At Neosho's new RISE Elementary, 'a lot of lightbulbs going off'

Sep. 27—NEOSHO, Mo. — As Neosho's new RISE Elementary, Reaching and Inspiring through STEAM Education, opens this school year, young students are already learning skills for their future careers.

"Science will stick with kids here," said Satotha Burr, principal. "Technology will stick with kids here. I'm excited for their future. It's amazing to watch students here collaborating and asking higher-order, science-focused questions already."

The elementary school with a focus on STEAM, which stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math, is first in the Neosho district and first in the area, Burr said.

Students were chosen from a lottery in the spring. Interested parents attended meetings and applied. While the school houses 230 students, it had over 400 interested families.

The school is located in the historic Haas Building, just off of the downtown square in Neosho. The several-storied structure has been remodeled into classrooms, learning spaces and a cafeteria. It's also the new home for the district's gifted-learning teacher.

"The whole building's concept is hands-on, authentic learning," Burr said. "We're teaching them to solve real-world problems."

Many things are similar to other elementary schools, while a few things are different at RISE Elementary. It still has physical education, lunch, recess and subjects like music. Burr noted that though reading is not in the STEAM acronym, it's still taught.

However, the way teachers go about teaching these subjects might look different. For example, they might teach reading with a science text or nonfiction books to keep a scientific focus.

The school features a STEAM lab, or a makerspace, open to all students. It's a room to facilitate hands-on education all day long, with several learning resources for things like robotics, coding and drones.

Being in a downtown building, the school can take advantage of local parks and businesses. Two grades recently took a trip to Morse Park. Second graders met with an arborist to learn about trees, while third graders waded into the creek to investigate aquatic plant and animal life.

"That is what I love the most about this building, the availability of opportunities that the Neosho square offers and the area parks," Burr said.

Local partnerships have helped develop the school along the way. Through a partnership with Pitsco Education out of Pittsburg, the school has purchased learning resources like drones and robots for the lab. A partnership with the Scott Family Amazeum in Bentonville provides teachers with professional development throughout the year.

Burr said the school's mission is to teach everything with a STEAM focus. A wide range of subjects are blended together in lesson plans.

Burr challenged the teachers to rethink everything they do to prepare their students and pull science into the plans.

"The jobs these students will be doing are not being created yet," Burr said. "We talk about that a lot. This philosophy of a STEAM school is to expose students to the mindset of collaboration, communication, critical thinking and hands-on learning."

The skills that are important in the workforce are emphasized right down to the vocabulary. Burr remembers the other day in a classroom where students were asked a question about transportation and a child answered with "car." Instead, the teacher was looking for "vehicle."

"With something that tiny, you're changing their mindset and the vocabulary they can use," Burr said. "The kindergartners are talking about floating, sinking, dissolving and not melting. It seems simple, but in the broad picture, it's big."

It's not just wires and machines, though. Like any elementary school, there are fun projects in store. On her fingers, Burr ticked off the list of things still to be delivered to Rise Elementary like a floor-to-ceiling slide in the STEAM lab and a gong for students to strike when they reach a word count.

Second grade teacher Jeffery Cantwell built the front porch of a rustic cabin to sit and read to students from in his classroom. Flickering lights simulate lightning bugs floating around, and he said it's a great atmosphere to read books such as "Where the Red Fern Grows."

Shelby Drouin, another second grade teacher, said she enjoys the collaboration between teachers, matching activity ideas with core lessons. She thinks this type of learning benefits children in the long term in an engaging way.

"We're all excited about what's taking place," Drouin said. "With the kids, we talk about their lightbulb going off. We have them do this sometimes just to show me, and then we celebrate." She made a hand gesture on top of her head to simulate a lightbulb lighting up. "I've been getting a lot of this, a lot of lightbulbs going off."

Burr said she's been getting a similar student reaction as she asks students every day about the school. They love the experiments and hands-on learning. Students are even participating in community outreach for the school.

At the start of the semester, fourth graders did a neighborhood visit around the Neosho square. They introduced themselves with a signed letter door to door.

The letter said they want to be a good neighbor to the businesses and would like to get to know them better. As a result, the courthouse and fire department have expressed interest in partnering with the school.

Looking to the future for these students, Neosho Middle School is introducing a STEAM teacher to each pod, or classroom group. Having already experienced STEAM education in elementary school, she hopes her students will become leaders, no matter their future.

"We talk about how you don't have to leave here and be a scientist," Burr said. "But in the workforce you go into, you're expected to have experience with critical thinking, collaboration and solving real-world problems. That's our goal, that every student leaves here with that mindset and to use those skills they've been taught."