At FutureSTRONG Academy, our focus is STEAM, not just STEM. STEM has evolved into STEAM where children are taught 21st Century skills like problem solving, goal setting and decision making using a project-based curriculum. The question that this curriculum aims to answer is, “How would artists use their creativity to problem solve?”

Here are ways you can encourage the inner engineer or scientist in your child:

* Workshop style learning. No answers are wrong, we all collectively come up with a solution.
* Create a hands-on environment. Allow children to tinker, probe and figure out things their way.
* Encourage questions. Let their curiosity be the guide to navigate your lesson plan.
* Encourage creativity. There’s so much joy and pride we experience in building something that did not exist before. When we use our ideas, our hands and our thoughts while putting our focus and our senses on the process, amazing results happen.
* Ask about what real world jobs they know about. Let them describe the careers they think they would like to get into in the future.

ZigZagging Through: 

We combined our programming and robotics skills as we worked with programmable Spherobots. In class, we split into groups of 3 and started working on the sphero robot. We drew different mazes with START and FINISH and vote to pick our favorite one to work with. The students are programming the sphero robot so that it could compete a given maze before the time ends.

Parents, spend a few minutes explaining to your children the kind of work you do for a living! See their imagination light up!

Thank you!