Passion Based Learning AKA STEAM

By Nick Etienne

So I bet you’re wondering, what’s S.T.E.A.M? Well I am here to tell you. S.T.E.A.M is part of the brand new Powered Up program. It is a class where students study what they want and what they are interested in. In the Powered Up program it is listed as Passion Based Learning. S.T.E.A.M stands for: Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts, and Math. Some examples of what the students at Perry Central study are: music intro, web design, and CAD programing among other things. I interviewed one of the students in the class and asked him to describe a typical week in the S.T.E.A.M class.

   “Well we do something different after roll call every day. On Wednesdays we watch a TED Talk video, on Fridays we share something that we learned that week, whether or not it’s related to what we are studying.” Replied the student.

I then asked how grades were taken if what you are studying is self-directed.

“Every two weeks we have to write a blog post about what we have been studying. It has to be very descriptive with specifications on what we are studying, what we learned, and why we were interested in it. We also have a wrap up day, which like the name suggests, we wrap up what we have been working on for the past two weeks”

S.T.E.A.M is a revolutionary new class that will be covered in the Powered Up conference that will be hosted at Perry Central June 2nd and 3rd. It is a new age class that will help students learn how to follow their passions and turn them into something more.