The Metuchen Public Schools will be offering an innovative and engaging summer program, open to all students entering 1st through 9th grade. The six week program will begin on July 1 and will continue through August 7, 2014 and will run from 8:45 AM – 12:15 PM. The program will operate three days per week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The innovative program is called S.T.R.E.A.M. (for Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts and Math). STREAM students will participate in a problem-based learning approach and curriculum centered on the higher order thinking and problem solving skills found throughout the Common Core State Standards. STREAM teachers will focus their instruction on teaching students a core set of six problem solving skills called the Common Core Problem Solving Process (combination of social problem solving skills, the design process, the scientific method and academic and social cognitive processes and steps). STREAM teachers will then facilitate student triads (groups of 3) through the 6 step problem solving process in order for students to understand and successfully design creative solutions to real-life problems.
STREAM students will be challenged to apply their higher order thinking and problem solving skills towards real-life scenarios and situations.