Classes may be done for the summer, but students can't seem to stay away from one school in Lexington.
While most kids are swimming, playing sports and hanging around the house this summer, students from the Fayette County Public School's STEAM Academy are working in science labs and even doing undergraduate research at the University of Kentucky. Taylor Sullivan is an instructor with the program. “It’s a great experience for us to follow through with the same research that’s being done at the University level about how we learn. But also to let the students really inspire us in changing what works at STEAM.”
Sullivan wants the interactive approach to teaching to continue year-round. A technique that she believes creates a better learning environment. “My goal is that my classroom doesn’t look like a classroom. I have worked so that it’s going to be more of a group environment where we’re going to be able to collaborate but also do hands-on learning that’s going to support the design challenges. It’s going to be really pushing the students to come up with these ideas and really immerse themselves in the design process.”
The STEAM Academy opened last fall in the old Johnson Elementary School on East Sixth Street. The school operates under a partnership between Fayette County Public Schools and UK’s College of Education and the curriculum offered gives students the opportunity to earn college credits through classes taught by University mentors.