This is the featured cover story for the printed Winter 2024 edition of the Pioneer Pages Newsletter.
Finding the “one.” The one student still searching for their reason as to why they enjoy coming to and being at school. Canaan Middle School has not only been successful in finding those students, but also giving them that reason to enjoy schooling.
According to recent One Needs Assessments for Canaan, streamlining cross curricular units across several content areas would create an overall impact on all students and could improve student performance.
With testing results in mind, over the past two years, school work based on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) has taken increased focus among Canaan administration. It started by giving fifth and sixth grade students the opportunity to travel to the high school and learn in the Amazon Web Services-funded Think Big Space. There students are able to take what they are learning in their classrooms and build off of it with hands-on experiences. The extension of the classroom gives the students a chance to work with coding, robotics, and even AI.
The student response from those experiences were positive, and their ability to “Think Big” has led to additional STEM-based learning in their own building and beyond. Canaan recently opened their own satellite version of the AWS Think Big Space, the 20th such space in Ohio and 40th globally. Alder is proud to host two AWS Think Big Spaces in the district.
Almost all fifth and sixth grade students now have the ability to work in a STEM-dedicated classroom space on a weekly basis. Additionally, female students at Canaan have participated in Amazon and COSI’s joint-hosted Girls’ Tech Day. Canaan administrators and staff are also working on hosting a Boys’ Tech Day.
So far, the increased focus on STEM has impacted more than one student and in more than one way. A recent student response survey supplied answers such as “I now know how to help my team and develop teamwork skills,” “it has helped me see or think outside the box,” “because of STEM I have grown in critical thinking and looking at different angles of things,” “I made a friend and found my strength in gardening,” and “it has made me love school even more than I already did.”
“Through our partnership with AWS, our students now have experiences that they would not get elsewhere,” said Emily Byers, the district’s STEM Facilitator. “These experiences include, AWS Girls’ Tech Day, visiting our AWS Think Big Space at the HS, 5th and 6th grade students visiting our new AWS Think Big space weekly at CMS, and this spring we will host a Boys’ Tech Day. Tech Days are used to help our students become familiar and comfortable with new technology.
“Our students are not only learning valuable educational skills, they are also preparing for future careers. It has been amazing to see how STEM has expanded throughout JA over the last two years and I am so excited that our CMS students now have the opportunity to take a deep dive into STEM within their new Think Big space.”
When attending their new Think Big Space, Canaan students look forward to completing “Breakout EDU” games, as well as creating and making things they would not normally do in the regular classroom. The space’s hands-on nature, as well as the ability to function as a team are also positive experiences students have when visiting.
Mrs. Hannah Rings is the STEM Education teacher for Canaan’s satellite Think Big Space. She has seen the growth in students since the implementation of the new focus, “STEM has been amazing for design and problem solving. Students are already more confident to ‘fail forward’ and try new ideas out. Their communication with peers has also become clearer and more productive as they share ideas and modify previous ones.”
STEM education can raise skill levels for students in areas needed in the 21st Century. With the advancement of science and technology, the ability to elevate skill sets in areas such as creativity, critical thinking, research, teamwork, and problem solving will set Jonathan Alder students up for future success.