St. Peter School, Point Pleasant, won a $10,000 “model classroom grant” Oct. 16 from the Ocean First Foundation.

The school will use its grant to convert an existing storage space into an art classroom, allowing the school to expand its STEM approach into the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) approach to learning. Lessons will encourage and emphasize creativity in areas of problem solving, designing, engineering, visual arts, science and mathematics.

Nancy Stamberger, art teacher, wrote the grant with the help of six other St. Peter School teachers who called themselves the “STEAM team.”

‘We made a proposal to create an art room that is state of the art,” Stamberger said. The team members were Karl DePazza, Lawren Coletta, Donna Nocchi, Eileen Baglivio, Chris Dashkavich and Allison Blue.

Thanks to the grant, teachers can now create project-based lessons in an environment that will stimulate ingenuity. The school will purchase new tables, stools, shelving and a sink to equip the new space and will also add five laptops for classroom use.

While the lessons and educational experiences of the school’s STEM program have always focused on providing students with real life experiences and opportunities for research and problem solving, the school expects the transformation to the STEAM approach to bring its program to a higher level.

Many of the school’s students and families were adversely affected by Superstorm Sandy. As it implements the new STEAM program, students will learn about, design and model ways to storm-proof a home. In addition to the hands-on experiences in the classroom and field trips through the local community, students will interact with professionals in related fields to enhance their learning. 

There were 15 schools in the county that were awarded.