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Students engage in projects and experiments at new facility at Montessori Center School COURTESY PHOTOSUpper elementary school students conduct experiments, above and below, in the new STEAM lab at the Montessori Center School in Goleta.
The Montessori Center School, which serves more than 200 students from as young as 18 months all the way through 6th grade, has unveiled its new STEAM Lab.
STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics.
This new lab was made possible because of donors, including friends and family members of the school, located in Goleta. It will be used by elementary school students.
“Montessori would like to thank all of the generous donors to the STEAM Lab,” Melanie Jacobs, head of Montessori Center School, told the News-Press Thursday.
“We are very excited to be opening our new STEAM lab,” Ms. Jacobs said. “We have always wanted to have a separate, dedicated space for our students to receive hands-on science lessons from our talented faculty, conduct science experiments, explore maker space activities, and much more. The addition of a science lab to our campus has been a long-term goal of ours, and we are thrilled to make it a reality!
Teacher Peggi Robinson works with students in the STEAM lab.“Within the STEAM lab, our elementary students will have the opportunity to flex their critical thinking and creative muscles to collaborate, problem-solve, create and innovate — all pillars of 21st-century learning,” Ms. Jacobs said.
She explained that the interactive space will engage students in hands-on, age-appropriate projects, experiments and activities that integrate the Montessori curriculum in science, art, technology, engineering and mathematical concepts.
“Montessori is very hands-on,” Ms. Jacobs said. “The students are very excited about the idea that they have a dedicated space to work on projects and receive lessons
“This has been a goal for decades,” said Ms. Jacobs, in her sixth year as the head of the school. Before being promoted, she served at the school as a teacher.
At left, Student Body President Felix Giannetto and Melanie Jacobs, head of Montessori Center School in Goleta, cut the ribbon to the school’s new STEAM lab. The new STEAM lab is a dream come true for the school’s faculty and students.“I have been at Montessori for 29 years, and this (the STEAM lab) has been a goal since before I came here,” she said. “It has been a goal to have a science lab even before STEAM came around. It is so wonderful to see this dream come to fruition.”
“Montessori includes a very rich science curriculum,” Ms. Jacobs said. “It is a dedicated space for students to receive lessons from teachers on everything including: botany, zoology, physics, chemistry and more.
“The ideas of STEAM are synonymous with Montessori,” she said. “The idea of problem solving and thinking out of the box matches Montessori because we are already doing that.”
The lab is being dedicated to Phil Landfriend, a longtime teacher who recently died. Mr. Landfriend was an upper elementary school teacher and the first computer instructor at Montessori.
Montessori recently had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the lab. Participants included Ms. Jacobs and Student Body President Felix Giannetto.
Also at the ceremony were Tom Burk, the school board president, and other elementary school students.
“We are really excited,” Ms. Jacobs said. “It has been really wonderful to see the children there. The lab was delayed due to the pandemic. It has been so rewarding to see it open and see the children in the lab. We are so grateful to have this opportunity. The teachers are really excited as well.”
email: kzehnder@newspress.com
FYI
To see a video about the STEAM lab at the Montessori Center School in Goleta, go to mcssb.org.
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