Join Summerour Middle School for the
Launch of the
eSTEAM Academy

Entrepreneurship - Science - Technology - Engineering - Arts - Mathematics

Pinckneyville and Summerour middle schools this month are introducing new curriculum that is designed to focus on project-based learning and science, technology, engineering, arts and math as students prepare for the new Duke STEM High School, which is set to open next August. School and district leaders said the goal is to offer a type of learning that will better align with experiences expected in high school, college and the workplace.

For the first time, students from these schools will have the option of which high school they attend. Among the choices are the Junior Achievement Academy at Norcross High, the International Baccalaureate Program at Norcross High or the STEM focus available at the Duke STEM High School.

Project-based learning, or PBL as it’s known among educators, and STEAM, along with the academy format that’s all been rolled out and become more common in Gwinnett County Public Schools in recent years, is designed to address the age-old question of, “How will I use this in the real world?”

“We give them the answer hopefully before they have to ask,” Fulcher said. “Here’s the relevance. This is why it’s important.”

The PBL concept is designed so students work on a project together over the course of days and weeks, and not necessarily learn all the material on the front end for an end of period or unit, project or test.

“It’s introduced at the beginning of the unit, and then aspects of that project are studied and they refine the process as they work through that entire unit,” Fulcher said. “So there is a culminating piece to it. But the important differentiation is it starts at the beginning and they learn through by doing the project.”

from an article written by
Keith Farner
​Gwinnett Daily Post news reporter.