IN Bethel Park Fall 2016 | Page 27

SPONSORED CONTENT T BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT SPONSORED CONTENT Saint Anne School STREAMlines Curriculum he faculty and staff at Saint Anne School in Castle Shannon have been aggressively incorporating STREAM (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Art, Math) initiatives into every aspect of the curriculum. Some examples of the STREAM lessons, from the youngest students to the oldest, are highlighted here: ➤ The preschool students learned about the life cycle of a butterfly and the importance of butterflies in pollination. They viewed a video of monarch butterflies migrating to Canada from Mexico; located Mexico, North America, and Canada on a map; and tracked the migration path of the butterflies. The class worked cooperatively to count butterflies in groups and make butterfly headbands and paper flowers with straws to replicate how butterflies drink nectar from flowers. ➤ A STREAM lesson in kindergarten involved the students reading “The Three Little Pigs” and then building their own houses using candy and toothpicks. Kindergarten instructor Mrs. Belsterling then “tested” the strength of each house using the “big, bad wolf” blow dryer. “The students were very excited when their houses stood up to the big, bad wolf,” said Mrs. Belsterling. ➤ In first grade, instructor Miss Skrip introduced a “place value robot” to the class who helped the students understand ones and tens in a dynamic, engaging way. The lesson also incorporated learning about robots, participating in an interactive PowerPoint, and working cooperatively to create and build place value robots. ➤ A lesson titled “Pendulum Painting” incorporated many aspects of the STREAM initiatives for the 6th grade students. The painting technique involved the forces of motion and gravity. The students viewed a PowerPoint lesson on what a pendulum is, how it works, and learned about the engineering and physics connection through Newton’s First Law of Motion. The students then created spiral artwork by manipulating the path of a suspended container of paint so that it could swing freely back and forth. Finally, the students explored mathematical patterns in nature in relation to the pendulum’s motion.