A huge shoutout to the Howard Middle School Lady Rams Volleyball team for a strong finish.
The John Lewis Invictus Academy Flag Football team won its third-straight APS Middle School Flag Football Championship on April 26, 2025, at Lakewood Stadium.
John Lewis Invictus Academy defeated Howard Middle School 24-0. Shaniyah Crawford won the Player of the Year award, and coach Derek O’Neal won the Coach of the Year award.
Slideshow: Photos from the Midtown STEAM Cluster Expo. Photo: Allison M. Slocum, APS ©
The Midtown Cluster schools have intentionally prioritized STEAM education as a cornerstone of their curriculum. This spring, two major events, the Midtown Cluster STEAM Expo and the Midtown High School STEAM Carnival, brought these subjects to life for students across all grade levels.
The Midtown Cluster STEAM Expo marked its third year, attracting about 200 students from Hope-Hill Elementary, Mary Lin Elementary, Morningside Elementary, Virginia-Highland Elementary, Centennial Academy, Howard Middle School, and Midtown High School, who convened at Springdale Park Elementary for the day’s activities.
Midtown High School students like sophomores Jessica Cho and Kebra Luckett took on leadership roles, guiding elementary and middle school students through the day’s activities. Their assignment included assisting with the Starlab dome, an interactive astronomy and environmental science exhibit.
Midtown High School sophomores Jessica Cho and Kebra Luckett volunteered with the Starlab. Photo: Allison M. Slocum, APS ©
“The lesson is about light pollution. The students get to see the stars and imagine what the sky would be like without light pollution,” Luckett said.
“The students watched a five-minute video and then wrote in their journals about what would have happened if light pollution weren’t a problem,” Cho added.
The event featured hands-on activities and experiments designed to engage students in the critical thinking and interdisciplinary approaches that define STEAM education. Interactive lessons included virtual reality, hydroponics, and a slime-making activity simulating ocean plastic pollution.
APS Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson engages with students at the Midtown STEAM Cluster Expo. Photo: Allison M. Slocum, APS ©
Kristin Siembieda, the STEAM program specialist at Springdale Park Elementary School, said that most careers are leaning towards STEAM in an impactful way. The Expo was the cluster’s way of spreading the importance of STEAM at every grade level.
“We don’t know what the jobs are going to be in the future, but you have to be able to understand engineering design processes and how the subjects integrate together and are interdisciplinary,” Siembieda said. “Without that, [students are] going to have a hard time in the world as they graduate.”
Slideshow: Photos from the Midtown High School STEAM Carnival. Photo: Allison M. Slocum, APS ©
Following the success of the Expo, Midtown High School hosted its third annual STEAM Carnival and shifted the focus toward high school-level curriculum while maintaining an emphasis on experiential learning. The carnival brought together a variety of STEAM-related activities, including a vendor exhibit and college fair where students engaged with representatives from STEAM programs, the military, and agricultural companies.
“The carnival is a way to introduce students to the complex aspects of STEAM in a manner that is not intimidating,” STEAM signature program specialist at Midtown High School Stacey M. Tanner said. “The kids have fun while experiencing the interconnectedness of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.”
In addition to the educational exhibits on nanotechnology, robotics, and astronomy, the Carnival featured performances, such as a flamenco dance lesson and a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute by the Atlanta Opera, in collaboration with the Center for Puppetry Arts.
Each birdcage was created with inspiration from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute. Photo credit: Allison M. Slocum, APS ©
Students from Midtown High School’s engineering and art departments also participated, creating and decorating birdhouses in homage to the opera’s bird-catcher character.
Adding art, dance, and opera to the carnival supported Tanner’s overarching goal of getting the students so excited about STEAM that they would also influence the teachers’ excitement.
“I am a product of North Atlanta High School when it was still a performing arts magnet school,” Tanner said. “The experiences I received there gave me a lifelong appreciation for fine and performing arts. My father was a computer service engineer. His expectations of us with technology provided a STEAM foundation for me before the concept evolved.”
Features like the Starlab, the Amphibian Foundation, which brought live animals for students to interact with, and the Georgia Aquarium, which provided educational displays on aquatic science, rounded out the carnival’s diverse offerings.
Both the Midtown STEAM expo and carnival expanded the scope of traditional instruction by applying lessons to real-world explorations and encouraging student leadership. By making a concerted effort to collaborate on the cluster’s vision, they spark curiosity and prepare students for a rapidly evolving future.
Million Bazallion Live at Howard Middle.
The young ladies at Howard Middle School were treated to a special assembly on National Girls and Women in Sports Day with a visit from the Atlanta Dream.
The city’s WNBA team came bearing gifts and spent the morning inspiring and encouraging the students at Howard Middle School to pursue their goals on and off the court.
“It’s important to celebrate women doing awesome things in every aspect,” Howard Middle School principal Tekeshia Hollis said. “This gives us another opportunity to teach girls how to shine, how to be confident, and what that means while still hitting the pavement to get equal rights for women in sports and women in other industries.”
After leading an exciting relay competition where a handful of girls were split into teams that raced to put on a WNBA-sized practice uniform and shoes before making a layup, Atlanta Dream president Morgan Shaw Parker and forward Nia Coffey joined Howard girls’ basketball coach Ben Abernathy and APS health and physical education coordinator Myss Johnson-Jelks for a panel discussion about their respective careers and how women can excel in male-dominated industries like sports.
“I didn’t really have this opportunity when I was in middle school and high school, so I just love to be able to give back in a different way and bring the fun and lessons of sports,” Coffey said. “Just reminding girls that opportunities are out there, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go to the top levels. Just being in those environments, you can learn so many different things on and off the court.”
The Atlanta Dream’s visit to Howard Middle School on National Girls and Women in Sports Day meant a lot to students like Julianna Richman, an eighth-grader on Howard girls’ basketball team.
“It was really inspiring hearing how [Nia Coffey] got here and what it took,” Richman said. “It makes me want to continue to play basketball through high school and college.”
“When you’re younger, a lot of times, you get encouraged to do dance or cheer. It makes you not want to play anymore,” she added. “But then hearing that you have this whole day for you and that other women have gone through it too is really inspiring.”
National Girls and Women in Sports Day was a big success at Howard Middle School. The girls excitedly cheered for their classmates during the relay competition and got the chance to hear from women who forged their own way into a career in sports.
“One of our core pillars is empowering girls and women,” Atlanta Dream director of community impact Kelly Harper Lee said. “The reason why it’s important to come in and empower girls is because we know, in particular middle school girls, that’s the age where they tend to drop off playing sports, and we wanted to come in today to encourage them to play and stay in sports. And what better place to come than Howard, who has already been a longtime partner.”
