STEAM Fest originated from an ambitious vision for our Primary School students' futures. From leadership desiring a design cycle-centered school, to teachers implementing maker centered learning, to parents' desire to best prepare their child(ren) for the jobs of the future, the PS STEAM team listened and created their best version of the first annual STEAM Fest on February 21 and 22.

As part of their study of the Edo period (also known as the Tokugawa period, from 1603-1868) in Japan, Grade 8 Humanities students learned about the various types of artwork that flourished during this time, including a type of woodblock printing known as ukiyo-e, which roughly translates to “pictures of the floating world.” They were able to visit the Hokusai exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art to see some examples of ukiyo-e and learn more about the intricate process for creating these prints.

On Thursday, January 30, a group of Middle School students and their teachers attended the second annual Middle School Diversity Conference at Saint Andrew's Episcopal School in Maryland. This event was "established to give students in Grades 6-8 a place where they can dialogue and learn about the important issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, [and] helps students to deepen knowledge of themselves and others while learning to be allies and taking a stand against bullying."

On Thursday, January 16, a handful of Tregaron students and their chaperones attended the Inauguration of the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jason Reynolds, at the Library of Congress. 2020 marks the first year that schools have been invited to this event, and it was well-attended, especially since Mr. Reynolds has local roots: he was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Oxon Hill, MD, attending Bishop McNamara High School and the University of Maryland.

There are many technological advances that we may take for granted in twenty-first century Washington, DC: telephone service, the Internet, electricity, clean water at our fingertips. When was the last time you stopped to think about (and appreciate) how complicated our system of plumbing is?