How STEM Electives Work
Students and their families select STEM-focused electives twice each year, once for the fall and again for the spring. This approach makes course selection more inclusive by giving families an active role in choosing learning experiences that match each student's interests, strengths, and goals.
Electives encourage students to:
Explore their interests through inquiry, experimentation, and creative problem-solving.
Apply classroom knowledge to authentic projects and real-world challenges.
Develop collaboration, communication, and leadership skills.
Discover new interests that may influence future academic and career choices.
Share their learning with families and the school community at the annual STEM Showcase.
Some electives may require a longer commitment. Families should review each course description carefully before making their selections.
Examples of This Year's Courses
C.A.T.S.
C.A.T.S. is back for its third year! The Competition for the Advancement of Technology in Space is a year-long STEM+ course in which students work with educators from the Connecticut Science Center to investigate the science and technology behind human space travel.
The course connects students' learning to NASA's Artemis mission, which aims to return humans to the Moon. Students may investigate subjects such as spacecraft design, life-support systems, communication, lunar environments, astronaut safety, and the challenges of living and working beyond Earth.
Because C.A.T.S. is a year-long course, students who begin the program will not change electives in January. Families should select it only when the student is prepared to commit to the full program.
Elementary Theater Foundations
This introductory course helps young learners discover the basics of dramatic expression, creative storytelling, and performance in a fun and supportive setting.
Through theater games, role-playing, movement, improvisation, and collaborative exercises, students strengthen:
Confidence when speaking and presenting.
Empathy by considering different characters and perspectives.
Creativity through imaginative storytelling.
Communication through voice, movement, and expression.
Collaboration by developing scenes and ideas with classmates.
The focus is on exploration and skill development rather than the pressure of preparing a large public production. Although it is arts-centered, the course reflects a STEAM approach by combining creativity, design, communication, planning, and problem-solving.
STEAM Student Council
STEAM Student Council combines student leadership with science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics. Students become active contributors to the Annie Fisher community by helping plan initiatives, represent student ideas, and promote excitement about STEAM learning.
Depending on the year's projects, council members may:
Gather student feedback through surveys, interviews, or classroom discussions.
Use the engineering design process to identify a school need, brainstorm solutions, develop a plan, and improve it using feedback.
Plan STEAM events and challenges, including spirit activities, design competitions, demonstrations, and community projects.
Support the STEM Showcase by creating displays, welcoming guests, introducing projects, or helping organize activities.
Communicate information through presentations, posters, videos, announcements, or digital media.
Practice responsible leadership by sharing tasks, listening to different perspectives, making group decisions, and reflecting on results.
Promote student voice by serving as a connection among scholars, teachers, families, and the wider school community.
The course helps students understand that leadership is not simply holding a title. It involves listening, collaborating, solving problems, following through on commitments, and using creativity to improve the community.
Creative Learning and the STEM Showcase
Every year, Annie Fisher STEM teachers are encouraged to put on their creative hats and design distinctive experiences for scholars. These electives extend learning beyond a traditional classroom lesson by inviting students to build, test, perform, investigate, design, revise, and collaborate.
Students' work comes together at the annual STEM Showcase, where scholars can demonstrate what they have learned and created. The showcase celebrates not only finished products, but also the curiosity, persistence, teamwork, and problem-solving behind them.
Through STEM Electives, students have both choice and voice in their education. Whether they are investigating human space travel, building confidence on the stage, leading a school initiative, coding a program, solving a forensic mystery, or designing a rocket, every scholar has an opportunity to discover something new and share that learning with the Annie Fisher community.