Technology and S.T.E.M Lab

Our school focuses on Google Suite for the academic portion of technology. Our 2nd - 8th grade students have one-to-one Chromebooks however, only our students in grades 6-8 take their chromebooks home.

​Google Suite
We teach Google Classroom, Gmail/email etiquette, and other google products that will help with papers, research projects, and presentations within the student's curriculum. The curriculum includes Google Slides, Google Sheets and Google Docs as well as folder structures for organization within Google Drive. Students create various projects within these programs each year to practice their skills. 

S.T.E.M. Curriculum 

Preschool & Pre-Kindergarten

Our Preschool & Pre-Kindergarten students are learning how to use a growth mindset and work with others. We practice building new things and working through the frustrations when it doesn't go our way. We also learn to be patient and take turns using materials. 

Students start to learn pattern recognition and order of operations as a precursor to our coding lessons through various computer and hands on games. We play many critical thinking games together to get our brains working in different ways. ​Students also learn to use a one-click mouse vs a touch screen.

Kindergarten - 2nd Grade 

Students are building on various critical thinking skills each year. We also use S.T.E.M. stories to reinforce what we're learning. Our S.T.E.M. library continues to grow each year and students LOVE the books we incorporate. 

We begin to code in Kindergarten and advance programs as we grow in understanding through 5th grade. Students are also practicing keyboarding skills, creativity challenges, and thinking outside the box.

We work through a simplified version of the engineering design process and the importance of planning and brainstorming before diving into creating a prototype.  We have tons of fun!

Grades 3-5

We continue our lessons on growth mindset and stretching our imaginations each year. This is a skill that we never want to stop teaching. By using different materials and kits, we continue to build on our engineering skills. ​​

Starting in 3rd grade we begin to add in the dash robots since they have a basic understanding of coding. We also work on more advanced coding programs.  Students start to learn about the parts of a computer and identifying how it all works together. 

We add in new creativity concepts within programs such as pixel art in Google Sheets and animation design in Google Slides. This is an easy and fun way to introduce these new academic programs that they will need in the future. 
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Students are exposed to green screen technology, stop motion animation, and other skill building games throughout the year. We cover topics like magnets, engineering, electricity and more.

Junior High

Our 6th - 8th students have more academic support in their S.T.E.M. class time. Students work with Ms. Black on Science Fair, History Fair and other large projects that require technology assistance. 

Students in grades 6-8 start the year out learning about the creative design process. We discuss what looks good and why and the balance of copy / images within marketing. We learn how to build a website and video edit through an entrepreneurship lesson where students create their own company.  Students have access to Canva, WeVideo, iPads, iMovie and more programs to assist them. 

Junior High Students also learn how to create graphs and tables in google sheets before their 7th grade Science Fair Project. We have incorporated different concepts to reinforce the data like bottle flipping results, creating a budget, and using student driven data from google forms to analyze and graph. ​

​Students still practice engineering design process and creativity and have access to electrical circuits, Lego Spike Kits, green screen technology, 3D printing & more!

Digital Citizenship

All grades go through different levels of digital citizenship during Digital Citizenship Week in October. We cover internet safety, balancing screen time, social media topics and more. We send updates to parents so they can stay involved in this topic as well. ​St. Mary uses Securly to monitor and filter student behavior online.

We're always expanding our curriculum!

​We are always looking to add or change curriculum depending on the interests of the students.  If there is a topic you want to see explored or you have additional questions, feel free to reach out to Ms. Black at technology@stmaryschooldekalb.com so we can discuss options.