What’s Right With Our Schools: East Ridge Elementary STEAM Night
EAST RIDGE, Tenn. (WDEF) – Try to think of a subject doesn’t fit into science, technology, engineering, art or math. STEAM really is everywhere. East Ridge Elementary recently hosted its first ever STEAM night. It’s an all-encompassing example of what’s right with our schools.
Arthur Williams is the Instructional Coach for All Things Steam.
He says, “Tonight is our first annual east Ridge Elementary STEAM night. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art and math. And what we’re hoping to show tonight is how STEAM is present everywhere. We have STEAM in your everyday life. We have STEAM in things that you would consider more traditional, like robotics, but we also have steam in things like making maps, as you’ll see from the UTC Geographic Information System group. We have STEAM, of course, in our amazing E-Lab where kids are making 3d inventions, but they’re also making beautiful pictures to go on tumblers and shirts, right? And all of the design that goes into that.”
Benjamin Johnson is an Engineer at Volkswagen.
He says, “So, today we are talking about, “‘The Green Prix’, a Chattanooga event, and what the Green Prix is, is an event for all of Chattanooga elementary schools all the way up to high schools.”
Heather Price is a K-2 literacy coach at East Ridge Elementary.
She says, “We have community partners from Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, TDOT, GIS, lots of different people contributing to tonight to make it success and just letting them explore what future options they could have. We are using a lot of collaboration. They are using some problem thinking skills to solve some challenges. We have quite a few challenges in Steam for them to participate in tonight, as well as some art that they get to build and explore and be creative. We have a new administration this year. We have a lot of new teachers that are excited to be teaching these students. We have a very high ENL population, so it’s exciting to bring them in with both Spanish and English speakers from the community partners.”
Melissa Wright is a 3-5 literacy coach at East Ridge Elementary.
She concludes,” So, it’s important to have events like this because it shows the community what options are available to them that they might not understand about. STEM is everywhere. It’s all right in our immediate community. It’s not just something that happens in a building far away that they might not have any potential ability to get there. It’s right here.”
