College and Career Ready Curriculum

Both STEM and STEAM emphasis hands-on, project-based, experiential learning. However, STEAM is more than just Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math; it includes Art. That A is what sets us apart from much of the world. It is what makes us innovative, creative, and inventive. It encourages our students to look at the interconnections between all the subjects at school. 

Our CTE program with it's exploratory aspect and electives are great. I would even go further and add the new AP Career Kickstart courses when they become available. They marry hands on training with academic rigor that will result in college credit. We should also encourage every student to take a financial literacy course and every CTE pathway student to take an entrepreneurship course so that they understand what it means to earn a living wage and how to budget for it.

Project-based learning requires more work on the teacher's part to backwards plan from a major student choice project related to the themes. But the experience students have as well as the confidence they gain through working through a project is truly rewarding. Projects can be year long or unit long, pertain to one subject or collaborated with other teachers to integrate multiple subject, done individually or in teams. The best part is that project-based learning has scaffolding built in so students with IEPs and "gifted" students can work on the same project with the same standards and succeed. Waltham is doing well integrating project-based learning in the high school and trickling into the middle school. We need it formally integrate it now into the elementary schools.