Fifth graders at Fir Grove Elementary gathered around a canvas spread out on their classroom floor, using iPads to direct their new robots back and forth over paint. From their point of view the result is a colorful, collaborative painting they’re proud to hang in their school’s hallway. From their teacher’s perspective, lessons in science, technology, and art came together beautifully.
The robots used in this project were funded by the Beaverton Education Foundation’s Building STEAM 4 All initiative, which launched in 2008, and featured in a Beaverton School District video, illustrating the strength of the long-standing partnership between the two organizations.
“Activities like this one at Fir Grove bring to life BEF’s strategy to advance hands-on STEAM learning in novel and engaging ways. Sometimes that means providing supplies and devices, but it always involves a partnership with district educators,” says Kristine Baggett, BEF’s executive director.
BEF’s Building STEAM 4 All initiative directly collaborates with the district’s tech educators and classroom teachers to support integration of STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art and math — into their classrooms, at all levels.
Lindsay Ruhnke, Fir Grove’s technology instructional assistant, says, “Instead of just doing science or just doing technology, we’re always looking for ways to incorporate all those things into learning because it really helps students grow their brains and problem solving centers.”
Last year, BEF supported STEAM classroom projects and afterschool and summer enrichment programs that reached across all 54 Beaverton schools, offering experiences in robotics, coding, maker-education, 3D design and printing and more. BEF also helped restock the Innovation Lending Library so that schools do not need to have its own set of gadgets, reducing costs as well as increasing access among schools — and the items are so popular, they’re all reserved for the rest of the year. We also added new equipment in maker spaces to improve student access.
BEF also helped equip Future Labs at all comprehensive middle schools across the district. Future Labs are specially designed so that eighth graders can explore technical programs and careers, such as in 3D design, structural engineering, video/audio production and automation. And this spring, thanks to BEF funding, middle schoolers will build an antenna on a “ham radio” to track weather satellites then convert that audio into visual weather maps.
“All the programs supported by Building STEAM 4 All are designed to engage students, and inspire them to learn now and in the future,” Baggett says.
For Ruby, a Fir Grove fifth grader, that day she made art with robots taught her more than STEAM concepts. “It shows our school can be really creative. I really liked how we got to paint with the robots,” she says.