Celebrating STEAM Week!

May 8, 2026


Here at Parker, we follow a progressive model of education designed to scaffold independence, motivation, and risk-taking in developmentally appropriate ways for each grade. Educators are constantly aiming to hit that sweet spot between teacher-directed instruction and student-led exploration. Working on challenging tasks that fall within this range promotes maximum cognitive growth, building both skills and confidence for our learners.

One outstanding example of this type of learning happened last week during Middle School STEAM Week. Every year, while our 8th grade is away in Boston for their immersive history trip, Parker 5th, 6th, and 7th graders participate in a weeklong, intensive STEAM challenge designed to bolster their critical thinking, innovation, and resilience.



Middle school math teacher, Paul Rix, explains, “Our main goal for STEAM Week is to provide students with an immersive experience focused on one guiding challenge. Throughout the year our core classes move through curricula in a sequential way, reinforcing learned concepts, wrestling with new ones, and finding ways to connect them. We do this at a pace that ensures we are covering the breadth of material expected at each grade level. This is important work. However, it is also important to have punctuating opportunities like STEAM Week, where we can delve into one concept with a focus on the unilateral purpose of solving one guiding question. In this case, we asked students to think about the following: Inspired by the recent Artemis II expedition, how do I design a capsule that can return an astronaut (an egg) safely to earth?”



For the past week, our 5th, 6th, and 7th graders were hard at work tinkering, creating, experimenting and building to fashion these complex vessels designed to complete a simple task. Under the guidance of our middle school core teachers, students designed their projects from blank-page to blast off, working within real world constraints such as an approved material list and a budget to exercise creativity and execute problem-solving. On Friday, each student presented their final working prototype, much to the awe and delight of our PreK-4th graders and faculty.



John Sherry, Parker science teacher, reflected on the learning outcomes of this week saying, “The biggest benefit of STEAM week is its focus on the iterative process. We deliberately design these projects to have two distinct building “rounds”, so students have an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and make the necessary changes for success. In traditional school work, students don’t typically get a whole “redo” to improve on their ideas and design. To me, this is so helpful in reinforcing the concept that it’s nearly impossible to get things perfect on your first try. There are always improvements to be done, no matter how small. If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.”
Paul adds, “The STEAM challenge provides students with a multi-day challenge to go more deeply into the problem-solving process. They don’t just build one thing and then move on to the next chapter of the textbook. They create something, try it out, fail or succeed, and then go back to the design process, improve on their thinking, and try again. They have many opportunities to iterate on their original creation, refine their thinking, and learn from their own experience and that of others.” 



John reflects further, saying, “I’ve seen these kids do so much problem-solving in thinking of creative ways to make something out of nothing. They know they have to make it work, and they design it, but then it doesn’t work at all. Like, literally nothing does what it is supposed to do. And they are devastated. But every single time they pick themselves up, put it back together, and they realize which little thing needs an adjustment. In the beginning, they need a lot of little nudges or suggestions from me, but after doing this for hours and days, now they are on autopilot. They recognize on their own the best way to solve an issue. So much independence is built behind the scenes on a project like this.”

Paul continues, “To have a task that requires planning and consistent work to reach a completion goal that is way out in the distance is so abstract for a middle schooler. Then add to that the fact that time after time, what you do doesn’t work, and it doesn’t work, and it doesn’t work. This experience really teaches them to pick up their chins and try again. That is such a great growth edge for these kids. Instead of a bunch of small, daily assignments, experiences like these also teach grit and resilience.”



John concludes in sharing, “Most middle schoolers have the academic and manual skills for projects like this. However, socially and emotionally, the skills they need to be successful in high school are still developing. I think deep down, that is the most impactful learning in a project like this. Students should be able to work towards a long term goal, run into these pitfalls, and pick themselves back up. Over the course of this project, I’ve seen students learn to articulate what they are thinking, seek out support from both teachers and peers, and discover themselves as capable. There is a shift from “I don’t know how to do this,” to “I can figure this out!” If we can send our middle schoolers into the world thinking like that, that is a pivotal accomplishment for our little school.”