STEAMA

Building upon a decade of work throughout the district to improve career and college readiness for every student, Duplin County Schools launched the STEAMA model in July 2018 as an all-inclusive innovation ensuring the integration of learning across all content areas and allowing every student to graduate with a pathway leading to a successful career.  As a means to develop stronger connections to the county’s large agricultural community and leverage the creativity of its residents, STEAMA added the arts and agriculture to an already successful STEM focus.  With equity at the forefront, all groups of students can now engage in impactful learning experiences leading to better academic and social outcomes.  Addressing local, state, and national business and industry needs through powerful partnerships, the STEAMA model contributes to a growing economy and better prepared workforce by engaging all students in pathways with purpose, increasing their chances of being connected to school and thus graduating on-time ready for prosperous careers and college experiences.

Upon graduation, many graduates often leave the area because of their perception that great jobs don't exist near home. The STEAMA model provides opportunities for students to explore how their personal interests and career goals align to the many local, stable, and well-paying jobs of which they may not be aware.  Many of those jobs are in the agricultural and related industries, which are the largest employers and economic drivers in Duplin County. Through STEAMA, our commitment to students allows graduates to become more aware of local job opportunities prior to high school completion, thus creating connections that may encourage them to live and work closer to home.

The strong support and bold leadership provided by the Board of Education set the stage for the STEAMA model to become a continuous improvement approach and a framework for equity. As the model was developed, input from local businesses, Duplin County Schools staff, and advisory groups of teachers, students, parents, and faith-based leaders played a critical role in helping to ensure all groups of students can achieve career, college, and life success.  The district’s STEAMA committee created a multi-year implementation plan that allows for this success to become a reality.  This plan compliments and adds value to the district’s Equity Plan and is supported through the existing partnerships with many local, state, and national organizations.

There are many partnerships that make the Duplin County Schools STEAMA model impactful for students. One such partnership is the Duplin County Partnership for Career Planning (DCPCP), a long- standing active advisory council comprised of members from business/industry, James Sprunt Community College and Duplin County Schools. The objectives of this partnership council support program evaluations and advisement, as well as career development activities. Included in DCPCP annual plan of work are job shadowing opportunities for 11th grade students, career connection sessions surrounding STEAMA career pathways, career readiness sessions for soft skills delivered through a lunch and learn approach, and a culminating annual district-wide 10th Grade Career and College Fair.

The 10th Grade Career and College Fair is organized to assist students in making connections to the sixteen national career clusters while making informed course selections in the high school setting. The purpose of the fair is to reinforce the correlation between academics, potential careers, and college readiness. Organized each year based on a survey of student career interests, the fair is customized to their intended STEAMA pathway selections. During the event, students are exposed to practitioners highlighting various occupations in the career cluster areas and training program information at the secondary/post-secondary levels to include community college/university preparation options. The 10th Grade Career and College Fair incorporates current local, regional, statewide, and global employment data and trends.

Through STEAMA, students participate in a variety of core curricular and enrichment activities. Students in grades three through five receive integrated, hands-on science learning opportunities in our Missions Labs, and middle grades students engage in content and career- focused modules in our STEM labs.

Additional school and district activities driven by the STEAMA model include STEAMA Spirit Days, Agriculture Awareness Days, the Duplin Grows event for 2nd grade students, the Producers, Pigs, and Pork Curriculum and annual “Pig Party” for 4th grade students, and the annual high school STEAMA Symposium at which students present authentic STEAMA-integrated projects to their peers. The district’s Science and Engineering Fair has broadened into a STEAMA fair in which students compete to earn awards for their research and design projects in all STEAMA areas.

High school career academy pathways supported by business and community partners, currently including the Duplin Health Sciences Academy, the Duplin Agribusiness Academy, the Industrial Trades and Technology Academy, and the Duplin TEACH Academy, provide support for the continuous improvement of the STEAMA innovation model.