December 4, 2023
This message is from MPA’s Office of Admission from the December 9, 2023 issue of InsideMPA. Click here to get in touch with Admission and learn more!
At MPA, we wholeheartedly embrace STEAM. From utilizing Design Thinking in the Makerspace, to challenging students to find reliable information from reputable sources for research projects, rigor in STEAM takes place PreK-12. Across all of the STEAM fields–science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics–MPA teachers are using their disciplines to provide academic challenges to students seeking it out.
As society increasingly focuses on STEM subjects, many of the careers of our future may in fact be in those areas. The National Science Foundation is reporting that STEM careers jumped from 21% of the workforce to 24% in just ten years, between 2011-2021. But how do STEM subjects in school apply to everyday life? Through rigor with purpose and the holistic approach to education in which MPA was founded. This is what truly prepares our students for the future.
This approach cultivates students who can and want to do it all. The seeds are planted in Lower School with access to Makerspace activities and art built into their schedule, and by the time students reach Upper School, the schedule is designed for them to take three or four electives each year. Students do not need to choose between choir and engineering design or between ceramics and advanced argumentation–they can do it all. Our students can be mathematicians, scientists, and artists simultaneously. That is the time-honored and time-tested MPA way.
