At STEM Minds, we’re all about allowing kids to take the lead in their learning. We’ve seen the way that students’ faces light up when they get to pick something they’re passionate about and have the opportunity to dive right in.
This type of inquiry-based learning ignites the excitement and curiosity of students, and empowers them to take ownership of their learning. It gives them the confidence they need to grow as critical and creative thinkers.
That’s why we were very excited to work with the York Region Catholic District School Board on their SPLICE Summer Program. The SPLICE Program allows students to engage in a self-directed, inquiry-based project of their choosing, with the mentorship of educators. We had the opportunity to provide workshops on 3D design and video-game design to these creative and motivated students!
Image Credits: https://twitter.com/marisabenny12/status/1414595193815379973
Students were also granted access to STEAM Hub, our online learning platform. We hoped that giving them access to our platform would help students further explore these topics at their own pace, improve their STEM confidence, and expose them to careers in the growing sector of STEM!
Beyond that, we wanted to provide this tool to support teachers. Though coding has been introduced into the curriculum, many teachers have not received any formal training to bring it into their classrooms. We have always been committed to supporting teachers and helping them provide their students with the best STEM experiences possible, through free professional-development workshops and resources.
To see if we were able to achieve our goals, we gathered feedback from the three teachers and sixty students we had the pleasure of working with through the SPLICE Program. Here is a summary and some highlights of the feedback we received:
We were extremely glad to hear of these positive experiences from both teachers and students. We love working in our community to support inquiry-based learning in schools, and providing teachers with the resources they need to achieve this. We encourage all students to pursue their passions and indulge their curiosity as they progress along their learning journeys!