STEM Curriculum

Career and Technical Education (CTE) at Wydown Middle School and Clayton High School empowers students to explore, create and lead through authentic, real-world learning (RWL) experiences. CTE courses blend academic rigor with hands-on application, helping students discover their passions while developing the skills and confidence needed to thrive in college, careers, and life. CTE fosters student agency by giving learners voice and choice in their work, encouraging them to take ownership of their learning, pursue their interests and make meaningful connections between classroom experiences and the world beyond school.

Mission/Philosophy

The mission of the School District of Clayton is to educate, inspire and empower each student to love learning and embrace challenge within a rich and rigorous academic culture. CTE inspires engagement through authentic, hands-on experiences that mirror the environments students will encounter beyond school. Within the fields of broadcast, business, computer science, engineering, family & consumer sciences (FCS), and journalism, students explore creativity, collaboration, and leadership through real-world learning opportunities.

CTE brings this mission to life by providing students with opportunities to take on leadership roles, collaborate with peers, problem-solve creatively, and design meaningful projects rooted in real-world learning. CTE classrooms offer the flexibility and inclusivity of mixed-age, mixed-ability, and project-based environments where students drive their own learning, guided by teachers who serve as mentors and facilitators.

The Enduring Understandings of the CTE program identify essential ideas and processes that hold lasting value beyond the classroom and connect directly to real-world learning.

Technology

• Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using industry-standard equipment/software.
• Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media to communicate and work collaboratively - both locally and remotely - to support learning and contribute to the success of others.
• Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and ethically use information.
• Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: Students plan and manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.
• Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice responsible, ethical behavior.

Careers

• Career Exploration: Students research, explore, and experience a variety of career pathways through real-world learning to make informed decisions about their futures.
• College and Career Readiness: Students learn to collaborate, communicate effectively, and apply academic and technical skills necessary for success in postsecondary education, the workforce, and life.

• Family and Consumer Science Curriculum Map
• Engineering and Computer Science Curriculum Map
• 9-12 Business Curriculum Map
• 9-12 Family and Consumer Sciences Curriculum Map
• 9-12 Industrial Technology/Pre-Engineering Curriculum Map
• 9-12 Journalism Curriculum Map

Special School District of St. Louis County (SSD) provides career and technical education (CTE) for Clayton School District. SSD operates South Technical High School, which offers students experiential learning opportunities in more than 25 different programs. The CTE mission is college and career readiness - a commitment to preparing students for the increasing demands of the 21st-century workforce and ensuring that students are fully prepared for college and careers. Our engaging programs, including everything from Automotive Technology to Web & Computer Programming, are focused on developing real-world skills, providing hands-on experience, and connecting students to employers and mentors who will support them long after graduation.

Through our shops and labs, shadowing, internships, complex projects, clinical rotations, and many other immersive experiences, South Tech students gain in-depth perspectives on career paths and college majors. Students discover where they excel, what motivates them, and what they enjoy doing before they begin their post-secondary education or career. Students leave South Tech with skills, knowledge,  experience, college credits, and certifications in the careers they explore.

Interested in applying? Visit South Tech’s Admissions website for more details.

#ThisIsTech

Important Links:

• South Tech Website

• Admissions

• Available Programs

The School District of Clayton’s mathematics program challenges students to think deeply, construct arguments and work together to solve problems and generalize results. From kindergarten through eighth grade, students develop an extensive understanding of concepts by moving from the use of concrete representations to pictorial and finally, abstract representations of grade level mathematics concepts. In grades 9-12, students build upon this foundation with an increased focus on algebraic thinking in preparation for college and career readiness. Central to all mathematics learning, all Clayton K-12 students participate in multi-step and non-routine problem solving. The K-12 mathematics curriculum prepares students of all ages and abilities with the skills necessary to think critically, communicate effectively and accomplish real-world tasks.

“Mathematics is an excellent vehicle for the development and improvement of a person’s intellectual competence” and “also a subject of enjoyment and excitement.” – Singapore Ministry of Education 2006

Listed below are the Enduring Understandings of the Mathematics curriculum. These are statements that summarize important ideas and core processes that are central to a discipline and have lasting value beyond the classroom.

• Everyone is a mathematician: All students can and should develop a belief that mathematics is sensible, worthwhile, approachable and attainable. Mathematical ideas and truths can be represented concretely, pictorially, graphically, numerically and algebraically to tell a story. 
• Mathematicians are sense makers: Mathematics is a language built on patterns and relationships. Mathematicians seek to find the meaning of a problem, look for entry points to its solution, and check for reasonableness along the way.
• Mathematicians are problem posers and problem solvers: Mathematicians are curious about their world, ask questions, collect information, and pose data-driven solutions.
• Mathematicians are strategic thinkers: Mathematicians seek to be efficient in their work by devising a plan, making decisions about the tools available to them, and offering varied strategies for potential solutions.
• Mathematicians are collaborators: Mathematicians benefit from collaborating around multiple approaches to the same problem while comparing and building upon each other’s strategies. In discussion with one another, mathematicians use clear language to explain their reasoning. When listening to or reading the perspectives of others, mathematicians ask purposeful questions to clarify or improve upon each other's thinking and determine the reasonableness of the work.
• Mathematicians are creative: Mathematicians embrace the creative process as much as the solution.  Not all mathematicians approach a problem in the same way, and not all mathematicians arrive at a solution in the same manner.  Mathematics requires one to persevere and maintain a growth mindset as they take risks, ask questions and make discoveries. Mathematicians see the mistakes that are made along the way as a crucial component to the iterative process. 

The NWEA™ Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) is a computer-adaptive assessment that measures what students know regardless of grade level. Students participate in this assessment at various points of their tenure in Clayton. This assessment is one indicator that is used to measure student academic growth in mathematics. This assessment provides teachers with reliable, useful data, which can be used to identify each student’s instructional level and design optimal learning experiences. Learn more about NWEA MAP Assessment.

• K-5 Curriculum Map
• 6-8 Curriculum Map
• 9-12 Curriculum Map (for CHS Class of 2027 and prior)
• 9-12 Curriculum Map (starting with CHS Class of 2028)

• CHS Math Placement Overview
• Wydown Math Placement Overview

Science education in Clayton encourages an attitude of inquiry in the world around us, excites an interest in the nature and process of science, and explores the relationships of science to society, technology, mathematics and other disciplines.  We engender a scientific literacy that will enable our students to reflect on and evaluate information from multiple sources and to develop an understanding of how our choices affect other people and the environment. We provide an evidence-based, model-building program that continually develops, extends, refines, and revises knowledge. The following beliefs are evident throughout Clayton’s science curriculum: 

• We believe that Clayton science education is built on a foundation of process skills and content knowledge, because content and process are inextricably linked in science.
• We believe that Clayton science education leads students to organized reasoning, analytical thinking, and problem solving that cultivate their curiosity about the natural world.
• We believe that Clayton science education promotes an appreciation of the enduring understandings in science.

Listed below are the Enduring Understandings of the Science curriculum.  These are statements that summarize important ideas and core processes that are central to a discipline and have lasting value beyond the classroom.

Enduring Understandings

• The systematic nature of all things: All things in nature are made up of interacting and interdependent parts.  Everything is a part in a larger system.
• The interaction between energy and matter that flow through systems: All things in nature interact with and are affected by energy.  The total amount of energy and matter in the universe remains constant.
• The nature of stability, change and equilibrium: All things in nature change over time in order to reach a balance (equilibrium), however, systems can show stability over long periods of time.
• The relationship between structure and function: The way things are put together determines what they can do.  The way a system works depends on what it is made of and on the shapes and forms of its parts.
• The creation of models to represent abstract ideas and phenomena: In order to understand how systems function and the patterns observed in nature, people develop models that describe how nature works.  Many models are quantified using mathematics.
• The process of scientific reasoning and the evaluation of ideas: Advances in science start with observations that lead to questions that are answered by experimentation and modeling.  Measurements of observations lead to a mathematical treatment of data.
• The interaction between science and society: As a result of scientific pursuits, human beings have developed an understanding of nature that has affected all people’s lives in many ways.

• K-5 Curriculum Map
• 6-8 Curriculum Map
• 9-12 Curriculum Map