GRAPEVINE -- Bells, whistles, whirrs and chirps filled the air at Cannon Elementary School in Grapevine Tuesday as faculty, administrators, students and parents gathered for a STEM Kickoff, the formal rollout of an ambitious plan designed to position the school as a leader in education for 21st century careers.
Cannon was awarded a $10,000 grant last month from the Grapevine-Colleyville Education Foundation. The grant, funded by the Verizon Foundation, will go toward Cannon's new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education initiative. Throughout the school year, Cannon will work toward the goal of becoming a STEM Academy by the time the 2013-2014 school year begins.STEM is a project-based instructional approach that focuses on integration of math, science, engineering and technology into the regular curriculum. At Cannon this year, teachers' professional development will center on designing instruction with a STEM emphasis.Ben Rosamond, 10, and Emily Snow, 8, helped show off the program's official mascot, a mobile robot named Stevie constructed by Cannon students who used an old VCR, videotape, dryer vents, light bulbs, an alarm clock, a fan, cupcake tins, aluminum foil and wheels from a broken chair."This was my first time actually building something taller than me," said Emily, a third-grader at Cannon."That was really fun, to take the technology parts and use them in something else," said Ben, a fifth-grader who has already decided he wants to be a software engineer.The grant will be used to finish out Cannon's new STEM+ Engineering and Design Lab, which will feature advanced academic versions of familiar building materials such as the Lego Robotics systems, a student "tinkering lab" with Tinker Toys and a teacher engineering resource center.The school already has a stylish media lab with futuristic modular furniture, Apple laptops, a giant QWERTY keyboard on the wall, a green screen for video production, and a depiction of a huge iPad screen with apps.Cannon's program will be unique even among the few existing elementary-level STEM programs because of its emphasis on introducing students to the design process through an elementary engineering curriculum.The Cannon faculty began to craft their STEM vision last fall, said Julie Brenegan, the STEM coach at Cannon."We went to visit campuses in Coppell and Texarkana to see STEM initiatives on an elementary level," said Brenegan. "We felt we could push for our Cannon kids to experience that kind of creativity."They introduced the idea to parents through a "STEM-posium" that replaced the family science night last year, and partnered with the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History for support.The hope is to build Cannon's STEM Academy, then make sure there is a seamless path through junior- and senior-high-school for students whose interests and talents lean toward science, math, technology and engineering as a career, district administrators said.Parents at Tuesday's rollout seemed as enthusiastic as the teachers who wore shirts that read, "Full STEM ahead!"Ben Rosamond's mother, Vicki Rosamond, a chemical engineer on "sabbatical" while her children are young, is sad that her son will soon be out of Cannon, but happy that the STEM objectives are being instituted in elementary schools.Shirley Jinkins, 817-390-7657Twitter: @startelegramHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
