Akron Life August 2022

SPONSORED CONTENT

EDUCATION

STEAM Programs Make Copley-Fairlawn City Schools an Award-winning District

One example is our engineering courses. Our state and nationally recognized programs introduce students to STEAM careers while helping our community. Each year, our students participate in a national competition using STEAM to solve a real-world problem. This year, our team consisting of Libby Blanchard, Opal Londraville, Tyler Allen and Andrew Floyd created a single pill dispenser to assist Parkinson’s disease patients in maintaining independence while ensuring safety with their medications. The team won first place in the Makeable Challenge. Our engineering students have consistently placed in the top three teams in the nation while helping those with physical and mental challenges. Congratulations for making a difference in our community and beyond.

Students in kindergarten through 12th grade enjoy the challenges that come along with a STEAM focused education in the Copley Fairlawn City Schools. Makerspaces in our primary schools expose students to the concepts of science, technology, engineering, arts and math by challenging them to explore their interests through engineering and building. Students at Copley-Fairlawn Middle School learn robotics and have opportunities to compete at the state and national levels as members of our robotics club. Classes in robotics and coding help prepare students for future careers in STEAM professions. Copley High School students have many opportunities to explore STEAM concepts and careers.

GREAT EXPOSURE Children today have been raised with phones and other tech devices to play games, watch videos and more. Teachers at the National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM middle school lean into that, offering a fifth and sixth grade digital literacy course to teach educational components of technology, including key boarding, website evaluation, cyber safety, coding and quality research pathways. “Digital literacy is basically a transi tion from toy to tool,” says Crews. STEM schools offer other specialized classes including biotechnology, music theory, Chinese, app creation and environmental engineering. At the National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM middle and high schools, an engineering program offers classes that build on each other. For example, fifth grade students learn principles of the engineering design process and sixth grade students focus on robotics and coding. In seventh and eighth grades, a Gateway to Technology course helps students trace the history and development of automation and robotics, and they use a robotics platform to design, build and solve problems. These STEM classes all follow the problem-based model to encourage kids to think through real-world issues using four components:

39

A U G U S T 2 0 2 2 | a k r o n l i f e . c o m