STEAM Parent Meetings
What is STEAM? The STEAM school will give the students the opportunity to learn through a project based learning ( PBL ) approach with a focus on (S)cience, (T)echnology, (E)ngineering, (A)rts, and (M) athematics. PBL gives students the opportunity to have hands on learning with real world problems making their learning meaningful and relevant. Through this process, students will be given a variety of questions to solve and work together with their peers to develop possible solutions. PBL enables students to develop strong critical thinking skills and fosters student growth with their interpersonal skills.
What is STEAM? STEAM Program Overview
Why STEAM? ● High student engagement ● Students retain information longer than with traditional instruction and are able to apply the knowledge to new situations. ● Students gain a deep understanding of the content and also learn how to take responsibility and build confidence, solve problems, work collaboratively, communicate ideas, and be creative innovators. ● PBL is an effective way to address the new state learning standards. ● Technology use will increase the amount of resources for students, help in creation, and increase collaboration. ● PBL allows teachers to work more closely with active, engaged students doing high-quality and meaningful work.
Demographics ● The STEAM school will have capacity for 3 sections of each grade level K-6 ● Special Education ● ELL ● Specials (art, music, PE, counselor, library, 5th and 6th grade electives)
Student Lottery STEAM capacity is 500 (K-6) students from across the Belton district. Initial lottery slots will be allocated with 50% from Hillcrest and 12.5% from the remaining K-4 elementary schools. In addition 150 students from Mill Creek can be enrolled at the STEAM school. After the initial enrollment through the lottery, students will be placed into the school from the created waiting list. In order to maintain equal opportunity throughout the Belton School District, students will be placed on a rotating basis from the other elementary schools: Scott, Gladden, Cambridge, Kentucky Trail, and Mill Creek. Any seats not filled for a school site will be distributed to the remaining schools. Once a student has been selected, they will have the opportunity to stay there through 6th grade.
Student Lottery Enrollment is based on a family household lottery system. When a child is selected through the lottery system, all immediate siblings in the family household will be eligible for placement based on availability in the designated grade level and seats remaining for their home school site. If there is not an opening, siblings will be placed on the waiting list in the order created through the lottery process.
Student Lottery ● Student placement letters/emails will be delivered after lottery process is complete. Parents will have 5 days to confirm acceptance of their child’s placement. The date by which confirmation must be received will be listed in the letter. ● Students who are not selected through the lottery will be placed on a waiting list and offered enrollment as seats become available – the same school rotation process will be used. Students who are not selected through the lottery process must be enrolled and attend a Belton school to remain on the waiting list. ● Applications will be available online through the district website March 1-31. www.beltonschools.org
Opportunities Beyond K-6 We currently utilize various curriculums at the secondary level in STEAM areas and are working to add additional classes in the future. Multiple classes in robotics, science technology, engineering, biomedical science, and computer science already are among the course offerings at the secondary level.
Curriculum Belton staff have been studying and collecting resources to build our curriculum. When faculty are selected, the detailed curriculum process will begin. All of the Missouri Learning Standards will be covered to ensure delivery of content although through project based instruction with a focus on the STEAM content areas.
Extended School Year The STEAM elementary school will have an extended school year. There will be an additional 20 school days added to the end of the school year. These extended days are implemented so students and teachers can delve much deeper into our curriculum. With deeper learning comes needed time to complete ALL of our state mandated grade level goals. Learning and assessment takes place throughout the June days. It is imperative every child is present every school day, on time, to finish the entirety of their grade level year.
Transportation All students outside of a one mile radius of Hillcrest will have bus transportation available if attending the STEAM school.
Volunteering ● The STEAM school will incorporate a multitude of projects. ● We encourage parents to volunteer when able to help with these exciting projects. ● Volunteer application are available for approval at www.beltonschools.org
Questions ● We are happy to answer questions you might have at this time. Please feel free to contact us with additional questions. Roxanne Pearson - rpearson@bsd124.org or (816)489- 7040 Dr. Sara Jones - sjones@bsd124.org or (816)489-7018 Amanda Spight - aspight@bsd124.org (816) 348-1100
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