WACO Community School District’s STEAM Lab is preparing young students for an ever-changing world. 

After receiving a $40,000 grant from the Iowa Riverboat Foundation, WACO remodeled their library. WACO was also able to purchase new equipment and items for their STEAM Lab. 

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) encourages new students to adapt to new technology and hands-on work. The STEAM Lab at WACO allows students in grades K-6 to use both their brains and their hands in a variety of projects that always include real-world activities. Like WACO 6th graders, who are studying yellow fever and virus transmission. Creating upscale models of cells and viruses to investigate how they spread.

WACO also received a grant from the Up-Scale Iowa Program, which sent six different stories that can be connected to the lab. It is linked to the lab by robots that students program and then tell the story via a story map.

Amy Langr, with the WACO STEAM Lab, told KCII News that, “We really wanted to just get a head start on that; what can we do to help our students be able to utilize the technology that is out there in the world?” 

The STEAM lab will work with drones this year, learning about their role in Iowa businesses and agriculture and their operation. 

For more information on the lab’s projects go to www.wacocsd.org.