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 and Preschool through 1st grade have access to our computer lab multiple times a week.

​We teach Google Classroom, Gmail/email etiquette, and other google products that will help with papers, research projects, and presentations within their curriculum. This includes google slides, google sheets and google docs as well as folder structures for organization within google drive. 

Okay, onto the fun stuff. Beyond the classroom support, we want to ensure we build a S.T.E.M. curriculum that is fun. 
  • Our junior high students love TinkerCAD and we do have a 3D printer. This is a topic that students like to focus on and our students have presented on this topic at an annual S.T.E.A.A.M. conference. 
  • Lego Stop Motion Animation is another one the students really like to do in groups. 
  • The greenscreen technology is not only used for fun projects but students to like to use this as a way to do pre-recorded presentations for class including group projects. Our students also have presented on this topic at the S.T.E.A.A.M. conference. 
  • ​Typing is part of our core curriculum in technology class starting in first grade. Students in Kindergarten do play keyboarding games to get them familiar with letter recognition and placement.  
  • Our younger students can't get enough of the prodigy program. This program makes math really fun as it feels like a game. 
  • Robotics has been a hot topic and we do own quite a few Dash and Dot Coding Robots and Ozobots. 
  • We start learning coding basics in Kindergarten with Kodable. Then we move to Code.org, scratch jr and scratch.  Bloxels is one of the favorites with older students.  
  • Some of our older grades start to learn web design and website structure. Our Jr. High students have the option to create a website or documentary for their History Fair project. We start using Google Sites in Jr. high.

We are adding things all the time depending on the interests of the students so if there is a topic you want to see if we cover, we can explain what options we have available. Students are able to explore the topics they want. ​Feel free to reach out to technology@stmaryschooldekalb.com with any additional questions.
Students in grades two through eight
​have their own Chromebook.
We have green screens in our library
​and S.T.E.M. Lab
Ozobots
ABCya
Dash and Dot
Kodable
Stop Motion
Starfall