STEAM courses added to RCS middle school curriculum

ROSEVILLE — Last month, Roseville Community Schools officials announced the addition of four new middle school STEAM courses for the 2023-24 school year.

STEAM represents science, technology, engineering, arts and math. The new courses will include Project STEAM, Introduction to Robotics, Remotely Operated Vehicles and Media Applications at both Eastland Middle School and Roseville Middle School.

The courses were designed to align with current and future high school offerings in the district. According to Roseville Middle School Assistant Principal Eric Gauthier, the courses will focus on critical thinking, communication skills, problem-solving, perseverance, collaboration, digital literacy and technology skills.

Through the creation of the district’s strategic plan, staff began identifying areas throughout all grades where STEAM offerings could be added and saw that the middle school level was in need of more STEAM.

“The elementary schools and high school have progressed more in the past year than the middle schools, so we felt it was important not to have a gap for students who are interested in this area. We haven’t had any classes like these at the middle school level,” Assistant Superintendent Dave Rice said. “Courses like these provide students the chance to discover an interest in engineering and math, and a head start in a growing number of opportunities that can be found in these areas at the high school level.”

Project STEAM, an introductory course offered to sixth graders, will have a strong focus on science, technology and learning in groups. Students in the class will explore scientific concepts through activities in which they create, design and build.

With engineering kits, 3D printing and coding, the Introduction to Robotics class will be available to seventh and eighth grade students. The class is designed to give students an understanding of design, prototyping and team problem-solving. Students will work on a series of projects. There also will be time set aside for them to compete in various challenges against other teams.

The seventh and eighth grade students enrolled in the Remotely Operated Vehicles course will learn about the engineering design process and collaboration required in the production of remotely operated vehicles.

The Media Applications students will learn how to broadcast video announcements to the school, publish a student newspaper and contribute to the school’s yearbook. The importance of meeting deadlines, working in groups and also independently will be stressed.

“We developed these classes in December and students started enrolling in February,” Rice said. “These are some of the most popular offerings for electives this year.”

School officials are in the process of determining how many sections of each course will be necessary for next year. Teachers are already in place to teach the courses; the district does not anticipate hiring any additional teachers.

“There is training that goes along with it,” Rice said. “When you hear us talk about our strategic plan, growing our STEAM-based program is very important to us. It’s one of our priorities.”