Rome Middle School

“STEM is not for one group of kids,” Tiffany Abbott Fuller, the STEM teacher at West End Elementary, said. “STEM is for everyone because, with these STEM jobs, the future is for everyone.”

STEM, which stands for science, technology, engineering, and math, uses problem-based and investigative learning to teach state standards. It has been a part of Rome City Schools for the last six years, first appearing at the middle school and then moving to the elementary school three years ago.

With its more hands-on approach, STEM lessons provide a different approach to education.

“Kids are hearing, and they’re seeing it, but they’re also manipulating it and doing it,” Danielle Dixon, a STEM science teacher at Rome Middle School, said.

In STEM, students often have to redo a project a few times before they get the result. The trial and error aspect of the subject makes it accessible to all students, especially those who struggle academically.

“A kid who was not doing well academically came up to me excited and said, ‘I’m actually good at STEM,’” Elm Street Elementary STEM teacher Chelsea Losh, said.

“They’re used to having to try more than one time, so it doesn’t phase them as much,” RCS Early Learning Specialist Sabrina Teems said.

At Elm Street Elementary, Losh teaches pre-K through sixth grade. Her primary goal when teaching her younger students is to introduce them to the subject.

She wants them to understand all aspects of STEM, a major one being failure. A lot of STEM is putting something together for it to fall apart, she said.

“We’re learning what it’s like to have something fall apart, and it’s OK,” Losh said. “You might be sad about it, but we’re not going to fall apart.”

Only three elementary schools are STEM-certified: West End, Elm Street and Main Elementary. At the elementary level, STEM is a class that all students attend between their other classes. The elementary classes introduce students to the subject, Teems explained.

At the middle school, STEM is a program within the school that students apply to and then go through all of their classes in.

“We take it to another level where we incorporate it into all the standards we have to teach anyway,” Dixon said.

Students in STEM focus on taking what they’re learning at school and seeing how it is used outside of the classroom. At Rome Middle School, STEM teacher Lesley Hatcher taught her students about water scarcity in African countries and had her students design a system to transport water between countries. Many of her students were better able to understand the material after their project.

Over the years, as the STEM programs grow, teachers have seen their students grow into critical thinkers and problem solvers. The students coming into the middle school program this year have had years of experience now from elementary school and it shows, Dixon said.

“They know the engineering and design process before they get to us, so we’re not having to spend nearly as much time on it,” Dixon said. “Their problem-solving skills are so much better. If they see a problem, they’re like, ‘what do we do about this?’”

You can see how this learning style benefits some students, Hatcher explained.

The progress can be seen in the numbers as well. Losh reported that in the last three years, Elm Street Elementary has seen a rise in attendance and a drop in behavioral issues. The school’s milestone scores have also improved, with more students scoring as proficient and distinguished learners since STEM started at the school.

“We are literally getting to see the future,” Fuller said. “We are getting glimpses of what the kids are becoming passionate about and really good at. It makes me excited to see the world to come.”