The Shadow
HOT SPRINGS — Students at Valley Elementary recently transformed their school into Steam City.
Students in grades pre-K through seven independently created parts of Steam City, combining them to create a town on the stage of the VES cafeteria.
The end result of their efforts was open to public view on Monday. It was also on display during Tuesday’s regular April meeting of the Bath County School Board.
Steam — an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics — connects what students have learned in each of these subjects.
The students were given an hour and 45 minutes to compose their ideas.
“The process is where the reward is, not the product,” said VES Principal Steve Sizemore. “The turnaround time is phenomenal; the collaboration is phenomenal.”
All designs were created from recycled or upcycled materials.
“It’s where the future is for our children,” Sizemore added.
Sizemore said he hopes to work with BARC?in the future using solar panels to charges batteries, complete circuits and connect lights using solar power.
“We want to expand this every year,” Sizemore said. “The proof is in the pudding every time we do this.”
The importance of learning skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics is evidenced in statistics, Sizemore said.
The average STEM wage is $77,880, compared to the non-STEM wage of $43,460. Ninety-nine percent of STEM school graduates enroll in college within one year of high school, while 79 percent complete college in four years.
Between 2009 and 2019, employers are expected to hire over 57,700 STEM workers who are entering their occupation for the first time.
“I’m excited about your Steam City,” said Rhonda Grimm, school board chairwoman.
Also Tuesday evening, the school board entertained the career and technical education annual performance report.
Bath County schools met all standards with the exception of non-traditional career preparation.
“We’re very pleased with the report in general,”?said Bath County High School Principal Dr. Michael Perry. “Our non-traditional students did complete at a higher rate than the state baseline.”
Later in the meeting, the board authorized school officials to submit the 2019-20 Perkins Plan for Career and Technical Education.
In other business Tuesday night, the Bath County School Board:
— held second reading and approved various Virginia School Boards Association policies;
— approved overnight field trips to the Beta National Competition June 18-22 in Oklahoma City and 2019 band camp July 21-25 at Grace Bible Camp in Goshen;
— approved secondary history/social science textbooks;
— approved amendments to the Bath County High School 2019-20 program of studies.
