Spring has arrived at Sacred Heart Catholic School, bringing the opportunity for students to learn “outside the box.”

Students are gaining hands-on experiences through STREAM activities: lessons involving science, technology, religion, engineering, arts, agriculture and mathematics.

Principal Tyler Kulp praised his teaching staff for hours spent planning interesting, interdisciplinary lessons.

“We have already had life-cycle lessons hatching baby chicks in our second grade, but now that spring is here, we are getting ready to explode,” Kulp said.

Kulp said – second-graders are learning mathematics through measurements, engineering and religion by building specifically sized crosses for Lent and art by creating “beautiful art pieces for our hallways.”

“Soon, our third-graders will be hatching baby ducks, and our fourth-graders will become amateur beekeepers,” he said, adding that rising ground soil temperatures mean students are now able to plant spring gardens. “There are so many lessons in science, technology and engineering that can be taught outdoors and our students love them.”

Upcoming outdoor-focused programs include Sacred Heart’s Earth Day celebration scheduled for May 3. Students will build bat boxes with Master Gardener Randy Cox in coordination with the North Carolina Landtrust’s Leopold Society. They will also work with wildlife Officer Ashley O’Hare and Taylor Parker, a doctoral student at the University of north Carolina at Charlotte studying environment science.