STEM AT EINSTEIN
What will the world look like when your child graduates from high school?
Today’s learners are going to have jobs that don’t yet exist. Therefore, the education of all children, including elementary, should provide environments in which the children can learn to think critically and develop skills that are going to be invaluable in whatever careers they pursue. Research also shows that high-quality early STEM education is a pivotal part of students’ future academic and career success. In fact, a recent report even warns that “without such education starting, and continuing, throughout the early years, many children will be on a trajectory in which they will have great difficulty catching up to their peers. “
How will your child’s education
prepare them for their future?
That is the heart of our mission at Albert Einstein Academy — to provide an unquestionably exceptional elementary education that prepares today’s learners for tomorrow’s realities. Through dynamic project-based learning in our comprehensive STEM lab, our students will develop the skills of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication — skills that will benefit them in all academic areas and all career pathways.
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Our kindergarteners are first introduced to STEM by exploring the design process and how engineers influence their lives. They explore the elements of structure and function, identifying products around them designed by engineers and asking questions engineers might ask. They also examine the structure and function of the designs of the greatest engineers of all — nature.
Kindergarteners also learn components of algorithms and computer programming such as inputs, variables, and sequences. They synthesize this knowledge to create animated presentations that demonstrate their understanding of complex topics, including the human body, animal habitats (as in the picture above), weather patterns, and humans’ impact on the environment.
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In first and second grades, students delve into life sciences and investigate growth, development, and the inheritance of traits. They apply the design engineering process to projects that support the structures and processes created by nature.
The students build on those concepts when they explore earth and space science and learn about the different forces that impact the world around them.
Other units include investigations of topics such as sound and light, properties of matter, and insulation and conduction.
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In the upper grades, Einstein students build on previous knowledge to explore topics in more depth and to design more complex projects. They consider how the growth and development of organisms are impacted by social interactions and group behavior.
They examine fossils to learn what they reveal about organisms and environmental changes and develop action plans to reduce future environmental damage.
Students also examine stability and motion and discover and design aeronautics, simple machines, and robots. Projects include engineering ways to lift and airdrop supplies and to transport large animals to rescue them.
The Benefits of Elementary STEM Education
STEM education doesn’t just increase students’ knowledge of science and technology; ample research has shown that interdisciplinary STEM education in the elementary years results in substantial improvements in math, reading, and science scores, and that these improvements continue throughout the rest of students’ academic careers.
And, while early exposure to STEM is likely to spark students’ interest in STEM fields — which far outpace other fields with regard to both salary and projected growth — a STEM education also teaches students necessary 21st-century skills. These skills are often cited to be the most important predictors of success in both higher-level courses and in the workplace. By providing our students with these skills as early as possible, we are setting them up with the best chances of success no matter what their futures hold.