STEM Certified School

In May 2025, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) announced that it would be renewing Elm Road’s STEM Certification for an additional five years! Click here to view the materials we submitted for the IDOE’s review. 

This Certification means that our school is a certified institutional leader in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Click here for more information on the IDOE’s STEM Certification process. Our school completed a rigorous application and review process, which must be repeated every five years to remain certified. The IDOE first named Elm Road a STEM Certified school in 2020.

Created in 2015, the IDOE’s STEM Certification program recognizes schools committed to teaching STEM disciplines beyond the classroom. STEM Certification exemplifies a highly innovative approach to education, employing a great deal of inquiry, project-based learning, community engagement, entrepreneurship, student-centered classrooms, integration into humanities and related arts and out-of-school STEM activities. For secondary schools in particular, earning STEM Certification requires heightened intention and coordination in terms of vision, scheduling and interdisciplinary collaboration. More than 100 schools statewide hold STEM Certification.

At Elm Road, we are elevating the math and science curricula along with creating engaging co-curricular activities for students. Curriculum enhancing programs include Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and Mystery Science. PLTW’s computer science and engineering activities are integrated into our regular curricula at the elementary level helping to develop those critical thinking and problem solving skills. Mystery Science supplements the existing science curriculum by providing additional experiments, strengthening the connection to the Indiana Science standards.

Other STEM co-curricular activities include the Girls Coding Club and First Lego League. In the female after school club, students are taught coding and learn to program robots. Elm Road’s First Lego League partners with Grissom Middle School to compete in area competitions (Elm Road is a feeder school to Grissom).  

To help Elm Road students realize the application of STEM skills to everyday life, we have a “Community Partner” for each grade level. Together with guidance from the partner and the teachers, students work to solve the real life problems posed to them. Building these community partnerships also has the added benefit of providing access to community resources to the school.