Spotlight on Buccaneer STEAM Titans

Full STEAM ahead -- students at Southwest Middle School have been working hard on STEAM projects all year long, and finally presented them last week at a school-wide expo! The expo included interactive exhibits and activities in their homeroom and seventh and eighth grade classrooms.

Students took their learning to the next level with their Buccaneer STEAM Titans game, which gave students an opportunity to engage in gamified learning and badging. Over 400 students participated, reflecting on their learning and taking photos of exiting exhibits.

Students take part in a STEAM expo at Southwest Middle School, @ SOMBuccaneers

The game was built and managed by students with the help of their teachers. It supported ELL students, offering activities in both English and Spanish. Parents were even invited to join in the fun, learning about the value of STEAM education, and careers in STEAM.

Southwest Middle School and the entire Sweetwater Union High School District take STEAM seriously: "We engage our students with multidisciplinary projects and interdepartmental teacher collaboration that incorporate advanced technology-integrated projects, as well as encourage ethics, leadership, inquiry, integrity, collaboration, creativity, problem-solving, and critical reasoning. Through rigorous and relevant content, mastery based learning and performance-based assessment; students develop higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills needed to compete successfully in the 21st century real world."

Learn more in their Southwest Middle School STEAM Academy guide, and check out their Twitter page & Facebook page!

Game badges included Homebase Heroes (homeroom activities), Be an Inventioneer (7th grade classrooms) and STEAM Superheroes (8th grade classrooms). Take a look at the fun activities they developed!

Homebase Heroes

• Document: Take a photo of your STEAM project.

• Reflect: Write 5-7 sentences on what you learned, your challenges, and what you would change given the chance.

• Take pride: Take a selfie of you pointing at the section of the group STEAM project you contributed to.

Be an Inventioneer

• World Culture: Decipher a coded message using a new alphabet.

• English: Design your own campus using magnets

• Math: Discover new number systems created by seventh-graders

STEAM Superheroes

• History: Discover how superheroes are portrayed in our culture & media.

• Science: Learn about the history and science behind superheroes, and take a selfie with your favorite presenter.

• Physical education: Learn what it takes to be a superhero, how would you work out if you were a superhero?

Students take part in a STEAM expo at Southwest Middle School & approve activities for STEAM Titans, SOMBuccaneers (FB)