photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

Several families gathered for a student showcase night at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School in December 2024.

Whether it’s designing ADA-compliant ramps or creating a school store marketplace, students at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School have been putting hands-on learning first since their school’s STEAM curriculum began last school year.

LMCMS made the shift to STEAM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, starting in 2024-2025. After one year on the ground, the school is continuing to adapt to the new system, and it will keep challenging its students to learn by solving real problems in collaborative, hands-on projects.

“Anytime you can give kids materials and say, ‘Build something,’ they just enjoy it so much more,” said Kate Sjursen, dean of students at LMCMS.

LMCMS made the shift to the STEAM curriculum, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, starting in 2024-2025. After one year on the ground, the school is continuing to adapt to the new system of connecting students to core academic subjects while empowering them to learn by solving real challenges through collaborative, hands-on projects.

This school joins New York’s Montessori Elementary School, which launched in 2022, as another non-traditional learning opportunity in the district. While the schools don’t use the same curriculum — LMCMS doesn’t operate on a Montessori model, and its STEAM instruction uses a program called “Project Lead the Way” — they both work to integrate core academics with creative expression and projects.

Phil Mitchell, assistant principal at LMCMS, said one thing he was excited about was seeing some new students transferring in. He said about 50 students have transferred to the school so far.

And the good news isn’t just on the enrollment front; the students are making strides academically, too. For the 2024-2025 school year alone, the school has reduced its number of “level one” students — or students not performing to the expectations for their grade level — in math by 15%, said Jennifer Schmitt, principal of LMCMS. The school has also reduced its number of at-risk learners in English by 10%, she said.

Community members have been able to get a first look at some of the projects the students have been working on during the 2024-2025 school year at a series of student showcase nights for families. The first one was held in December last year, and the second event was held in the spring.

“The pride the kids had showing off their work was really exciting,” Mitchell said. “And the pride the teachers had, as well, as kind of being able to showcase that.”

As LMCMS gears up for its second year of STEAM, here’s a look at how the curriculum works and the big changes the school has undergone so far.

photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

Several families gathered for a student showcase night at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School in December 2024.

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The STEAM initiative is unique in a variety of ways compared to a traditional middle school classroom.

In a more typical school, students take separate classes in each subject — math, English, science, etc. — and these might not cross over with one another at all. But at LMCMS, the curriculum includes a block of “flexible core time” that’s designed to tie what the students have learned in different subjects together.

Core time is a block of instructional time that incorporates English language arts, math, social studies and science themes together in lessons. This instruction is then turned into hands-on projects for the students, which they work on during another part of their daily schedule, called the “inquiry block,” toward the end of the day.

In one of those projects, eighth graders looked at how to make improvements to older school buildings like LMCMS’ building so that they comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Students did this by looking at how ramps worked and what angle a ramp needs to be to make the building’s entrances accessible, Spradlin said.

“The groups were assigned different entry doors in this building — and there’s a lot of them,” Mitchell said. “(Each) of them kind of has their own problem to solve … We had one former student come in who was visually impaired and talked to the kids about what the challenges were about getting around the building and things like that.”

Students in sixth grade, meanwhile, created a marketplace as a class project. They learned how to make things to sell, such as baked goods and bracelets, and then one of their teachers taught them how to make a budget and how to determine how much to charge for their products.

“She did sort of the financial side of things while the other teachers were on the ground making the items to sell at the store,” Sjursen said. “And they talked about how much to charge for each item and how much they wanted the profit to be, and the kids really enjoyed that.”

While the kids liked doing these projects, Josh Spradlin, a science teacher at LMCMS, said that there were some growing pains in the beginning with a new system for students to follow. But he said that, too, was a valuable lesson for the students.

“A lot of (the students) are particularly nervous about high school,” Spradlin said. “But one of the things that we tried to talk to them about is that once you start to prepare for high school, this is going to help you prepare for high school even more.”

“We say growing pains, but really, it was growth in that you’re growing as a person,” he said.

photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

Josh Spradlin is pictured at a student showcase night at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School in December 2024.

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Sjursen said that most of the teachers at LMCMS were there before the initiative rolled out, and some were not expecting this change.

“It’s important that they are on board and they have opportunities for professional learning to help them with this process and the teaching of new courses and teaching in a different manner,” Sjursen said. “It’s really important that we move at a pace that benefits both the students and the teachers.”

But the teachers and school leaders are still working together to make the program even better. Mitchell said that it isn’t a one-year process, but a multi-year process, which will require some fine-tuning.

“I think we kind of have this first year behind us, and we know what worked and what didn’t, and we’ll make a few changes this upcoming year and continue that process over the next few years to kind of get it to where we ultimately want it to be,” Mitchell said.

Part of that process is making sure that all of the student projects for each grade are as organized as they can be, Schmitt, the principal, said.

In addition, there are conversations about the types of projects that will continue into the next school year and whether things should be switched up, Spradlin said, especially now that the former seventh graders who participated in the initiative last year are continuing this year.

“Now that these kids are going to be eighth graders, they have been in this building now for a year,” Spradlin said. “So can we maybe go up in difficulty and challenge them a little bit more?”

Spradlin said people often like to think of education as the way they experienced it in school themselves.

“And the reality is that’s not necessarily where today’s learners are,” Spradlin said. “It’s not necessarily where society’s going … We can explore a little bit about how kids are learning differently (and) how we are teaching things differently.

“For me, my ultimate goal is to be more adaptable to what our students need … and I think STEAM gives us the best opportunity to do that.”

photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

Several families gathered for a student showcase night at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School in December 2024.

photo by: Lawrence Public Schools

Several families gathered for a student showcase night at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School in December 2024.