CLK Schools practices STEAM teaching

CALUMET, Mich. (WLUC) - CLK Schools in Calumet is giving its students a head start on advanced learning concepts.

You’ve probably heard of STEM teaching in education. But – STEAM teaching is still working its way into more schools in the UP.

The difference is the A in STEAM stands for art.

“Some of the projects that we’ve been doing are coding with our little robots that we have called spiros,” said Amy Burmeister, a CLK STEAM teacher.

“So the kids first went through that, and now they’re working on circuits and they built a little motor with a propeller in third grade. And then engineered and designed a little Art Bot,” added Burmeister.

Building the Art Bots is a hands-on process for students like Kade Urness, a CLK third-grader.

“We put the batteries together and we connect it to the motor,” said Kade. “And then we put it in a certain place and bah, bah it happened.”

It’s more than just an art project. Students are practicing critical engineering skills

They’re testing and revising robots that create mechanically programmed masterpieces.

“It’s new to here, but the teachers here were coming in and doing STEAM in their classrooms,” said Burmeister. “Now they have me as a STEAM teacher so they’re coming to me instead.” Concepts from STEAM teaching may be beneficial to students’ future career paths.

“They were working in teams and they were working in groups so they’re learning how to work together,” added Burmeister. “There’s lots of jobs that use STEAM-related aspects of that with the arts being incorporated with technology or engineering.”

After the students’ Art Bots are done drawing – the next lesson will be learning some simple computer code.