Richfield School District is opening a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) focused elementary school, and it's drawing loads of interest among parents.
While the focus of the article is about its popularity, this shows another trend in elementary education - teacher specialization at lower grade levels. I'm totally for this movement, especially when it comes to science education. Teachers should know how to design instructional experiences for young children that can serve later learning of more complex science concepts. I would hypothesize that kids that have more experiences with "strange" or "magical" science demonstrations (and appropriate instruction) will have an easier time overcoming their intuitive conceptions that often block scientific understanding.
St. Cate's is apparently responsible for the professional development (on-going over the year). I am interested to see how they are doing a year or two down the road. Anyone know the people there working on this?
