For the 2014-2015 school year, CHS will implement a new program that emphasizes Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math.  These STEAM programs will benefit students who are interested in courses that integrate visual and performing arts with math and science classes. CHS received a $50,000 Specialized Secondary Program Grant from the California Department of Education in order to start the STEAM programs.

CHS teachers will receive training in Project Based Learning, improvisation, arts integration, science interaction and math interaction in order to teach STEAM courses to their best ability.  Teachers will be taught how to make classes more interactive and less lecture-based in their training programs.  These classes will be available to all grade levels, with the courses readily utilizing the Performing Arts Education Center.  The PAEC will serve as the performing arts environment that will provide the sufficient integration for the STEAM programs.

“The STEAM program includes the kind of learning environment that students receive when they study music, dance, theater and other performing arts and combines it with science and math classes in order to make students more innovative” said principal C.J. Foss.

Robotics II and STEAM Physics are two new courses that will be available to CHS students starting next year.  STEAM Physics will focus on experiments that deal with sound, light and movement.  These classes will contain STEAM values that will help performing arts students excel. The Las Virgenes Unified School District believes that student artists, dancers, musicians and performers among others will benefit from these classes.  Teachers hope that the STEAM program will produce well-rounded students that excel in careers that require creative, inventive, scientific, technological and mathematic-based thinking.

“STEAM is a way for students to be more interactive in their learning environment” said Robotics I, Robotics II, Algebra I and Algebra II teacher Michael Yeung.  “They get to use their hands, eyes and imagination instead of just picking up a pencil and writing on their paper.”

Administrators hope that students will be able to interact in their classes and connect performing arts with science and math in the upcoming school year.  New STEAM classes will create a learning environment for students who thrive in hands-on teaching practices.  Although non-STEAM classes will not contain the same approach to learning as STEAM courses, all teachers at CHS will have the training necessary to implement these ideas.