Livingston Parish Teachers Join Effort to Enhance STEM Curriculum for Elementary Students
Livingston Parish Teachers Join Effort to Enhance STEM Curriculum for Elementary Students
Cohort of Teachers Committed to Building a Core of Knowledge
LIVINGSTON, La. – Thirty-eight Livingston Parish teachers have committed to joining a cohort of dedicated educators this school year to create classroom lessons and norms for teaching STEM concepts to elementary students.
These teachers spent two days of their summer vacation in a July workshop at Southside Elementary with the district’s cohort leaders to find new and effective ways to implement STEM learning into their daily classroom curriculum in all subject areas.
“Data shows that integrating project-based learning and STEM into daily activities and learning exercises increases student performance scores,” said Supervisor of Assessment and Accountability Kelly LaBauve.
“This dedicated cohort of educators, now 38 strong, is working together to create new opportunities for our teachers to enhance their lessons and classroom activity with STEM-based learning,” she said.
Cohort leaders Whittany Starns, an instructional coach at Northside Elementary, and Jessica Edwards, a teacher at Southside Elementary, led the two-day workshop. Members were grouped according to their assigned grade levels: PK-1, 2-3 and 4-5. Several local businesses sponsored the sessions, including Raising Cane’s of Denham Springs, Texas Roadhouse of Denham Springs, and Sombrero’s of Walker.
Special presentations were provided by:
• Denham Springs Junior High Assistant Principal Elliot Coates, who discussed programs to help students prepare for junior high, as well as ways to integrate AI in their student’s curriculum;
• Denham Springs High School STEM & Robotics Center Director Mike Simmons, who discussed those programs offered at the high school level, as well as the school’s robotic team competition and club opportunities; and
• Instruction Technology Facilitator Heather White, who presented an array of resources the district is making available to incorporate greater technology components into STEM learning.
LaBauve said the work developed by the cohort during the two-day workshop was not something “extra,” but an enhancement of what is already being done in classrooms across the district.
“We have STEM learning in our schools, but we want that learning to be deeper and be a seamless progression for our students – starting in elementary, then building to middle school and high school, and then potentially, to a strong post-secondary program or college,” LaBauve said.
“We know that as we strengthen our introduction of STEM concepts at the lower grade levels, and we present those concepts in ways that our younger students can understand and engage in across subject fields, then we are building a core of knowledge that will serve them well at every new level in their educational growth,” LaBauve said.
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LPPS Instruction Technology Facilitator Heather White makes a presentation on how to teach a STEM concept for younger students during a two-day workshop at Southside Elementary. Thirty-eight teachers are part of a cohort of dedicated teachers working to integrate STEM into daily activities and learning exercises in the district’s elementary schools. |
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These Livingston Parish teachers participated in a two-day workshop in July to create new classroom lessons and standards for teaching STEM to elementary students. Pictured, from left to right are: (on the far row) Shannon Dyer of Seventh Ward Elementary, Dawn Kleinpeter
of Eastside Elementary, Elizabeth Abbott of Live Oak Elementary, and Corley McDaniel of South Live Oak Elementary; (on the near row) Madelyne Rabalais of Southside Elementary, Becky Waguespack of Gray’s Creek Elementary, and Jennifer Rodriguez of South Live Oak Elementary. |