Red Cedars Elementary School
What STEM means at Red Cedars Elementary School
At Red Cedars Elementary School, we envision a future where every student develops a strong STEM identity and sees themselves as a thinker, creator, and problem solver from the earliest grades. Grounded in Hanover Community School Corporation’s commitment to making a difference and realizing potential, Red Cedars serves as the starting point for a cohesive K–12 STEM pathway that prepares students to positively impact the world around them.
Our direction is to embed STEM learning as a core instructional approach, not an add-on. Through hands-on, inquiry-driven experiences, students will explore real-world problems that integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics with literacy and the arts. Learning at Red Cedars emphasizes curiosity, experimentation, and design, encouraging students to ask questions, test solutions, learn from failure, and improve their thinking.
We are committed to intentionally developing durable skills that matter for future success, including collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and perseverance. Students will engage in age-appropriate engineering challenges, computational thinking, and problem-based projects that build confidence and independence while nurturing creativity and empathy.
Red Cedars Elementary will cultivate a STEM-rich culture where classrooms are places of exploration and innovation. Teachers will design learning experiences that connect academic standards to authentic applications, helping students understand how STEM is used to solve problems in their school, community, and beyond. Early exposure to STEM concepts and practices ensures students are prepared to thrive in future learning environments across the Hanover district.
As a community-centered school, Red Cedars will partner with families and local stakeholders to support STEM learning and celebrate student growth. By laying a strong foundation in STEM thinking and habits of mind, Red Cedars Elementary prepares students not only for academic success, but to grow into caring, capable individuals ready to contribute meaningfully to their community and future careers.
Red Cedars Elementary School is where curiosity is cultivated, potential is realized, and every student begins their journey as a confident STEM learner.
What makes our STEM program stand out
STEM Implementation K-12-to-Career
STEM is a pillar to the WD approach to education and preparing students as functioning members of the community by being exposed to the increasingly technology driven world. Between the three STEM labs, every student is exposed to the career opportunities available with STEM.
STEM Promotion
STEM Day and other events throughout the year expose students on what is to come as
their educational journey in the building continues. Elementary students are exposed to
opportunities at the high school, and high school students are exposed to industry
employers looking for talent or mentorship opportunities.
Diversified Options for all Secondary Ed Students, College and Workforce Bound
WD hosts several different NLPS pathways that allow students to explore their interests in
engineering, digital media, cybersecurity, information technology, business operations, and more. There is not another school of this size offering such a vast array of career exploration
opportunities.
Red Cedars Elementary Rockets Into Space
At Red Cedars Elementary, learning is taking flight as 3rd graders launch into an exciting outer-space adventure through the Wit & Wisdom ELA curriculum. Students dive into engaging, space-themed texts that spark curiosity about the universe while building academic vocabulary and strengthening informational writing skills. Throughout the unit, they explore planets and the solar system, investigate the sun and moon, study moon phases and planetary motion, and learn to identify constellations and star patterns. This literacy-rich approach turns reading into discovery and writing into scientific storytelling, allowing students to build deep content knowledge while mastering grade-level ELA standards.
To bring this learning to life, Red Cedars hosts a Digitarium, which is a large inflatable planetarium that transforms the school into a dome of discovery. Inside the immersive environment, students travel through the solar system on guided, projected journeys, observe realistic simulations of the sun, moon phases, and planetary movement, and hear age-appropriate science explanations that directly connect back to their classroom texts. By blending literacy instruction with hands-on, visual STEM experiences, students deepen understanding, retain knowledge longer, and develop a genuine sense of wonder about the cosmos, turning everyday classroom learning into an unforgettable interstellar adventure.
Engineering the Future of Flight
Fourth graders at Red Cedars Elementary recently soared into an exciting STEM unit that brought aeronautical science to life through research, creativity, and friendly competition. Students began by studying the fundamentals of flight (lift, thrust, drag), and aerodynamic design before moving beyond simple paper airplanes to design and build inventive prototypes using recyclable materials gathered from home. Working in collaborative engineering teams, students tested and refined their models, analyzing flight performance and redesigning for improvement. Their creativity and problem-solving skills took center stage as each classroom selected a champion based on both distance and design ingenuity.
The competition then expanded schoolwide, as nine classroom winners returned to reconstruct improved versions of their planes after learning from their peers’ ideas. All finalist designs were displayed for a schoolwide vote, and each team demonstrated its prototype in front of the entire fourth grade. The winning plane soared an impressive 41 feet, earning its team a grand prize of a horseback-riding outing with Mrs. Darnstaedt, Red Cedars’ STEM Coordinator. This hands-on engineering challenge emphasized teamwork, sustainability, and the scientific design process while connecting classroom learning to real-world aviation. With upcoming Civil Air Patrol flights over the school and live radio communication between pilots and students, Red Cedars learners will experience an unforgettable link between their engineering work and real flight in action.
Lights, Camera, STEM
Fifth graders at Red Cedars Elementary recently jumped into STEM for the very first time — and they did it in an unforgettable way. Guided by STEM Coordinator Mrs. Darnstaedt, students launched into a high-energy challenge that combined science, technology, engineering, and creativity. After learning what STEM is and why it matters, students reviewed their science unit on Earth’s four spheres — the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere — and explored how these systems interact during natural events like floods, snowstorms, and volcanic eruptions.
The grand challenge: create a complete educational video in just one day. Working in collaborative teams of five to six, students researched, wrote scripts, built props from recycled materials, learned Google Vids, filmed, edited, and produced 3–5 minute videos that explained each sphere and demonstrated how they interact during a natural disaster. Every student had a speaking role, and every team rose to the challenge, resulting in nine winning class videos and one overall champion. This fast-paced, real-world project built critical 21st-century skills including collaboration, communication, problem solving, creativity, and resilience. For many students, it was their first experience with STEM, and it turned science into something hands-on, meaningful, and exciting.
Our Current STEM Focus
This year, Red Cedars Elementary is expanding its STEM focus through two connected priorities: strengthening teacher capacity to integrate STEM into daily instruction and launching a vibrant afterschool enrichment program for students in grades 3–5. Through targeted professional learning and classroom support, teachers are building confidence in weaving STEM practices, problem solving, and design thinking into existing English Language Arts units. By aligning STEM with reading, writing, discussion, and research, students engage in meaningful, real-world applications of their learning while strengthening core literacy skills. Our goal is to make STEM integration seamless, rather than an add-on, so each of our four annual STEM units connects clearly to grade-level standards and classroom instruction, reducing planning barriers for teachers and deepening student understanding across subjects.
In February, Red Cedars will also launch a new afterschool STEM and enrichment club that provides students with regular opportunities to explore hands-on learning in a fun, low-stakes environment. Led by our STEM teacher and supported by community volunteers and partners, the program will offer two rotating enrichment classes each month, including options such as LEGO engineering, 3D printing, maker projects, cooking, crafting, theater, and hobby clubs. Designed to provide equitable access for all students, the program builds creativity, collaboration, and STEM skills while sparking new interests and passions. Together, these initiatives create multiple pathways for students to practice problem solving, communication, and design, both during the school day and beyond, while strengthening teacher practice and building a thriving STEM culture at Red Cedars.
