The success of a STEAM lab funded by a Women's Fund grant has inspired the Goleta Union School District to fund the expansion of the pilot program. This will multiply the power of our grant to serve 3,600 students beyond the 200 we originally impacted.

In May 2020, the Women’s Fund granted $65,000 to the Goleta Education Foundation to fund a state-of-the-art STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) Lab at El Camino Elementary School.

STEAM education is a multi-disciplinary, project-based approach that integrates physics, biology, mathematics, engineering, art, and writing. Students learn how to ask good questions, participate in collaborative problem solving, and integrate principles of design and creativity.

Students generate hypotheses and gather data. They experiment to determine what works and what doesn’t.

As one 2nd grade student explained, “… things almost never come out the first time. When you realize it’s not working out, first you take notes, and you try again.”

The Women's Fund grant helped pay for educational materials, flexible seating, interactive monitors, laptops, and tablets as well as digital media production equipment. After seeing the success of this teaching method, the School District has committed to building out similar state-of-the-art STEAM labs at all of their nine elementary schools.