Local school creates first West TN public school STEAM curriculum

SCOTTS HILL, Tenn. — You may have heard of STEM learning. Now there is STEAM or Science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

This is the latest educational program created at one local elementary school. Scotts Hill Elementary students will now have the ability to learn about STEAM-related education thanks to the efforts of their school.

“My background is in engineering before it was in education,” Principal Brian Lane said. “It kind of told me that our kids need to have that kind of education.”

Lane says recently the school built a STEAM lab for students.

“I’ve got some teachers here that have really just worked really hard to build the lab, to put the curriculum together that we’re going to use to get the kids in there, and they are loving it,” Lane said. “The kids are excited.”

“I’ve gotten to hang out with people and get to let my brain exercise,” student Stetson Wood said.

Ever since the creation of their lab, the school has been working hard to be distinguished as one of the first public schools in all of West Tennessee to have a STEAM program available for all their students.

Teachers Kim Barnett and Dana Robins say this opportunity helps students be more hands-on as they work on their mouse trap car experiment.

“In third grade, we have been studying potential and kinetic energy, and so they are getting to see that in a hands-on way,” Robins said. “They are seeing that that mouse trap produces that potential energy.”

“Since creating the lab, I was able to take our fourth graders in there to create a prosthetic hand,” Barnett said. “We study the anatomy of a hand, we talked about the different parts of it, solving real-world problems with engineering and design.”

Lane says they plan to work on career readiness so students have a good idea on the possible careers they can have through a STEAM background.