Pathway’s curriculum includes daily experiences in STEM for students with special needs

“STEM for all” is The Pathway School’s unique approach to experiential learning in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. At most schools, STEM is an honors program. At some special education schools, STEM is offered as an elective. At Pathway, STEM is the core of our curriculum and permeates everything we do. Each day we are creating opportunities in STEM for students with special needs.

What is STEM?

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. STEM programs are designed to teach students 21st-century employment skills in an interactive and fun way. The STEM curriculum challenges students to think critically. With our project-based approach to learning, students gain real-world experiences and knowledge for their future.

Our STEM Program

Pathway’s approach to providing STEM education opportunities to all of our students, ages 5-21, will be ever-evolving as our students grow and technology changes. Students take the knowledge they have gained from their daily courses and apply them to STEM activities. For example, students use their math and engineering skills to measure, construct, and build in our vo-tech 2.0 classroom and maker space. They create robots, design 3D art, participate in woodworking, and much more.

Our students have the opportunity to work behind or in front of the camera by participating in video production or being an anchor on our morning Pathway Today show. The Beats by Girls program and our eSports lab enable our students to work together, find commonalities and passions between classmates, and maybe even a potential future career. STEM enhances our education across the board – in our classrooms and our STEM environments.

Click here to learn about Pathway’s Robotics program.

Innovative STEM Environments

To support our STEM-based curriculum and give our students an innovative and interactive environment, in the fall of 2019 we opened a state-of-the-art Innovation Center.

The Innovation Center is a place where students have the opportunity to use “Design Thinking.” It features a maker space for creating and learning using technology; a media center for video production; an eSports lab for competitive e-gaming; an engineering, tools, and tech space; and a classroom focused on the sciences.

In addition, students learn about reducing carbon emissions through the energy-efficient solar panels on the Center’s roof and students run a café in the Center’s culinary arts room. A multi-use dining and presentation space completes the Center’s offerings.

“In the Innovation Center, we are creating a culture where applying math, science and engineering is cool. With hands-on activities and new technologies, we foster abilities in cooperation, critical thinking, and correspondence, and setting the students up for achievement in school and the labor force,” states Jose Quijas, STEM Coordinator.