Archdiocesan news

Catholic schools continue to boost STEM curriculum with learning spaces and technology

Photos by Jacob Wiegand | jacobwiegand@archstl.org Duchesne High School senior McKenna O’Brien, junior Natalie Hubert, junior Alex Hopf and senior Jack Bierbrauer worked with a virtual anatomy table during their anatomy class Jan. 14. The virtual anatomy table – featuring five cadavers, organs and animals – utilizes a touchscreen and can be operated in a horizontal or standing position.

Dedicated spaces, technology bolster students’ learning in science, technology, engineering and math

Students in a college-level dual enrollment anatomy class at Duchesne High School have learned quite a bit about the human body from Carl.

Carl is a real human cadaver featured in a new classroom tool that debuted this year at the archdiocesan high school in St. Charles — the Anatomage Table, a structure that includes 3D human and animal cadavers and other medical learning tools to virtually dissect and study bodily structures from different angles.

Students have viewed an MRI of Carl’s body and layered views of his muscles and skeletal system, among other features.

“So you’re seeing the CT here, and there’s his brain,” science teacher Glennis Ziegler said as she pointed to the image displayed on the touchscreen tabletop. “They can actually add color to distinguish the different parts, and that’s really helpful when you get down into the body area where you have the different muscles and the glands, and you can see where they are.”

On a recent day in January, juniors and seniors in Ziegler’s class went over a self-guided activity on the nervous system. Students labeled the different nerves on an adult body and observed a scan of a human head with a traumatic brain injury.

Visitation Academy eighth graders Maria “Duda” Queen, Katie O’Keeffe and Caeli Henson worked on graphing linear equations in a sand pit in the Owl’s Nest, the school’s new outdoor learning space, Nov. 20.

“Notice the skull here, and then what’s happening here, where the skull has been removed?” Ziegler asked her students.

“It’s legitimately coming out of the head,” junior Alex Hopf observed.

“A lot of times when there’s a traumatic brain injury, they will actually remove part of the skull and allow the brain to swell and do its thing and then go back down,” she told them. “If they do not remove that, you can cause a lot of brain damage.”

Duchesne is among Catholic schools in St. Louis that have bolstered their STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) resources in recent years. Through last year’s #iGiveCatholic fundraiser, Duchesne added a virtual reality lab for multidisciplinary use, a greenhouse in the new outdoor courtyard and other upgrades to the school. A private donation went toward the cost of the Anatomage Table.

“This gives you a better view of the nerves and muscles,” junior Natalie Hubert said of her experience using the Anatomage Table in class. “Looking at them on the board … you’re getting a deeper view on them.”

Catholic schools elsewhere in St. Louis have been boosting their STEM curricula through technology and learning space enhancements. Last fall, St. Louis University High School in St. Louis announced a $10 million gift from SLUH alum Bob Conrads and his wife, Sherry, to establish the Conrads Program for Integrated Sciences, which will expand and sustain the school’s STEM instruction.

In November, Notre Dame High School in Lemay announced a $5 million fundraising campaign for campus renovations, including a 16,000-square-foot STREAM (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) education building. At Nerinx Hall in Webster Groves, the Frane Family STEM Center opened last fall with about 8,500 square feet of labs and learning space.

Outdoor learning space

Visitation Academy in Town & Country opened the Owl’s Nest, an outdoor learning space where students build confidence in STEM subjects by connecting with nature through play, conducting math and science lessons, making music and building structures. It’s the latest addition to the school’s innovation spaces, which include traditional science labs, STEM and technology rooms and food science kitchen space.

Duchesne High School senior McKenna O’Brien worked on a virtual anatomy table during an anatomy class Jan. 14 at Duchesne High School in St. Charles.

Last fall, Kelly Skubic’s fifth-grade math students used playground equipment and other structures in the Owl’s Nest for a lesson on perimeter, area and volume. At one station, a small group measured and calculated how much sand would be needed to fill a wooden table.

The Owl’s Nest includes a reflection space, which will be expanded and is reminiscent of a similar space used at the first house in Annecy, France, where St. Jane de Chantal and St. Francis de Sales founded the Visitation Sisters. The goal is to foster a space where students can connect faith with God’s creation, said Amelia Blanton Hibner, dean of mission integration.

“There was a space out in the garden where Francis would gather with this new group of women, and they called it the conversation garden,” she said. “Francis would sit out there with them and he’d give them these colloquies, these conversations. He’d provide them with instruction on how he wanted them to live.”

St. Francis de Sales’ writings often focused on imagery from nature and finding God in the midst of that. “So I think whether students are out here doing a more formal theology lesson, or whether they’re out here doing math or science or art, we’re bringing them out into God’s creation.”