Akron Life August 2022

EDUCATION

By Avery Savage and photos provided by Akron Public Schools

Building Blocks Starting STEAM education early can prepare students for careers.

A field trip to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in 2019 presented students from the National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM middle school in Akron with a problem to solve — ridding the park of invasive voles. The seventh grade science class was brainstorming about how to control the vole population that kills trees by eating their roots. The rodents have a sharp sense of smell, and that prompted students to implement a humane solution. They placed scents voles don’t like, including mint, castor oil and garlic, around the trees, and voles stayed away.

This is one of many hands on, problem-based lessons Akron Public Schools students learn in STEM focused schools, which include the National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM middle and high schools and LeBron James’ I Promise School. Rather than straightforward lectures

about textbooks, teachers use experiential lessons to teach science, technology, engineering, arts and math ematics and coach students to make discoveries. “In the middle of a prob lem, students are guided through questioning,” says Sam Crews, Ohio STEM Learning Network Akron

hub manager at Akron Public Schools. “The learn ing emphasis is placed on the student as opposed to the teacher being the one providing the information.” Crews tells us more about what STEAM learning looks like at these schools and how it can help stu dents thrive.

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