S.T.E.M. education need not entail the usual projects geared to a few hours or a few days. Instead, we offer High School students a one-year-long S.T.E.M. Laboratory class at no additional cost to the school, much less the student. This is especially the case given our patent endorsement that includes all S.E.S. levels. The only requirement needed is an Internet connection, which most schools already have.
With a computer lab set-up in place, the S.T.E.M. class runs either as an elective or preferably as a typical High School technology class. In this light, students learn and use website development, word processing, spreadsheet, slideshow, drawing, and social media tools. The final website design rewards the students with a portfolio that encapsulates their learning for the year. An example of a student portfolio website can be found at: prototypesmda.blogspot.com. Surprisingly, from our experience flight testing prototypes of this class, students actually enjoyed doing all that hard work.
Imagine that!
However, if educators decide that they would rather have a one or two day project to augment their class, then they're still in luck: we condensed the lessons into eight mini-lessons and published each one in our very own magazine. The magazine can be found as a free PDF download from our website.
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Analysis
One of the major hurdles we have encountered in developing our lessons is that while the Middle Schools seem to have a lot of ways to get students excited about S.T.E.M., once they get to High School the opportunities to continue their education is lacking. Our model deals with this issue; the Middle School captures their attention, then we keep their interest alive in High School with our lab.
And here's how we do it...
Given our innovative S.T.E.M. model, the class is offered in various options, where student interest drives the curriculum. For example, a student who wants to become a marine biologist would take the Lab in the "Adventures Undersea" option. On the other hand, if the student wants to be an astrophysicist, then the option becomes "Adventures in Outer Space." Either way, the student learns the same S.T.E.M. skill set no matter which pathway is taken. (188 pages)
