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STEAM at Rye Country Day centers on the Makerspace, an innovation lab for Middle and Upper School students inside the Cohen Center for the Creative Arts. Upper School students can work through a three-level apprenticeship sequence that trains them to run the equipment and mentor younger students. Alongside it sit a Science Research Program, a Middle School research club, and an annual STEM Symposium where students present a year of project work.
The Makerspace and the Cohen Center
The Makerspace sits inside the Cohen Center for the Creative Arts, a 23,000 square foot facility that brought the Middle and Upper School arts programs together in one building. The design deliberately puts student work on display, with a two-story glass corridor functioning as a gallery, and dedicated spaces for visual arts, digital arts, performance arts, manual arts, and STEAM. Equipment in the Makerspace runs to computer-controlled machining tools, 3D printers and scanners, laser cutters, motors, sensors, microcontrollers and related electronics, traditional power tools, and electrical equipment.
What matters more than the equipment list is who gets to use it. The Makerspace serves both Middle and Upper School students rather than sitting behind a senior elective, which means a seventh grader can be building something real rather than waiting four years for access.
The STEAM Apprenticeship Sequence
Upper School students can enter a structured apprenticeship rather than simply booking lab time. STEAM Apprenticeship Level I introduces students to working in and eventually leading the Makerspace, training them in rapid prototyping, problem-solving, and invention, and teaching them to operate the equipment confidently. It carries no prerequisite and runs as a half-unit course for Grades 9 through 12, meeting three times per cycle. Level II extends into additional tools and the woodshop, asking students to design work that balances form, function, and personal voice, culminating in an invention or community project approved by the Makerspace Director. A third level, STEAM Masterclass, continues the progression into leadership.
The apprenticeship also has a mentoring dimension. Apprentices support projects for younger students and help teachers implement Makerspace work inside their own curricula, which makes the program a leadership pathway rather than a technical one alone.
Sustained, hands-on programs like this build the kind of habits that transfer well beyond the subject itself, something we explore in our piece on why STEM matters in modern education.
Is your child a builder rather than a test-taker?
Schools differ enormously in how early they give students real access to tools and research. That difference is worth weighing carefully during an application year.
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Student Research and Competition
Rye Country Day runs a Science Research Program alongside its STEAM coursework, and students present their work publicly. The school held its first STEM Symposium in May 2025, where more than 40 Middle and Upper School students presented a year of coursework and projects. The showcase included functional prototypes from the STEAM Engineering and Design Program, research from the Middle School RISE club, which stands for Research and Innovation in Science and Engineering, and arguments from Upper School students who competed in the Young Physicists Tournament on problems ranging from the mechanics of flying discs to atmospheric scintillation.
How STEAM Runs Across the Divisions
| Division | What STEAM looks like | Access |
| Lower School | Foundational science and computer work inside the core curriculum | All students |
| Middle School | Dedicated STEAM curriculum, Makerspace access, RISE research club | All students, clubs by interest |
| Upper School | STEAM coursework, apprenticeship sequence, Science Research Program | Open entry at Level I, then by progression |
Programs like these reward students who follow one thread over several years rather than sampling widely, which is also how admissions readers tend to read a file. Our guide to extracurriculars in private school admissions explains why depth reads more convincingly than breadth.
What This Means for Applicants
If your child builds things, a school with a Makerspace open to Middle Schoolers is materially different from one where the equipment waits until eleventh grade. Bring that up during your visit and ask what a seventh grader can actually touch. Our New York admissions consultants can help you assess how well a given program matches your child’s interests rather than its brochure.
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We help families evaluate programs honestly and build applications that show genuine interest rather than manufactured enthusiasm.
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