MONTOURSVILLE, Pa. — It's National STEM Day, and a teacher in Lycoming County is transforming one district's STEM program.
Stephanie Beadle is the STEM coordinator for the Montoursville Area School District. Her job is to help develop young minds through science, technology, engineering, and math projects.
"They are learning how to create anything and everything they can think of—at least a model or a template for it," Beadle said.
Beadle teaches at both Lyter and Loyalsock Valley Elementary Schools in the district. Since 2018, Beadle and a teacher at the local middle school have transformed the district's STEM curriculum.
The program is mainly funded by grants and includes state-of-the-art innovation labs built this year at both elementary schools.
"When students come in here, they get inspired by the space that is around them. We have students who struggle with Creativity, and they don't struggle with that creativeness in here."
The innovation labs are for students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
"If they want to make something in order to solve a problem, they can. We have all sorts of tools to make it happen. We have robots, we have Cricuts, we have laser cutters—anything they need, we have for them to use."
Beadle says STEM is a way to get kids interested in both learning and possibly a future career.
"Kindergartners are learning how to read rulers and measure distance without realizing that is what they are doing. They think they are just pushing a car along, but they don't realize they are doing math and science at the same time," Beadle said.
The district says that every student in kindergarten through eighth grade, including those in life skills, participates in STEM learning at least once a week.