South Fayette Hosts STEAM Institute for
Educators from Across the Region
In late June, South Fayette hosted educators from across the
region for their annual STEAM Innovation Summer Institute.
This is the third year South Fayette has hosted the institute,
with educators from schools across the region coming to learn
together. The STEAM Innovation Summer Institute is provided
through generous support from the Grable Foundation. The
Grable Foundation funds the institute to expand South Fayette’s
computational thinking model and to help innovation spread
across the Western Pennsylvania region. Additionally, this year’s
lunch sponsors included Schell Games and OnHands Schools,
whose help supporting lunch expenses lowered the cost for
participants. Educators came from public and parochial schools
around the region as well as from areas represented by several
Intermediate Units.
With 15 different sessions offered this year, teachers were
introduced to technology and innovation to help students
Embedding the Maker Movement
K-2 Learning Lab teacher Melissa Unger focused on how
to start a maker-centered classroom with projects like ArtBots,
BreakoutEdu boxes, Makey Makey and LegoEducation. Teachers
were given time to understand and time to play, so they could
think about how they might use these tools in their own
classrooms. Teachers expressed, “Kids will love this, so I can use
some of the activities in class, like creating a greeting card, or
making a game. I also like some of the non-computer activities
48 South Fayette
learn and apply their knowledge, creating authentic learning
experiences with tools like Hummingbird Robotics and Lego
WeDo Education. Here’s a closer look at a few of the Summer
Institute sessions.
like the dance one and the drawing. These can really help relate
programming to those who may not understand it as readily.”
Programming Workshops with Scratch, Python, and BlocksCAD
Teachers learned how to code and embed project-based lessons
in their classrooms using Scratch programming language, taught
by Shad Wachter, South Fayette Intermediate School STEAM
teacher. South Fayette students Parv Shrivastava (8th grade),
Prateek Jukalkar (9th grade), and Vinay Pedapati (9th grade)
designed and taught a Python programming class to teachers and