Described as “Kentucky’s most innovative school,” the STEAM Academy gives Fayette County high school students a learning experience unlike any other while engaging them with the local community. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math and is grounded in project-based learning and the attributes of teaching next generation learners (read about the critical attributes of next generation learning here).
The school received start-up funds from Next Generation Learning Challenges, which is supported by large foundations such as the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
STEAM students are routinely on the UK campus for classes, and our faculty, students and staff are on-site at the STEAM Academy daily. In one dual-enrollment credit course taught by UK College of Education faculty member Laurie Henry, UK students serving as peer instructors learn ‘elbow to elbow’ with Fayette County teachers in a specially designed course focused on college readiness skills and problem-based learning; peer instructors apply instructional techniques they have learned in methods classes directly with 9th graders in Fayette County schools.
Our collaboration allows pre-service teachers to get involved in STEAM classrooms early in their college studies and helps to establish a ‘blue ribbon model’ for clinically-based teacher preparation programs.