Lake Hills STEM Magnet Elementary School is a great place for students! We moved into a new facility in January of 2009. We house approximately 550 Kindergarten - Grade 6 students. Our students are served by a dedicated, knowledgeable staff of 23 classroom teachers, 3 resource teachers, a STEM specialist, a school counselor, music, art and physical education teachers, a literacy coach, 8 instructional assistants and two paraprofessionals. Our building has state of the art technology. We are completely wireless throughout the building. There are 4-6 computers in each classroom, two computer labs holding 30 computers each, 3 mini-labs for grades 3 -5 holding 18 computers each. Every classroom is equipped with a 50 inch monitor or an interactive Panaboard, and an Elmo presenter which allows teachers to share websites, student work or books on the screen. Additionally the Elmo allows for students to share presentations, projects or work samples on the screen to their classmates. Students and teachers also have access to 70 iPads for individual and group work.
Our STEM focus engages students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Instruction is always correlated to the Indiana Career and College Readiness standards in all disciplines. We have school-wide themes: Life Science, Physical Science, Technology and Engineering and Earth and Space. Grade level teams plan standards-based instruction, which integrates English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies to help our students understand the connections and interdependence of all disciplines. Our students also learn through real-life experiences. We have partnered with over 30 community resources which include our local university and college, civil city departments, state, county and city organizations, agencies and groups, and local businesses. Our partners work with the students at school, or allow us to visit their facility and learn. We strongly feel that these experiences allow our students to see the possibilities of future careers, and to develop respect for the workers in various fields, as well as to understand how STEM concepts are used by all.
Families are an important aspect of our school, too. Parent volunteers work at the school daily in the classrooms and in the library. They accompany our students on study trips and facilitate many of our after school STEM clubs. Our parent group raises funds to support instructional resources and student learning experiences, and hosts our quarterly celebrations where students share their quarterly projects, community agencies provide learning experiences and information and our families enjoy fellowship along with interesting educational activities.
Together, our staff, students, parents and community continue to make Lake Hills a successful school.
Connie Bachmann, Principal
