STEAM At WJES

Our STEAM program has been growing steadily since the 2017-2018 school year. Our program has grown from isolated STEAM projects and challenges to a full culture shift, where students are engaged in daily integrated STEAM learning and year-long project-based learning, providing a context for their learning. Our students have grown as problem solvers, collaborators, and communicators, and they are excited to share their learning with authentic audiences and each other.

Over the years, we have added to our STEAM environments and gained several new farm family members for the students to care for and learn from! We have connected our outdoor spaces with opportunities for community partners and mentors to engage with our students, deepening our social-emotional learning and building confidence in our students to impact the world around them. Our students love our happy WJES STEAM farm, including two Boer goat sisters and one male, a few laying hens, many pond fish, and our cuddly pet rabbit! We have a Sensory Garden, Creativity Garden, and Pollinator Garden for students to utilize for individualized exploration and discovery. We have also added a larger greenhouse that houses aquaponics growing beds and traditional raised growing beds. There is even a nature trail with outdoor classrooms and student learning stations. Inside our building, we have multiple hydroponic growing towers and multiple aquarium environments. Through all of our environments, we strive to address and solve the question, "How can we show environmental stewardship and sustainability in our community?" Each grade level has a year-long project-based learning unit connected to this theme, as well as integrated STEAM units throughout the year. We hope you will come to visit to see our students in action as they solve real-world problems and work together to impact our community!

Arts Integration

Through arts-integrated instruction, our students develop creative problem-solving skills and perseverance. Teaching through the arts can present difficult concepts in a variety of engaging ways, allowing students an expressive tool to make real-world connections. 

Robotics

Students at West Jackson are exposed to and given the opportunity to utilize a wide variety of technology on a daily basis. They code and create with their one-to-one devices, Ozobots, Bee-Bots, Dash-Bots, RoboRobo, Lego Mindstorms, Sphero-Bots, green screens, and 3D printers. 

Georgia STEAM Day

Inspired by the book Only One You, students at WJES painted their own rockfish for the front of our school. This is an artistic reminder that it is each person's individual responsibility to make the world a better place.

STEAM Night

STEAM Night at WJES has become an annual event! We had great success during our last STEAM Night on November 7th, 2019! Our WJES families were able to visit many different stations that integrated Science and Math and also allowed kids to experience hands-on learning! Sphero robots, slime, tornadoes in a bottle, gumdrop houses, and the STAR Lab were just a few of the engaging learning activities!

Career and Innovation Day

This annual day allows our students to become familiar with local industries that use innovative practices. Our business partners and family members are able to share their careers and expertise as a way of preparing our students to be leaders of innovation in the 21st century.

• Students’ learning needs are the focus of all decision-making to support academics and the whole child. 
• WJES provides a highly effective, committed staff and resources for all students to achieve excellence and reach their full potential.
• Through Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), we ensure and celebrate a nurturing, student-centered, and respectful environment for learning, where every student is valued and known.
• WJES offers a rigorous, authentic, standards-based curriculum, guided by data and research-based, best instructional practices through STEAM-based learning experiences.
• WJES is a community school, where all stakeholders work collaboratively to support one another to inspire and engage students in connected learning.
• At WJES, we embrace a growth mindset and encourage one another to achieve challenging goals while having fun on the journey!

WJES embraces an integrated approach to SEL and STEAM, utilizing a GOSA Community Partnership Grant to bring all of these pieces together to build our STEAM culture. Through our Fine Arts Partnerships and the 7 Mindsets school-wide SEL curriculum, we are working to build a common language throughout the school by embracing positive mindsets, process-based thinking through Design Thinking, and embracing the arts as a means for students to express creativity, articulate emotions, and explore content standards. 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to our amazing business and STEAM partners!

Click CLICK HERE TO ACCESS to learn more about how you can
partner with West Jackson Elementary School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ways to Partner with STEAM

• Financially: The financial support of STEAM will continue to ensure that students at WJES are able to maximize their STEAM learning initiatives. 
• Visit and Teach: During the year, STEAM partners visit WJES and teach students various aspects of their job. This is a great way to show skills and how they relate directly to a work force!

STEAM Introduction

Students at West Jackson Elementary have many opportunities to explore STEAM through environmental and agricultural education experiences. Students have opportunities to engage in daily learning experiences that connect to the world around them through a variety of outdoor and indoor spaces including an aquaponics garden, hydroponics towers, greenhouse, butterfly house and garden, multiple raised gardens for herbs and vegetables, livestock areas, ponds, and a nature trail with outdoor classrooms.

As a community school, we leverage many business and industry partnerships to deepen the learning and provide real-world experiences for students, including service learning and entrepreneurship.

Problem-Based Learning

At WJES, students are faced with Problem-Based Learning. PBL goes with the idea that students are asked a question, 'What is the problem?'. Students then investigate, imagine, create and test/reflect. Each grade level has something new they are focused on throughout the entire school year! To view the PBL's for this upcoming school year, click here to contact us!