VAN ISD STEAM BUS

Van ISD STEAM Bus is Rolling Again

by Lynsey Admire, Van ISD Director of Communications

After a year of restricted use due to social distancing constraints and COVID protocols, the Van ISD STEAM Bus is rolling again! The 19-20 school year was the first year the innovative bus operated throughout the district, but that all came to an abrupt halt when COVID-19 shut down schools across the country last spring. It wasn’t until recently that Superintendent Don Dunn released the bus back into operation. Since the bus is a very popular learning space among students, it was booked quickly by schools inside and outside the district.

The inaugural day of mobile learning for the 2020-2021 school year took place on April 6th at Van Junior High, where 8th-grade history classes learned about civil war ramifications, specifically the number of wartime injuries that required amputations. Students made connections between microscopic bacteria and the numerous infections that afflicted soldiers due to the “minie ball.” Students also replicated an amputation by sawing into cow bone tissue donated by the Mineola Meat Packing Company. The STEAM Bus also ventured out to Winnsboro ISD on April 16th, where 80 of their GT students in grades 1 through 12 experienced a day of interactive learning aboard the bus and learned all about the structure and function of the human heart. Students took a virtual reality tour of the heart, viewed human tissue under the microscope, made clay models of the heart, and capped off their day with a heart dissection. Students were particularly fascinated with the Merge Cube, which allows participants to experience the heart in augmented reality. Traveling with the bus to help conduct the maker stations along with sponsor Amy Moffatt was the iTeam, a Van High School student-led technology leadership team. To learn more about the Van ISD STEAM Bus, visit https://www.vansteambus.org. ■