Everett High to Introduce STEAM Academy: Student Applications to the Program are due March 27

An exciting new program that will stress student-centered and inquiry based learning in the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math is looking for 25 incoming freshmen to help launch the academy next fall.

The STEAM Academy will function like a school within the high school with a specific directed focus on a math and science curriculum. The STEAM Academy was modeled on similar STEAM Academies in other school districts around the state, but includes the addition of Arts to the curriculum, to ensure that students enrolled in the program receive a fully rounded education.

According to District Curriculum Director Janice Gauthier, EHS Math Director Andrew Katz, teacher Kathleen McCormack and EHS Principal Erick Naumann, the EHS STEAM Academy will teach the entire 25 member class as a cohort, and the students will work together as a team.

“We are looking for thinkers and students who want to work together,” explained McCormack. “Not just the students for whom learning comes easily, but the ones who want to put in the work,” added Gauthier. “We want the students to ask the questions and solve the problem, with support from the teachers and staff.”

The program will start with 25 students next year, and expand in the coming years to include students in different grades.

According to Katz, the program will be funded in part by a $99,949 grant that will seed the program with new technology and equipment, such as a 3-D printer that will be used by the Academy students to build working models of their ideas.

The grant was one of 40 such grants awarded to districts across the country, out of more than 80 applicants.

Applications to the program must be accompanied by teacher recommendations and include a student essay.

“We’re very excited about bringing this new academy to Everett High School,” said Naumann. “We expect that it will function much the same way that the Allied Health Academy currently operates.”

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