On Saturday, May 21, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District will present a free, one-day family festival to celebrate the talents of more than 3,000 CMSD students from 70 schools. Rock Your World with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) will feature a variety of activities designed to inspire both students and their families.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is partnering with CMSD's All-City Arts Program to produce the festival, which will also include the Great Lakes Science Center for the first time. The hands-on arts and science festival will be held inside and outside of both museums. Event planners expect more than 6,000 Northeast Ohio residents, CMSD parents and students, members of Greater Cleveland youth organizations and tourists to attend the festival, experience the hands-on activities and see demonstrations and performances.
Rock Your World with STEAM will feature two of the school district's specialized learning communities, the Premier Arts Specialty System (PASS) and the district's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) schools. The PASS program includes six K-8 schools that use the arts to increase student academic achievement, while the six K-8 STEM schools focus on the STEM disciplines. Both schools collaborate with arts and cultural institutions, businesses and science organizations in Northeast Ohio.
The festival is a chance for Cleveland students to demonstrate their teamwork and accomplishments throughout the year in an educational and entertaining environment. "Students perform and exhibit their work to demonstrate what they learned and how they have grown," says Tony Sias, director of arts education for CMSD. "This program component, demonstrating skill and personal development and achievement is essential to completing the learning process … Students gauge how they measure up to their peers' performance and their teachers' expectations."
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