testing, failing and
trying again.
It’s the sound of learning – exactly
what the two new STEM labs, which
opened at the beginning of this
school year, are for.
Pearcy has wasted no time taking full
advantage of the renovated spaces.
All AISD elementaries are getting
two new STEM labs as part of the
2014 Bond program. The STEM
– science, technology, engineering
and math – labs represent the strong
commitment the AISD has made to
improving education in science and
math and sparking student interest in
these disciplines.
Each school is also getting a staff
person to manage the labs. But
Pearcy went a step further and hired
a full-time STEM and technology
teacher, Karissa Johnston, in addition
to the STEM manager.
Johnston, who, like her principal, can’t
hide her excitement and enthusiasm
about their STEM labs, designs and
teaches STEM lessons for all Pearcy
classes, kindergarten through sixth
grade. She aligns the lessons with
what the students are doing in their
other classes, incorporating science,
technology and engineering into their
regular coursework.
For example, when kindergarteners
read the book “Twenty-One
Elephants and Still Standing,”
about P.T. Barnum’s circus
elephants crossing the Brooklyn
Bridge, Johnston designed a lesson
that required students to build
bridges out of Popsicle sticks and
paper cups so that all the elephants
could walk across.
This STEM learning is student-
driven. The students work together
to figure out how to problem solve
or make something work.
“We’re really focused on rigorous
and relevant learning experiences
with enriching hands-on activities,”
Van Duzee said.
A recent third-grade project
involved making parachutes.
Students in small groups had to
design and make a parachute, then
attach it to a small cup that held
a miniature Santa Claus. Johnston
gave each group “$10” to buy the
supplies they needed from what she
had provided in the classroom and
then turned them loose to do the
work. They had to carefully choose
their supplies – and make sure they
fit in their budget – and then make an
operable parachute that, when tested
from a specified height, would allow
Santa to land standing up.
“Johnston never tells them how
something is supposed to be done,”
Van Duzee said. “A lot of times there
is no right answer.
“Value is in experience, and you
learn so much when it’s wrong,” Van
Duzee said.
There is no doubt this method of
teaching is something that works.
“The kids love it,” Van Duzee said.
"And there are no discipline issues
because the students want to be there.
“It’s very much an enriching time for
them.”
Yes, it might be a little noisy on the
hall as you walk toward the labs
– the sounds of talking, laughing,
discovering, learning.
But walk inside the labs and
see where the noise is coming
from. Look at some of the recent
projects on display: the catapults,
bridges, roller coasters, cardboard
microwaves (actually used to cook
s’mores) and more. And see the
students huddled in discussion, or
perched at a laptop writing code, or
sprawled on the floor racing robots
they built and programmed.
The STEM labs are working. You
can hear it.
Arlington School & Family
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