Franklin Elementary School received a STEM redesignation from the Ohio Department of Education, making them the only STEM elementary school in Northeast Ohio.
Most STEM schools in the surrounding districts are private schools, charter schools, middle schools or high schools. This makes Franklin the only STEM elementary school in Northeast Ohio, while also being the only STEM school in the Wadsworth Schools District.
“It just shows that Wadsworth City Schools supports Franklin Elementary in our pursuit of providing all of our students with a STEM education, and that Wadsworth believes in a STEM education and they’re okay with Franklin bringing it to life,” said Sunaina Kelly, the principal of Franklin Elementary School.
Kelly believes that Franklin receiving the STEM designation from the Ohio STEM Committee was an honor to get because it is a difficult process. There are many guidelines for a school to become a STEM school and to remain one. A school can get a proposal for a STEM school through partnerships with business organizations, higher education entities and either a city, exempted village or local school district.
Franklin Elementary has many community partnerships, so the students can practice problem-solving within their community.
Being a STEM-designated school means that teachers find ways to incorporate either science, technology, engineering or math into each lesson. Although the ways that STEM is incorporated into the classroom are different from kindergarten through fourth grade, the main ideas remain intact: perseverance, cooperation, critical thinking and problem-solving.
Kindergarteners can practice STEM by solving basic classroom problems. Kids were having a hard time dressing for the cold weather, so the kindergarteners dressed up paper-made characters to offer different ways to dress for the cold. Teachers also incorporate the STEM process with simple things, like when everything spills out of a kindergarten’s bookbag, and they need to think to themselves, “Okay, let me just take a breath, pick up all of this stuff, and let me try again.”
Joanna Snitil explained how the students experience “failure” for the first time in elementary school.
“This is their 1st time ‘failing,’ you know, which is not failing; it’s just an idea that didn’t work. So, them having to see, ‘Okay, my first thought didn’t work’ or ‘Oh, I used to think this, but I realized that’s wrong’, and then having to go back and adjust it,” Snitil said.
Jessica Chada, a kindergarten teacher at Franklin, explained just how important and impactful experiencing failure is for students.
“If it doesn’t go the way they want, this is their first exposure to that. So we have to talk through it with them and say ‘it’s okay, and you have to persevere, and that’s something you’re always going to have to do as you get into middle school and high school,’” Chada said. “So we’re just building that foundation for making mistakes, and it’s okay. I think that’s the hardest part for them to understand.”
The first graders had a lesson about maps and how to read them. When people were visiting Franklin, there was no map of the school, so the first graders made one and a key for it. Kelly said that whenever someone comes in, they give them the map made by first-graders. They are also learning how Post-it notes were created and the thought process behind their creation, and are now working on simple solutions to everyday problems.
The second graders at Franklin noticed that the soccer goals in the playground were toppling over due to the windy weather. By themselves, they approached Kelly and asked what they could do to help with the goals falling. They made a presentation to the PTO that was supposed to be a practice for future problems, but the PTO was so moved that they took it up with WASA, and received new goals for Franklin and surrounding schools.
Second-grade teacher Kelly Laib explained that this year her class has been focusing on the “share with courage” part of the design process.
“We worked with the PTO on WASA, so they [the second graders] had to have that courage to share what [they were trying] to accomplish,” Kelly said.
The third graders have been incorporating the STEM cycle into their reading. The students will read the summary of whatever book they will be reading, share their thoughts on the book, then finish the book and explain how their thoughts would change, and find evidence to support their thinking.
The fourth graders are making enrichment toys for the Akron Zoo’s two chinchillas, Kristoff and Olaf, and for their prehensile-tailed skink, Lewis, which is a type of lizard. For Ann’s Pastries in Wadsworth, the fourth-grade students have created different flavors of doughnuts for the past two years, which are then featured in their shop.
