Grant to benefit Lehighton STEAM program

A leading Science Technology Engineering Arts Mathematics program is set to get even stronger in Lehighton Area School District after it received a $35,000 targeted state grant in January.

Melissa Volcskai, Lehighton’s STEAM education coordinator, said the district plans to use the money to introduce curriculum from the nonprofit Project Lead The Way organization at the high school and expand on it at the middle school.

“The plan for next year is to have all of our freshmen students take a computer science course in high school,” Volcskai said. “That is where we plan the starting point, and as we gauge student interest in that, we could expand that into higher level courses down the road such as cyber security or an advanced placement computer programming course.”

Three high school teachers and one middle school teacher will be trained in the Project Lead The Way offerings to support the implementation.

Targeted grant recipients include 221 school districts, two career and technical centers, and 18 charter and cyber charter schools, and eight intermediate units, each of which will receive $35,000.

Additional funding in the $30 million PAsmart initiative for science and technology education, apprenticeships and job training will be announced in the coming weeks.

In addition to Lehighton, other districts in the areas to have received grants are Tamaqua, Weatherly and Northern Lehigh.

The added curriculum will feature project-based, hands-on learning opportunities, Volcskai said.

“There may be a coding problem or some other problem to solve depending on what the concept is that day,” she said. “Students will learn the basics first and then collaborate to tackle more in-depth projects.”

The district offered two computer programming courses, but the numbers weren’t as good as it had hoped. The courses were limited to students who had an interest in it, but Lehighton would like to get every freshman a taste of it so they can decide if it is something they want to pursue.

“Some might not, and that is OK, but it gives them the opportunity to find those kids who thought they might not be good at computer programming or computer science, but find they actually like it and want to take more courses,” Volcskai said. “It fits really nicely into our computer pathways model.”

Lehighton introduced Project Lead The Way at the middle school this year with its STEAM course. Most of that class is engineering, technology and math-based.

“What we’d be looking to do there is add some computer science elements into the computer courses they are already taking,” Volcskai said.

With the grant funding commitment around the state, Pennsylvania now ranks second in the country for investments in K-12 STEAM and computer science.

“Over the next decade, seven in 10 new jobs in Pennsylvania will require workers to use computers and new technologies in a constantly changing economy,” said Gov. Tom Wolf. “With these grants more students will get the skills they need for emerging high-demand jobs.