What’s Cool at School: District 20 Pre-K Center STEAM class

A group of 4-year-olds in Dyker Heights is learning about the Arctic while gaining some valuable personal skills for the future.
The pre-K students at District 20 Pre-K Center live in Brooklyn, but they are learning about a place not many venture to. 

“To teach them about the Arctic and how animals and people survive in very cold weather, in the Arctic, so the children here are building igloos,” says site coordinator for pre-K building Diane Imbesi.

There was no set instruction on how to create the igloos, but the students used their brain power to make them special.

"They started building igloos with all different kinds of materials, so they've used boxes and big box and little box and sugar cubes and marshmallows and Play-Doh and pretty much anything we could get our hands on,” says STEAM teacher Jana Evansky.

As the teachers observe, the students are learning valuable skills. 

"They're designed to inspire creativity, collaboration, communication and to engage the children in critical thinking,” says District 20 Early Childhood Director Dianne Gournardes.

The students were able to use their artistic skills all while learning about science and math.