COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INVITES OTHER SCHOOLS TO NEWLY OPENED STEAM LAB

A ribbon-cutting was held in December to open the Ellen Nodelman Creativity Center/STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) Lab.

Thanks to the new lab classes at RCDS now have the tools to design, prototype, build, and innovate! Interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving and changing the way students think about issues/problems are the hallmarks of design thinking and are re-shaping curricula around the country. Following the philosophy of Makerspace® the school’s goal is “…to re-energize education with the creativity, innovation, curiosity, motivation, technical know-how, and playfulness that characterize our community across ages, divisions, and disciplines.”

RCDS has created a space in which this way of thinking and learning is possible and encouraged, administrators boast. Students in grades three through 12 take computer science classes and use the STEAM lab to design, code, and fabricate. The curriculum includes Robotics, Computer Programming, Functional Design, Structural Design and Modeling, and Advanced Programming.

Communications Director Stacey Torma said, “RCDS students benefit from the problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration, synthesis of learning, engineering skills, and real world experience of doing that the Creativity Center offers. Combining academic disciplines with artistic expression (STEAM) on a 20-acre rural campus which values the outdoors as a classroom is central to the RCDS experience.”

RCDS extends an invitation to local elementary and middle schools, which do not yet have STEAM Labs, to visit the campus for a demonstration and engineering workshop. Interested educators should email [email protected].

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