San Jose, April 27, 2017:  Moreland School District announced that Payne Elementary School hosted a portion of the Santa Clara County Office of Education STEAM Symposium last Friday, April 21, 2017.  As part of a multi-day event highlighting best practices, partnerships, and networks supporting imagination, innovation, and integration across the County, Payne was a featured stop for teachers and administrators wanting to learn more about how to create a successful STEAM program on a budget.

Payne’s presentation was hosted in their STEAM Room and focused on the vision, development, and growth of their STEAM program to date.  Led by Payne’s Assistant Principal Katie Berg, Katie shared that with Payne’s diverse community, the goal of building the STEAM program was to provide more equity and access to students so they are exposed to more STEAM related topics.  “We went by the model, ‘Little hands learn through play and big hands learn through action,” said Katie.  “We have hands-on learning activities for Transitional Kindergarten - 5th grade students tailored to encourage out-of-the-box design thinking and engineering type skills.”

Attendees were also able to watch two different types of STEAM lessons at varied grade levels:  a 5th grade class devised a plan to get an oil spill cleaned up from water and feathers in a specified time given certain materials.  Students learned about a real oil spill disaster and the effects on marine plants and animals.  A 2nd grade class worked collaboratively to build a bridge of legos that would support paper, a paper cup, and pennies dropped into the cup as weight.  

The Santa Clara County Office of Education STEAM Symposium is in its second year.  Open to teachers, administrators, coaches, and non-formal educators, the Symposium is a 2-day workshop featuring break-out sessions and in-depth strands of training on such topics as ‘Design Thinking for STEAM Classrooms,’ and  ‘Art & Design.’