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Sarah Steinke Encourages Early STEM Learning With Gravely and Paige Grant

EdFund, December 2024

The world of science, technology, engineering and mathematics is becoming increasingly more innovative and creative. Students around the country are being exposed to new and engaging ways of STEM learning. When we think of teaching STEM in the classroom, we picture middle and high school students engaging in activities, but what about our youngest group of learners? One teacher received funding from AFCEA’s Educational Foundation to purchase classroom sets of Bee-Bots. You may be thinking, “What on Earth are Bee-Bots?!” We are thrilled to highlight Sarah Steinke and how our Gravely and Paige STEM Teacher Grant helped fund this new and exciting STEM resource for her classroom.

Steinke is the science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) teacher at Venture Academy in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

“Venture Academy is a thinking-by-design, pre-engineer-focused school, serving grades K-6 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Innovation and critical thinking skills are weaved throughout the entire school, not just in the STEAM classroom,” Steinke said.

Additionally, Steinke runs the innovation lab at her school, where she said her students “focus on problem-solving skills with the engineering design process.”

“We collaborate in teams, practice making blueprints, documenting and presenting our results, as well as coding and programming, digital literacy and keyboarding,” Steinke shared.

Steinke said the Gravely and Paige Grant impacted the STEAM program in the innovation lab the most.

“We were able to purchase two classroom sets of Bee-Bots coding robots for our kindergarteners through second graders to learn coding, programming and sequencing. It is a simple way to introduce coding that uses arrows without the requirement of reading,” Steinke said. “One thing that I love about Bee-Bots is that the students can determine the accuracy of their program within a short amount of time after pushing go! This set included maps of various locations, costumes and a plethora of ideas for lessons. I know that these robots will provide quality coding education for Venture students for years to come!”

If you are interested in donating to help support projects like Steinke’s, consider donating to the AFCEA Educational Foundation by scanning the QR code below or by reaching out to edfoundation@afcea.org.