San Gabriel Mission Elementary School to Join ADLA’s STEM

INSIDE OUR SCHOOLS

Students and teacher at San Gabriel Mission Elementary School (Photo – sgmission.org)

San Gabriel Mission Elementary School announced that they have been named one of two schools in the Los Angeles Archdiocese to join the ADLA’s STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) Network of schools.

Mission Elementary will become part of a community of elementary schools committed to teaching and learning using a STEM mindset. The STEM Network provides a system of support for teachers and principals as they make a cultural shift through intentional parent engagement and strong community partnerships.

San Gabriel Mission Elementary curriculum will expand to include NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards). NCSS are K-12 science standards. (The Science Standards set the expectations of what students should know and be able to do and were developed by States to improve science education for all students.)

The NGSS aligned curriculum, beginning in Kindergarten will include Ready Math + iReady Technology, STEMscopes, and professional development and training for teachers. iReady® for Students is a free app for students who use iReady at school. Students can use this app to access iReady, Ready Classroom Mathematics, and Learning Games.

San Gabriel Mission Elementary School’s Principal, Eva Garcia, said:

Students are most engaged when their learning is natural and relevant. STEM education allows teachers to hand the responsibility for learning over to the students and say ‘Dig deep. Make connections. What do wonder? In what direction does this new understanding take you?’ That is when a student becomes a learner and that is very exciting.

Remodeling, upgrading and block scheduling

This summer all San Gabriel Mission Elementary School classrooms will be remodeled and upgraded with new technology to support the new program.

Block scheduling will be introduced with a dedicated STEM, Literacy and Humanities teacher in each of the grade blocks (K-2, 3-5, 6-8), removing traditional barriers separating the 4 disciplines (Science, technology, engineering, math) and integrates them into real world, rigorous and relevant learning experiences for students. STEM learning will also allow for students to apply knowledge of Math and Science to create Technologies for solving real world problems using the Engineering Design Process.

Source: sgmission.org