Building 21st-Century Skills Through Hands-On STEM Instruction
Success Stories
St. Vrain Valley Schools
Longmont, CO
St. Vrain Valley Schools in Colorado is on a roll. In just under a decade, the district of 32,000 students has transformed itself through a variety of initiatives to provide students with a hands-on education that sets them up for success well beyond the halls of their schools.
“Our systematic approach is very unique,” says Superintendent Dr. Don Haddad. “What we’ve done is establish a pre-K–12 system where every one of our schools is focused on the things that we know work.”
Haddad highlights the core components of St. Vrain—a district-wide 1:1 program, STEM studies that start at pre-K and run into higher education, curricula that push students to problem solve and employ critical thinking skills, a “design thinking” mindset from administrators, public–private partnerships, and effective professional learning that reinforces all these ideas.
Presenting the material in a new way can boost student understanding, too. Wellington says the district’s move to use Discovery Education Science Techbook has really changed how its students can understand our curriculum.
St. Vrain’s educators are finding new ways to use Discovery Education Science Techbook as a platform to enhance the hands-on experience of students, he said.
“We are always looking for ways to incorporate 21st-century skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. This mindset allows our teachers to push past previous limits of traditional educational practices, unleashing the learning and contribution potential of our future scientists,” said Michael O’Toole, the K-12 science coordinator at St. Vrain Valley schools.
Students have built robots, done computer programming, designed apps and websites, and even served as beta testers for companies.