Communicating with new people is a beneficial way to learn new ideas.

Liberty’s library staff are planning to have two separate mystery Google hangouts this September. These hangouts will be apart of the library’s STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) challenges.

During the first two challenges, Liberty will connect with an undetermined school somewhere around the world. The whereabouts of their school will be not be revealed.

Liberty’s students will be able to ask the students yes or no questions to try and figure out where they are located, while they do the same to us.

“We’re going to have a little bit of difficulty with other countries only because of time zone issues, but you never know,” librarian Mrs. Oliva said.

All Liberty students are able to participate in these hangouts.

The challenges will be held on Wednesdays during Academic Intervention, the exact dates will be announced at a later date. Students will be able to walk in, completely voluntary. Teachers will be informed of the challenges and will have the opportunity to offer extra credit to students that participate.

Each month there will be new challenges for students to take part in. They will all include aspects of STEAM.

Many schools are familiar with the term STEM (science, technology, engineering and math.) STEM is an educational program that is designed to prepare students for college and eventually a career.

Liberty’s library strongly believes that art is also a vital part of the learning experience.

“I am very aware that our district is STEM focused, but I feel like whenever people are designing or engineering things, they have to think about aesthetics as well,” Mrs. Oliva said. “I think art, that creative aspect, still has a really important role in STEM.”

STEAM has recently become a substantial component of student learning.

“I think the whole STEAM idea is a really great way to get kids involved in subjects that they wouldn’t necessarily would have tried before,” senior Grace Meinhardt said. “I think it’s great that the library is making efforts such as that to get children involved.”

STEAM will continue to reshape the education system. These challenges are a great way to incorporate STEAM in the school environment.