Giving Compass' Take:

• A high school in Oklahoma has revealed a smart lab classroom for students that offers hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) learning experiences: access to new computers and technology like 3D printer. Claremore Daily Progress has the details.

• What are the benefits to more STEAM learning in classrooms? How can nonprofits provide more resources, such as this lab, to schools in areas that lack such access?

• Read more about STEAM learning and how it has spread throughout the U.S.

Inola High School students are learning by failure this semester in the school’s new smart lab, run by teacher and coach Todd Dixon.

Although the smart lab, where students get hands-on experience in STEAM subjects, is not a completely new idea, it is still a break from centuries of an academic focus on memorization.

“It’s just a different look at how education should be done,” Dixon said. “Instead of pretest, teach, test, it’s more exploratory and learning by failure, learning by doing it over and over and over. It’s very student lead.”

More than 100 students are currently enrolled in one of five class hours. Students work in pairs at one of 12 stations.

The two computers at each station have specific software for the project at that station, and students rotate around the room spending two weeks on each project.

Read the full article about hands-on STEAM learning by Kayleigh Thesenvitz at Claremore Daily Progress.