By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
In honor of teacher appreciation week, Optimum is contributing money to the St. Joseph School District to help with STEM projects across the district.
One project that will help fund was put forward by instructional coach Veronica Mueller, who wants to bring algebra tiles into the classroom.
Mueller says these algebra tiles can be used to represent known and unknown values in algebra
"It would allow kids to manipulate problems and to have a concrete piece to represent some of those unknown values," Mueller explains to reporters following a news conference. "Algebra is very abstract for kids and it gives them something for them to touch and play with and mess around with."
Mueller says the project will provide these algebra tiles for teachers sixth through ninth grade.
Mueller says projects like these are important because middle school students their brains are at a concrete level, as teachers are trying to teach abstract things.
"If they can connect those two things, they benefit immensely, by instead of having to imagine doing an operation with two things that I don't know what they are, they have two things that they can see, that they can put together, and that transfer of knowledge is extremely important when they're moving from the levels of brain development," Mueller says.
Director of Curriculum Stacia Studer says an emphasis on STEM learning shows that STEM really is the future
"When we talk to businesses and companies STEM, STEAM, innovation is the key component of that," Studer explains. "Just being in the work, using manipulations, experimenting, playing with things, those are all things we want our students to do."
Optimum, which to this point has contributed $8,000 to STEM projects, has donated $25,000 to the district. $500 per project.