New STEAM Lab at Rose Drive Elementary inspires students to ponder future careers and more

The new STEAM Lab at Rose Drive Elementary School is a hit! This trimester, the school’s computer room was transformed into an innovative space using flexible seating, tables, storage, Chromebooks, robots, engineering, video production, and more.

Already the Lab has inspired group collaboration, innovative thinking, hands-on learning, and future STEAM careers. Earlier this year, 3rd-grade teacher Harvey Armbrust was able to visit the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena to tour the museum and attend training on different ways to teach children about the earth and moon. The surprise for the teachers that attended the training at JPL was that they would have the opportunity to borrow Moon (or lunar) rocks and meteorite rocks for their schools.

As a way to promote scientific learning and observation, Rose Drive created a Moon Walk Walk-Through Day where all students were able to come to the STEAM Lab and visit four stations in order to gain hands-on learning, be engaged in their own learning, and ask scientific questions. During the walk, students were able to see and learn about the different phases of the moon, observe actual lunar and meteorite rocks and sand, read fiction and nonfiction books about the moon, eat astronaut ice cream, and take a picture on the “moon” using green screen technology.

“Our LAB is a wonderful new and engaging learning space for all students and we will continue to provide collaborative and innovative STEAM activities for all our scholars,” Principal Kathleen Nappi shared. “It’s amazing to think that these samples came all the way from the Moon almost 240,000 miles away!”