At the start of the school year, 37 schools across the state have been designated as STEM schools, including Channing Hall that received the platinum distinction this past spring.

“We applied to be a silver school, but we were awarded platinum designation after they saw we fulfilled all the requirements for platinum in our application and visited our school,” said Heather Fehrenbach, who is a member of the school’s STEM designation team. “We’re vetted at the highest level of STEM that’s offered.”

The Utah STEM school designation program has criteria set by the Utah State Board of Education and the Utah STEM Action Center for a comprehensive STEM learning environment that prepares and engages students for college and career readiness. 

At Channing Hall, STEM instruction aligns with the charter school’s International Baccalaureate program as well as its Utah Portrait of a Graduate, encouraging students to use critical thinking, collaboration, creative problem-solving, and taking initiative in their learning, said Channing Hall Assistant Principal Aaron Webb.

“I was surprised we were awarded platinum,” he said. “You’re always your worst critic. I knew we would get there eventually, but to be considered at that level by your peers and leadership at the state is really an honor and it inspires us to take the next step to grow even stronger.”

That includes encompassing more STEM-focused professional development as well as ensuring the school stays focused on its five-year STEM plan.

“Since the pandemic, we have grown in terms of our reading scores and math scores, and we want to improve our science scores and our reading scores by 3% every year. We’re ensuring everything is in alignment with our STEM strategic plan,” he said.

As a guideline, it also includes reviewing, improving and updating the criteria that was included on their application.

The application included 10 categories ranging from curriculum to strategic alliances and within each category, there are subcategories such as interdisciplinary instruction helping students make connections or family engagement and service learning.

“It’s a pretty extensive application,” Fehrenbach said about the process where the school filed an intent to apply in October before the actual application was due in January. “We provided three to 10 pieces of evidence for every single element, whether it’s a lesson plan showing how we’re allowing students to guide their own STEM learning or a project and video of classes doing a project together. Each piece of the curriculum included student problem-solving, creative thinking spurred by their curiosity, and rigorous learning.”

That application was reviewed by administrators and teachers from other schools—charter and public—across the state, Webb said.

That was followed in late April by a delegation touring Channing Hall, escorted by three seventh-grade students.

“The kids honestly took the idea of showing them what we do and ran with it. They came up with where they’d go and what exactly they were going to say. It was very impressive,” Webb said. “The team really loved the interactions they have with students as well as the amount of hands-on experiences we had. They also loved the interdisciplinary connections and seeing kids who are inspired and active and asking questions.” 

Fehrenbach said the tour included the school’s STEM lab and detailing how it works with classes during the week.

“We have a whole elementary STEM program that’s a consistent weekly program in the classroom, and then we have one for middle school as well. Those STEM classes match what they’re learning in the classroom so if they’re learning about different types of rocks in the classroom, our STEM specialist is going to be bringing an experiment about what they’re learning to life. When they toured, they saw a kindergarten class in action and they saw a middle school science class in action. They wanted to see how we teach STEM in other disciplines so they went into the music room and they learned how STEM is being used in music through patterns. I think they were impressed with how we were using STEM across disciplines,” she said. 

Another part of the school’s program the delegation liked was the interaction between students in different grades, Fehrenbach said.

“We have eighth graders helping our kindergartners with their STEM reports on farm animals, which I know was impressive to not only see that we take STEM across disciplines, but we also have our older students working with our younger students,” she said.

Another innovative way Channing Hall includes STEM is through an annual film festival, which will be held Sept. 29. Last year in its inaugural year, students submitted films ranging from stop motion to music videos, which the community viewed on the school lawn.

“It’s a really cool way to be creative with technology and allows everyone to enjoy the vision and expression of our students,” she said about the festival that allowed kindergartners through eighth graders to create their own films.

Webb said that technology has changed since he started teaching 20 years ago. 

“The rapid advancement of technology completely changed almost every facet of our lives,” he said. “I want more than anything else, for kids to be prepared with not only what technology we’re using now, but whatever might come next. We’re here for our community to know we’re looking ahead in the next steps of our children’s education.” λ