Last year an opportunity presented to shift one of these two computer science classes to a STEAM course, broadening student exposure to diverse content, supporting engineering and design, and utilizing a problem based approach to teach to and reinforce the BPS Global Competencies, Computer Science Teaching Association (CSTA) standards, Engineering & Design, ISTE and Common Core Standards.
This STEAM course is an interdisciplinary course that blends research, inquiry, and design to present students with novel situations to apply science and math standards. Utilizing the previous year’s science and math standards, students are presented with new contexts for applying their understandings.
This STEAM course expands the vertical alignment with the BHS pathways, incorporating elements of the arts, business, and career technical readiness. Through career based projects and embedded problems, students gain exposure to components of professions/future courses, such as architecture, and gain insight into practical applications of the subject matter they are studying in core subjects, specifically math and science.
Long term course outcomes include:
Exhibit curiosity, imagination, flexibility, and perseverance in order to innovate and make valuable contributions to the community.
Actively seek and analyze new information and perspectives to define problems and develop solutions.
This STEAM course is offered in 36 day UA Rotations offered in Grades 6-8
We use the BMS operational budget to purchase the consumable instructional materials needed.
A curriculum proposal has been submitted to finish writing the curriculum for this course.
Developing our students’ (and adults’) social and emotional well-being is critical, as children learn to identify and regulate their feelings primarily via adult modeling of those skills.
Data from the DESSA and the Developmental Assets Survey indicate a need for a strong SEL systems approach, especially at the high school level. We are finding our high school students are reporting a need to address their self and social awareness, self management, and decision-making skills.
Last spring the Board approved the resource, RULER (Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, Regulating) by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, to be used as the primary instructional resource for PreK-8.
This year, BHS comprised a team of teachers, a school counselor, and administrators to review SEL instructional resources at the high school level. The team reviewed several finalist resources which included:
RULER
7 Mindsets
Character Strong
The team has decided that they still need time to determine a systems approach for SEL at the high school level, including what we are teaching, who is teaching it, and when we are teaching these skills along with how a program aligns with the other aspects we currently have in place at BHS (eg. Restorative Practices, advisory lessons, The Center for Empowerment and Education, formally the Woman’s Center, etc.)
We will continue to plan for a systems approach at the high school and determine the supplemental programming to support high school student needs.
3. New Business
4. Public Comment (Please note: The Board welcomes Public Comment and asks that speakers please limit their comments to 2 minutes. Speakers may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them. The Board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students, nor against any person connected with the Bethel Public School System.)
