Across the country, parents and school officials are promoting STEM classes as a back-to-basics movement to help raise student scores on standardized tests - and to make American students more educationally competitive on the world stage.

STEM is a common abbreviation for four closely connected areas of study: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The fields are often associated due to the similarities they share both in theory and practice.

With the recent addition of a greenhouse on the campus of St. Thomas More School, along Flexer Avenue in Salisbury Township, school officials are adding a new educational tool to the school’s STEM offerings.

“Students in all grades at St. Thomas More School have access to learning spaces and resources that provide opportunities for STEM learning. In addition to two science labs, students have access to the school’s makerspace, where they participate in learning opportunities to apply math, technology and science concepts in hands-on collaborative experiences,” the school’s website shows.

A makerspace is a place providing hands-on, creative ways for students to design, experiment and invent as they engage with a variety of tools and technologies.

According to the school website, Maker resources such as Lego, WeDo, littleBits electronic building kits and robotics offer numerous collaborative and creative learning opportunities.

St. Thomas More School has expanded on the concept by widening the acronym to STREAM by adding religion and arts to the concept. Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts and Math (STREAM).

The greenhouse adds the opportunity for the study of real-world concepts of conservation, agriculture, food sustainability, feeding people in need and a myriad of other project ideas being brought forward by St. Thomas More teachers and students.

The genesis of the school greenhouse goes back a few semesters to the time St. Thomas More teacher Erin Lawler brought in growing-soil, containers and seeds to her kindergarten class and the students gleefully planted the seeds and watched the resulting growth.

The project proved to be so popular, faculty members posed the question of whether all classes could participate. Tracy Sell, director of technology at St. Thomas More said, in effect, “Sure, but we need a greenhouse.”

With the help of generous donors, the concept grew into reality when a prefabricated greenhouse was purchased, erected and put into use in late 2023.

The greenhouse was ceremoniously added to the school curriculum Feb. 7, when St. Thomas More’s Father John Pendzick conducted a blessing of the structure, the school faculty and the greenhouse’s plantings as each teacher potted new seeds.

As the utility of the greenhouse matures, upper level-grades at Allentown Central Catholic School will be integrated into greenhouse programs.