STEAM

The concept of a STEAM center was first born out of the school's five-year strategic plan, to develop an innovation center and a curriculum to match.  In 2020, one of our then physics teachers, Mr. Dave Burnside, was tasked with heading up the effort to create such a space here at WJ.  Prior to Walsh Jesuit, Mr. Burnside served on a committee at a different high school that had spearheaded a similar effort.    

After much discussion around the goals of the curriculum, Mr. Burnside and Principal, Sean Lynch '94, conducted virtual tours of our Jesuit partner high schools around the country, many of whom already had effective spaces in place.  Closer to home, Burnside and others from WJ visited several local non-Jesuit schools for more comparisons.  From these visits they determined what they liked and didn't like about the various "makerspaces" and how they would build this space at Walsh Jesuit to fit the new curriculum.

In the fall of 2022 Walsh Jesuit welcomed and introduced the then freshman class to engineering concepts through the required Design & Innovation 1 course, in the 1150 sq. ft. classroom, the Malley's Center for Design and Innovation.  

Fast forward to summer of 2024, the Center's square footage doubled.  Six additional work stations with laptops were added, and now with the extra space, the Center is able to separate the design space from the workspace, creating a dust free design area.  An added benefit to the extra lab space allows students and teachers from other classes to be able to work on projects related to other classes.

In the tradition of Jesuit education, Walsh Jesuit’s Center for Design and Innovation provides a learning environment that encourages our students to stretch their mind and imagination and to develop “habits of intellectual inquiry” (The Graduate at Graduation).