Teachers and Students Showcase Their Skills at CaddoSTEAM Finale

Over the last four months, middle school and high school teachers from across Caddo Parish have taken part in an innovative professional development initiative known as CaddoSTEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics).

This initiative will culminate with a final event and demonstration by teachers and their students on Saturday, February 1st from 9:30 a.m. until noon and will mark the final CaddoSTEAM Discovery Weekend for Caddo teachers and students for the 2013-2014 school year.

The event will be held at the Virginia K. Shehee Biomedical Research Institute Atrium on the University Health/LSU Health Shreveport Campus off Kings Highway. The media are invited to view catapult demonstrations and visit with participants to learn more about CaddoSTEAM from 9:30- noon. From 11:00 to noon, it's the catapult demonstration and accuracy and distance competitions.

The CaddoSTEAM project includes a series of professional development workshops at which middle and high school teachers are mentored by Louisiana Tech University faculty as they participate in hands-on projects that drive STEM fundamentals while integrating the liberal arts. After each professional development workshop, the middle and high school teachers then bring their student teams to a subsequent workshop and guide their students in creating the same project that they recently completed.

The high schools participating are Booker T. Washington, C.E. Byrd, Caddo Magnet, Captain Shreve, Fair Park, Huntington, North Caddo, Northwood, and Southwood. Middle schools represented are Broadmoor Middle Laboratory, Caddo Middle Magnet, Keithville Middle, Ridgewood Middle, Youree Drive Middle, and Walnut Hill Middle.

CaddoSTEAM is made possible through a collaboration with Caddo Parish Schools, the Cyber Innovation Center, Louisiana Tech University, and the Biomedical Research Foundation as well as grants from the Community Foundation of North Louisiana, the Grayson Foundation, Inc., the Poindexter Foundation, Inc., and the Biomedical Research Foundation.