St. Ann Catholic School is committed to providing a broad base of learning with an emphasis in critical thinking for its young students. The school demonstrated its commitment with a construction project over the summer.
St. Ann remodeled two of its classrooms into a science lab and an innovation lab, complete with up-to-date gadgets and contraptions. The project took all summer, starting the day after school let out in May and ending the day students returned a few weeks ago.
Both projects aim to improve group collaboration and problem solving skills for St. Ann’s K-8 students, said Principal Marie Borkowski and Development Director Angela de Jong. The science lab had hexagonal stations installed that have running water and electricity.
“We had desks and tables,” de Jong said of the old science lab. “And so the idea behind the new design was that they can actually do labs and work in groups. You’ve got water access, places to put your notes. You’ve got places you can plug in laptops and iPads if you need to, and it’s all there in one.”
The innovation lab didn’t receive a setup quite that sophisticated, but it did get long rectangular desks, able to sit four or five children. The setup aids group collaboration better than individualized desks do.
“It’s going to be project-based learning,” de Jong said. “They’re working in groups. So they’re learning to lead, they’re learning to follow, and they’re learning to problem solve together as a team.”
Borkowski said the focus really is on being “able to get into that higher-level thinking, rather than just the rote memorization. To think critically and collaborate — that’s a big thing right now with the students, teaching them to work with one another instead of in isolation.”
In both rooms Smart Boards and projectors were added, as well as black glass marker boards with neon markers, meant to make brainstorming more colorful and enticing the students to get creative.
Three-dimensional markers were placed in the innovation lab along with the pièce de résistance, a 3-D printer and scanner.
The whole project cost about $91,000, according to Borkowski.
The science lab was around $70,000-$75,000, while the innovation lab took the other $21,000-$16,000. The 3-D printer was about $2,000.
The renovations and additions were part of St. Ann’s STREAM program. The acronym is akin to STEM and STEAM programs, with the addition of religion. STREAM stands for science, technology, religion, engineering, arts, and mathematics.
A recent school press release about being a STREAM school noted, “We are proud of being a Catholic school, and this step will help us more closely align our mission with our Catholic identity. Additionally, highlighting and furthering the success of our fine arts program will help us meet our goal of educating the whole child.”
The press release also noted, “Our Catholic tradition teaches us to make use of the strong intellects with which God gifted us — we use reason and inquiry in religion classes to pursue ever deeper understandings of our faith life. Then, in a project-based environment we seek to make manifest God’s love for us through service learning in the community.”
Borkowski commented on the often at-odds nature of science and religion. She pointed out that, for example, teaching kids to take care of and respect God’s creation can be seamlessly worked into a science lecture about the damaging effects of pollution.
“The idea is to incorporate our faith into all aspects of the curriculum,” she said. “And it’s not easy.”
She went on to say, “We try to bring everything back around to the religious aspect, to build morally responsible students. It might not always be directly in your face …, but more of a ‘How can what you’ve learned today help you be a better person?’”
While Borkowski and de Jong are both excited about how the new labs may shape their students into more well-rounded and pragmatic individuals who can work in both solitary and collaborative environments, they know that without a strong strategy for imparting those skills to the kids that the summer renovations would be for naught.
“The physical aspects of the classrooms are great, but they’re really nothing without the curriculum that goes along with it,” Borkowski said. “What we do with the space is where it’s going to be the most exciting.”
Well, that and the school’s newest high-tech gizmo.
“The 3-D printer is awesome!” both de Jong and Borkowski exclaimed.
Written by Mac Trammell, special to the Express. Contact him at mactram94@gmail.com.
