STEAM TAC holds immersion lesson for Monongah Middle School students

MONONGAH, W.Va. (WBOY) — The West Virginia STEAM Technical Assistance Center (TAC) and its sponsor, the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative (WVPEC) stopped by Monongah Middle School on Thursday to hold a projectile launcher immersion lesson with students.

The lesson focused specifically on things like projectile motion, accuracy, precision and iterative engineering design changes based on data and observation.

Around 150 middle school students got to participate in this event, which was also STEAM TAC's first visit to Marion County during the month of November. WVPEC Director Donna Peduto said that through these immersions, they're hoping to help students fall in love with STEAM.

Before the classroom immersions started, Peduto said that a lesson was taught that discussed the different kinds of careers to which these skills are applicable. "They see the value of it because they see that they're gonna be able to use these skills in any career that they choose, and particularly in technology and engineering," she added.

Peduto also said that the students were very engaged throughout the event, partly because they were working together in teams, doing something with real-world applications.

Before becoming the director of the WVPEC, Peduto was a classroom teacher in Marion County for 22 years. She told 12 News that over the years, she found that the more students are engaged, the more they're going to learn overall.

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"So, it's really important to offer this to the students and they certainly respond positively," said Peduto. She added that this program has reached almost 50,000 students across the state through in-person classroom immersions.

Peduto shared that the WVPEC discovered how a lot of times, it can be difficult for employers in West Virginia to fill certain types of jobs. "I think lots of times it's because there's a fear that they're hard or you need these high-level classes," she said. "Really when you talk about it, employers are looking for people that have these soft skills...that can work in teams and collaborate, as well as their technical skills."

According to Peduto, these STEAM TAC classroom immersions were started by the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) to have a program that would push into classrooms statewide. This way, teachers across the state would no longer have to travel out to places like the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus, Ohio, or find other labs to take their students.

Peduto added that the department of education had a vision to have students fall in love with some of these different technical and soft skills, and to know that they're doable for West Virginia students. When the program was started, Peduto said they were told that the WVDE wanted them in all middle schools by the end of the year, which they managed to do and they've since expanded to high school students.

The STEAM TAC currently has five specialists who live in different parts of the state. This has allowed the program to be physically present in every county across West Virginia.