CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Blythe-Bower Elementary School's month-old creative lab dedicated to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics is already making a difference with students, Cleveland school officials said Wednesday.
The STEAM lab was made possible through a $75,000 grant from the Leonore Annenberg School Fund for Children, in partnership with the Chattanooga Public Education Foundation and the Bradley/Cleveland Public Education Foundation.
On Wednesday, school officials and community stakeholders commemorated the grand opening of the new learning space, which was filled with fourth-graders engaging their assignments by means of laptops, wall-mounted interactive panels and handheld digital devices.
"I was going to go through every single item in the lab and tell you how awesome it is, but I think what you saw across the hall kind of speaks for itself," Blythe-Bower Principal Joel Barnes said during a presentation. "The kind of experiences [the students] are going to get out of that lab are going to be phenomenal."
Lab resources go beyond laptops and digital media, and include an array of microscopes, a collapsable greenhouse, a telescope, musical instruments and art easels.
The ability to provide these opportunities to the school's students, whose socio-economic status may limit such experiences, is "second to none," Barnes said. Ninety-two percent of the 600 students enrolled at Blythe-Bower Elementary are eligible for free or reduced lunches, he said.
"They will be opened to a world that many of our students don't get to see," said Dr. Martin Ringstaff, director of Cleveland City Schools. "It's very exciting when our elementary school students are getting a chance to be around materials that even high schoolers in many school systems never get a chance to touch."
Chattanooga Public Education Foundation President Dan Challener praised the concept and vision of the STEAM lab, saying it meshes well with Annenberg's desire to encourage schools to "dream big and add something that is truly wonderful on their campus."
In her will, Annenberg insisted that her school fund be allocated to things that students could touch and use "that would allow kids to shine brightly," Challener said.
Blythe-Bower Elementary won the grant due to the hard work and cooperation evident in a strong relationship between the community and its schools, he said.
Challener also congratulated a group of Blythe-Bower teachers - the "STEAM Team" - who have been involved in key steps of the project, including grant writing, assembling and organizing the lab and taking on professional development to maximize the potential of the new learning space.
"This is truly a great day for our community," said Matt Bentley, president of the Bradley/Cleveland Public Education Foundation.
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.