
STEM
STEM/Engineering
Click below to explore our instructors and the classes offered.




Digicat Coding
Paige Hetherington

Digicat Coding
Paige Hetherington
Paige Hetherington L.Ac graduated from The Iron Yard with a focus in Java Engineering. An inspiration to dissolve stereotypes around computer programming led her to create coding courses that encourage children to explore tech. Learning is a discovery of coding and software applications coupled with creativity.
Students use Google Sites to create their own customized webpage or website with multiple pages. Google Sites is a free, user-friendly drag and drop program that allows for adding text, headings, images, videos, menus, buttons, maps, and forms along with styling options. Students get to design the layout, infuse the website with their specific curriculum information, and personalize it with creative style. Once completed, the website can be published to live eternally online. Proficiency in using Google Sites empowers students with the ability to create more web pages for future school projects or their own ventures.

Spark Learning
Darina DeBenedictis

Spark Learning
Darina DeBenedictis
Darina DeBenedictis has many years of experience creating and teaching her STEAM based curriculum at many schools, teaching all ages. She has worked at multiple aquariums, worked as a marine geologist aboard research vessels, and has experience working on various biological research projects. Darina is also an artist and worked as a preschool art teacher. She is the owner of a clay jewelry small business, Adorned, where she sells her jewelry and hosts workshops for adults and children of all ages. She also dabbles in plenty of other art forms, such as weaving, painting, drawing, photography, and more!
Darina’s experiences as a scientist, an artist, and a teacher have made her equipped to be a very inquisitive, passionate, and adaptable educator. She loves sharing her passions and experiences with the children (K-2) she teaches.

Children's Museum of the Lowcountry
STEM
We are a STEM based children's museum. We focus on the STEM Cycle and Engineering Process to bring standards based learning to you.
Playground Architects, Narrative Writing- Students will learn about setting, characters, and sequential order by designing and building their own playground using imagination playground blocks and small parts. Students will use different shapes to create the blueprint for their playground design. Students will create their own characters out of playdough and write their own narrative story using the characters and setting that they created.
Brown Bag STEM Challenges - Students use creativity and engineering skills to design solutions to open-ended challenges.

E-STEAM: Entrepreneurship STEAM program by Dave Smith
Implemented by Nick Rindge

E-STEAM: Entrepreneurship STEAM program by Dave Smith
Implemented by Nick Rindge
Nick Rindge is a Charleston native and lifelong educator who will be providing instruction on behalf of E-Steam in lowcountry schools.
We build businesses with groups of students to make what they are learning in school relevant in a real world context. We can work with nearly any standard. However, many teachers gravitate toward us to work with certain standards. A popular mathematics-based program has students apply their knowledge of measurement and making conversions within the customary measures of weight and volume through creating a recipe based product, like fragrant salt scrub or hot cocoa mix. Another popular content area is simple machines, where students learn about simple machines and then use that knowledge to create handmade toys that they will sell in a classroom toy store. A third popular program is a force and motion program, where students learn about Newton's Laws of Motion and then the students use that knowledge to build plastic straw rockets that fly up to 200 feet! Students measure and graph their launches and in upper grades can use the data to calculate miles per hour from feet per second, which they use to market and sell their rockets.
In addition to the main standard, students will also use persuasive writing through sales flyers to promote sales of their products and use design skills to brand their business by developing a company name and logo.