With Local Bus Service to New STEAM Learning Lab, Acera opens doors to STEM Exploration in Winchester

Acera School, Winchester’s progressive STEAM school, is opening the doors of its new STEAM Learning Lab, an educational enrichment and community outreach program offering meaningful STEM and Arts learning experiences, to parents and children in Winchester.

Acera has worked closely with Winchester Public Schools to arrange after-school transportation from five Winchester schools to the STEAM Lab. Starting this Fall, students at McCall Middle School, Muraco, Lincoln and Lynch elementary schools can take advantage of free bus service to Acera. Additionally, Acera will offer fee-based bus service to neighboring towns including Arlington, Belmont, Medford, Waltham and Winchester.

STEAM Lab programs include creativity-based enrichment afternoon programs for children ages 7 to 15, weekend classes for parents and children, and free community events including Acera’s Fall 2016 Innovator Symposium.

Supported by research that shows that children learn most meaningfully when they connect and care about what they learn, STEAM Lab programs are specifically designed to foster an environment where students can deeply explore areas of interest, ask questions, and develop relevant STEAM skills through trial and error.

“Acera’s STEAM Lab is a place where children can unleash their curiosity, follow their passion and invent their future,” said Acera founder and director Courtney Dickinson. “In our afternoon and weekend programs, students can engage in projects with all their senses, working with their hands while working things out in their minds. It’s a place where learning is concrete, contextual, and meaningful.”

Because making is at the heart of Acera’s enrichment programs, the tools and spaces where students work are as important as the projects themselves. In the woodshop, students learn about engineering by prototyping and building things like playground equipment and wooden games. They come to understand physics by making their own hot air balloons and life-size trebuchets. They explore biotechnology by growing bacteria in Acera’s professionally equipped Science Lab. They learn about coding, electronics, and robotics by hacking a webcam to make a microscope, telling original stories with programmable projections, designing light-up jewelry powered by solar cells, and making dance floors that play music when tapped.

Though science is strongly represented in the STEAM Lab, Creativity and Leadership are equally important guiding themes for Acera’s enrichment programs. An interdisciplinary approach makes courses hard to categorize; science, creativity and leadership are interwoven into all offerings, many of which have a strong arts and leadership emphasis. Arts and leadership courses are plentiful and include Fine Arts, Film, Debate Club, SEEDS Design Studio, and Political Science Club, among others.

Acera’s STEAM Learning Lab programs are open to the community and taught by specialist educators with advanced degrees and experience in academia, the biotech, engineering, design, arts and music industries. Afternoon sessions begin September 6 and are offered in 11-week sessions, Monday - Friday from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. Weekend sessions for both parents and children will also be offered starting this Fall.