STEM education continues to be more important in our changing world. Exposure to science, technology, engineering and mathematics is important in today’s world. It allows students another way to succeed in education and learn about a variety of STEM careers. Some of these careers have not even been invented yet as we don’t even know what the future holds. 

Starting as a pilot program in 2016, funded by Duke Power/Progress Energy and Buncombe County Schools, six schools set up STEM labs with STEM Lab Assistants to work with all Kindergarten through fifth grade students in a hands-on STEM lab. Throughout the year, students worked to complete four engineering design challenges. 

These challenges came from curriculum developed around the North Carolina Science Essential Standards. The challenges are designed to fit in with each grade level’s science content. It is important that the STEM lab facilitators coordinate with the grade level teachers about when specific science content will be taught. In many cases, this is more than one challenge for each content area. This is where teachers and STEM lab facilitators coordinate which design challenge will best fit their students’ needs. The design challenges are not meant to replace science content, yet they are there to enhance and apply what students have learned in class using the Engineering and Design Process (EDP) for each challenge. 

In 2017, all primary, elementary and intermediate schools had STEM labs for all K-5 students. Since that time, challenges of the month have been added to the curriculum, challenges for other content areas have been added, and there have been challenges built around science and STEM trade books. Each year the curriculum has grown and continues to evolve, but the basic idea is that the students use the EDP for each challenge: Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, and Improve. The STEM labs allow for students to solve problems using out-of-the box thinking and spark creativity. The goal is to build problem solvers who can follow a process to work through problems, improve upon their ideas, collaborate with others, and know that if something doesn’t work out, it’s okay, keep thinking of ideas to make their solutions even better.