Full STEAM Ahead!

1/15/2020

Middle school students dive deep into science, technology, engineering, art and math projects.

Playing with fire? Training a virtual dog? Getting a real-life view of DNA? Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

Girls in grades 5-8 enjoyed a program originated especially for them. Montrose teachers may have had younger students in mind when they designed the curriculum, but make no mistake: this was a two hour hands-on, training-wheels-off, full STEAM immersion.

Students lit up the curriculum in chemistry - literally! A Chemistry flame test allowed the young scientists to identify which metal ions were in different compounds based on the colors that appeared when the metals were put into fire. In Biology, they released a strawberry’s DNA, gaining a better understanding of the cell structure in the process. They mastered the elementaries of coding by learning to program “Karel the Dog” to follow commands, and they engineered popsicle stick bridges to carry the maximum amount of weight. An art lesson in focused observation through deliberate mark making deepened their understanding and wonder.

These enticing STEAM experiences in middle school at Montrose lead to greater understanding of and connection to classroom encounters in high school and beyond. At Montrose, girls grow in the habits of good scientists, engineers and arists as they develop the academic acumen and creativity necessary for scientific discovery.

Kate Novack '24 said, "I really liked the coding activity. I had never worked with coding before and was excited to try it. And it was great having an older student explain the computer science classes that will be available to us in upper school."

Nola Guthrie '26 added, "STEAM day was very fun. I really enjoyed learning how to extract DNA from a strawberry. In art, I liked the creativity and freedom we had to make whatever we wanted based on images of cells."

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