WESTMINSTER, Vt. – Young students at Westminster Center School are now experiencing an innovative approach to learning through a program called STEAM, which combines science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math, in order to better educate and assist students about “critical thinking.” In other words, a way for students to better analyze, interpret, evaluate, and make judgements about what they read, hear, and learn.
This was all made possible through the transformation of the old Westminster West School building into an off-campus program called Studio Y, giving students the opportunity for more of a hands-on approach to learning.
Originally launched in the fall of 2017, after Westminster School administrators, staff, school board, and school librarian Liz Bourne worked on a plan for over a year to provide a solution to the controversy over the potential closing of the Westminster West School.
The solution combined the Westminster West and Westminster students at the Center School location, allowing for the vacant Westminster West School building to become the interactive, multi-disciplinary, art-and-theatre-based Studio Y for all students, grades K-6. It was a wonderful solution to both the declining enrollment at West-West, and the importance of keeping the old school building as a contributing part of the community.
The West-West building had been closed for over a year when the idea of expanding Westminster Central School’s art/theater program to include the retired school building was proposed and then implemented, with the help of a very supportive school board and local community members.
Janelle Beard, Westminster Central School’s integrated arts teacher, has developed and run the Studio Y program from its inception, which gets its name from several associations: “Y” is for youth; “Y” to represent the question “why,” as students explore a new topic; and “Y” as an ancient reference of good versus evil.
A program in which students participate on a six-week, rotating basis, Beard recently described Studio Y as a full-day immersion experience for the students, connecting to their academics by creating a story around their subjects which involves problem solving, working as a team, and discovering the solution to the storyline. This story-based approach helps the students to more easily retain the information they are learning about.
The creation of Studio Y has been a wonderful boon for the Westminster students and the community, as it continues to foster academia, creativity, and social skills within an adventurous, story-creating atmosphere.