STEAM

STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) is integrated, as many topics are, into the daily lives of NCS students. We understand scientists need design skills, mathematicians must be effective writers and presenters, and writers must be savvy data analysts. We also believe STEAM skills are integrally important to our student’s overall learning and development, facilitating creativity and building critical thinking abilities.

 

That is why it is important that nearly all our Middle School and Upper School STEAM classes are housed in the same spaces where students have other classes, with tools like state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and a 3D printer in the library. This proximity enables students to do high-level work, as they see connections between the skills they are learning in both STEAM and non-STEAM subjects. 

 

In and out of classes, NCS is all about doing, exploring, and trying new things. Tapping into their natural curiosity, NCS girls propose real-world experiments and then tackle them with gusto. The all-school "hackathon" and the Science Olympiad team both were sparked and are led by students. 

 

Our STEAM curriculum helps our students explore a range of passions and opportunities, without feeling artificially limited by external expectations. Lower School students are exposed to STEAM topics largely through their makers space, and all Middle School students take a lab science class. By the time they are in Grade 11, students decide whether to take a more advanced path in, for example, computer assisted design or in physics, a prerequisite for pursuing engineering, depending on their interests.