New STEAM room excites St Benedict’s Primary
The St Benedict’s Primary School in St Andrew was on Wednesday blessed with the donation of a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) room to bolster development of its students in these five key educational areas.
During the ribbon-cutting and opening ceremony Wednesday morning, the school’s administration along with the students beamed with enthusiasm that they will acquire new knowledge and experience exciting awakenings as a result.
The administration also boasted of being the only school in region one of the Ministry of Education’s islandwide zones to have a STEAM room. The space, which will facilitate and bring the students up to speed with computer coding and other important activities, is called the Eulalee and John Hamilton STEAM Room.
Principal Jacqueline Carter-Dixon explained that the initiative was the brainchild of Miguel Hamilton, who wanted help the school increase learning and participation in technology, “and just the overall positive outcome of students”.
“You can expect great things. We are going to be starting the basic science programme with experiment kits then we will be moving on to coding. We have a collection of robots that we are going to be using to start our robotics programme. People will be coming in to train the teachers and students how to become better at experimenting.”
“This is phenomenal. It is a great initiative. As you can see, by the look of things, we have not only included our students, but we have also extended invitation to the basic school. In the partnership, we think about building camaraderie with community. We can start producing students who are technologically inclined, opened to science opportunities and initiatives. We are surely setting a trend with the start today. We are the best school in the eastern part of the island that will produce the best students in Jamaica,” Carter-Dixon added.
At Wednesday’s ceremony, saxophonist Dean Fraser and reggae singer Duane Stephenson thrilled the attendees with good music. Items were done by the St Benedict’s Spanish and speech clubs.
