The STEM of Ed

By: Albert Bowling

STEM has been my main interest throughout high school. Freshman year, I thought I was going to be a marine biologist, but then I discovered a fascinating class called Material Design and Processing. This class introduces people to AutoCad drafting software and workshop classes. I’m not really fond of sharp spinning blades, but AutoCad was a very fun program for me to use and interested me. Next year rolled around, and I took a full CADD course. The full year of CADD focused only on the drafting phases in engineering. For a final project in CADD students pick an object that can be taken apart and work to reverse engineer it. In this class, I was constantly ahead of other students, and it remains as one of my favorite two classes. This class furthered my love for CADD and the idea of pursuing a career using this. Another class heavily used the AutoCad software, Architecture. This became another favorite class very quickly. It teaches the basic concepts and knowledge needed to design a house. While learning these concepts, students work to design a house starting with a list of rooms they come up with. Then floor plans are created and changed as more information is taught. From this point time is spend making elevation views and basic electrical plans. After all floor plans, electrical plans, and elevation views are done the class moves over to the design lab. In the lab elevations are printed in 1/8”:1’ scale and students create a model of the house they spent the entire year designing on the computer.

Education is the most important part of growing up. It allows for people to find what interests them and what passion they want to pursue as a career. Through school, I have found a great interest architecture. I found this interest through taking elective courses within the STEM field. The STEM field is an overall underrepresented field. English and Social Studies courses are very important but are much more emphasized than STEM courses. Here at Bermudian Springs High School, English and Social Studies require 4 credits where Science and Math only require 3. Though this one credit seems small, it could cause a change in any interest of a person. One credit in CADD (computer aided drafting and design) for me caused me to fall in love with the idea of using CADD to create a job fascinated me.

There are 51 areas in the United States with specific graduation requirement-the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 48 of the 51 areas require 4 english credits to graduate. Compare this to science where only 4 of the 51 areas require 4 credits to graduate. This difference is significant considering STEM career areas are growing in interest.

(Below shows how many states require each number of credits in a specific subject)

With an increase in demand for STEM degrees coming out of college we need to do more to prepare the next generation of engineers, scientists and mathematicians. More diverse areas of study should be offered in these fields allowing students to find their interests. These programs when offered may start small but will grow as time passes. I have seen a program do just that during my time here at BSHS. Along with the diverse classes offered at Bermudian Springs, we have developed an amazing robotics program.

As of 2018, we have had a VEX Robotics team for 4 years. This program was started by a substitute teacher offering one robotics team during the 2013 school year. The program grew larger and added a second team in 2015 and a third in 2018. All teams have qualified for state level competition every year. However, this year and last year we have achieved great success and qualified and competed at VEX Worlds. At this event, the top 7% of teams compete to see who is the best in the world. Through this program the team has met with others all the way from China to Syria. It offers so much for students and will continue to offer more. This program not only is fun, but it also allows for students to meet new people. Each year a new challenge is presented for teams to overcome. Together students create real world work environments emphasizing teamwork and creative thinking.

If schools are able to implement more programs with potential like this STEM fields will continue to grow and prosper. Through offering more diverse STEM courses more people would express their interest in these areas. When talking about STEM Elizabeth Sheeley, a senior at Bermudian High School, “If there was other STEM stuff besides the robotics team I’d definitely do it” showing that the interest for these fields exists and can be uncovered by small additions to the curriculum.

References

Education Commission of the States. (2018). Standard High School Graduation Requirements (50-state). Retrieved May 11, 2018, from http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/mbprofall?Rep=HS01

Levy, H. O., & Plucker, J. A. (2015, June 5). Brains, Not Brawn. Retrieved May 11, 2018, from https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/06/05/lack-of-stem-students-is-bad-for-national-security

Learning Path (Ed.). (n.d.). Earning Your High School Diploma. Retrieved May 11, 2018, from http://learningpath.org/articles/Earning_Your_High_School_Diploma_-_Nebraska.html

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