The Cannon River STEM School (CRSS) is a proposed K-8 public charter school with an emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). Our vision is to be the preeminent leader in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education in Minnesota by combining academic rigor with social responsibility and mastery of the process of scientific inquiry. Our school will provide a unique and rewarding public education experience for students, parents, and teachers. This school is being developed by parents, scientists, engineers, and educators from the Cannon River Valley community. It is our dedication to the STEM focus, combined with a hands-on outdoor learning environment that will bring the STEM focus to life. This focus will produce students who are well equipped to enter higher education in these areas, at a time when our nation is seeing stagnant or declining enrollment among our domestically educated students who choose to study in these fields.
The mission of CRSS is to foster each student’s innate curiosity and joy of discovery and to address the growing need for improved science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education, locally, in Minnesota, and nationally. Through an interdisciplinary STEM curriculum, our purpose for the charter school will be to improve student learning, increase learning opportunities for students, and encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods. The educational philosophy of the Cannon River STEM School is that of a learning laboratory incorporating inquiry-based, place-based, and project-based learning experiences with a strong emphasis on the processes of science. Students attending the CRSS will be active learners, working on their projects in an outdoor setting, returning to their experiments season by season and year by year. They will be guided by a staff that shares the vision and mission of our school as well as parent and community volunteers.
A recent open house at The Science Center at Maltby Nature Preserve (TSC) created a picture perfect moment capturing the energy of both parents and children. As the parents bubbled inquisitively about when the school might open its doors, four to seven year olds eagerly looked through dissecting scopes at freshly collected lichens. No one cared that it was almost May and snowflakes were falling. The birds were in number, the lichens plentiful, the paper airplanes flying, and even the “indoor weather,” created by the hurricane hunters, was wild. In those three hours, 54 parents and children expressed their love of learning in one way or another. CRSS is an effort grown by local volunteers including parents, scientists, engineers, and educators. Our communities have been our inspiration, our sounding board, and our support. The founding board looks forward to its continued collaboration with those who believe in the need for school choice opportunities including a STEM focus and an outdoor learning environment in this mostly rural area with a growing population.
The CRSS intends to open September 2009 with grades K-6. We will then add grades 7-8, one grade per year consecutively in the following years. We will have one class of twenty students per grade level for a maximum student population of 140 students in 2009, 160 students in 2010 and 180 students in 2011. We intend to locate CRSS on the banks of the Cannon River.
