ALLENTOWN, Pa. — At the new Central Elementary STREAM Academy, students have spent the first month of school building solar batteries, growing hydroponic butterfly gardens and observing Madagascar hissing cockroach ecosystems.
“They are reading about science, and then they’re actually applying their new knowledge to create things in real time,” said Central Principal Rebecca Bodnar.
Allentown School District and Da Vinci Science Center are partnering to operate the new school, which opened this academic year as the Lehigh Valley’s first non-charter, non-private theme-based school, according to Superintendent Carol Birks.
At a Tuesday event, ASD and Da Vinci Science Center celebrated the opening of the STREAM Academy’s second campus, which is located on the bottom floor of the science museum, at 815 Hamilton St. It’s in these classrooms and labs that ASD students will get hands-on learning in STREAM subjects — science, technology, reading, engineering, arts and math.
Birks, who also sits on the board of trustees for Da Vinci Science Center, said theme-based schools like the Central Elementary STREAM Academy are part of ASD’s theory of change.
Lin Erikson, executive director and CEO of Da Vinci Science Center, said Tuesday she hopes the new STREAM Academy will serve as a “national model for museum-school partnerships.”
“We do not think there’s anything like it anywhere,” Erikson said.
Of course, other schools visit museums, but this partnership isn't one just based on access to facilities, added Kendal Askins, director of the ASD partnership for Da Vinci Science Center.
"When students come to Da Vinci, they participate in experiences that complement, extend and reinforce the curriculum that they are learning at Central," she said.
Donors, community members and elected officials toured the new Da Vinci STEAM Learning Center, which includes four classrooms, a media studio and fabrication lab. It also includes a Little Learners Lab for pre-kindergarten students and a chemistry kitchen for cooking-based science learning.
Central students in pre-kindergarten through second grade will spend a four-hour session at the Da Vinci campus every five days. Students in third through fifth grades will have hands-on, STREAM experiences at Central, located at 829 W. Turner St., and will also have trips to the museum, though less frequently than the younger grades.
"We get to go to the science center, and we get to learn new things," said Matthew Perez, a fifth-grade student at Central.
ASD hired four additional science teachers this year to work on integrating STEM into the classroom with students and to serve as a professional resource for Central staff, said Heidi Rochlin, who began as ASD’s executive director of the STREAM Academy in July.
Most of these educators co-teach at the Da Vinci campus with teaching staff from the museum. One also co-teaches with classroom teachers at the Central building.
Students and community members will also have access to the media studio, fabrication lab and Little Learners Lab.
The museum plans to develop a certification process for community members to get trained on media and fabrication equipment before they are able to use those spaces.
The media studio can be used for recording podcasts or making videos. The fabrication lab can be used for creating prototypes by using 3D printers and other tools.
The Little Learners Lab will offer bilingual instruction for science activities. ASD pre-K students will use the space during the school day. The lab also will soon open for community families to drop in and use the space seven days a week.
Through the partnership, all ASD families also have free, unlimited access to the entire museum. Additionally, Da Vinci educators will be hosting a family science night at each district school throughout the year to expose even more students and families to their science curriculum.
“It really is a one-of-a-kind experience for our students and our school district,” Bodnar said.
