Our STEM advisory board is comprised of various people who work for our community partners. Chris Bierhaus from Mier Farms is great about helping us, volunteering, and providing feedback about our program. Annie Swinney, from Decatur County Memorial Health, is a valuable asset as well. Most of our other partners send various staff to our events, and their informal input and feedback are invaluable to our program. We are also very blessed to have a staff member married to a biologist who gives us a lot of help, suggestions, and feedback; and he loans or brings some of his equipment to our events, including a high-powered telescope (his employer is not an official partner because they are located in another county). 

After helping with events or lessons, we always ask these partners to give us feedback. These are the local businesses. They know what skills their employees need, and they realize that our students may one day be their future employees. They are able to give us advice on what aspects of our program are great, and they can give us suggestions over skills/items to consider adding or changing. We appreciate them so much, and we take their advice very seriously. 

At SDES, we are all about preparing our students for the future. Career exploration is very important to us. During the weekly STEM rotation, Mrs. Bolton is always ending lessons with possible future careers that are related to the lesson that day. For example, after using Hot Wheels or various bouncy balls to create fair test, changing only one variable at a time; students learn that testing which Hot Wheels are fastest and which balls bounce highest is not just playing, it could be a career for some (Toy Tester).  Our PLTW curriculum does a great job including career exploration in their modules. There are even bio snapshots of real-life professionals in STEM fields (usually belonging to STEM minority groups, such as women). 

Our wonderful school social worker, Mrs. Porter, also puts many hours into allowing our students to explore careers. From College Go Week, to Cougar Career Day, to What Do You Wanna Be Wednesdays, our students are introduced to hundreds of possible future careers. 

Finally, at SDES, we recognize the importance of field trips. Our county is fortunate to host events such as Ag Day and Power of the Past. Many of our students take field trips to these events and are introduced to the various careers available in our county. Other grades visit state parks and are introduced to DNR employees and what they do. Still other grades visit farms and orchards to learn how food goes from farm to table. Best of all, these experiences are either free for students (or cost less than $5). No student is ever denied attending a field trip because our amazing PTO sponsors all such excursions. 

With the continuous growth of the STEM initiative at SDES, comes the growth of after-school STEM activities. The SDES STEM Fair and the 6th grade STEM Space Night were our main events last year. This year we plan to expand upon those events and add a few new ones, including a Touch-A-Truck event and a Girls Night Out - Women in STEM event. 

Our school has had a competitive VEX IQ robotics team since 2017. This team is typically comprised of 10-12 students. Due to expenses, starting in the 23-24 school year, the team will not be officially competing, but we are working with area schools to plan unofficial competitions. This will allow all students, who wish, to participate. 

Our goals are to expand our extra STEM opportunities. One goal includes adding an Advanced STEM elective for 5th and 6th graders during the school year starting in 24-25. We also hope to add a greenhouse to our school in the future, complete with a gardening club. There are many ways such a club could benefit our community including involving parents and other community stakeholders. 

South Decatur Elementary is a family. Our students are all encouraged to participate in all of our activities. If there is some reason they are unable to participate that is out of our control, we do everything that we can to help that student be able to engage in additional educational activities. 

We have three major groups of underrepresented students at SDES - students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, female students, and students with IEPs. More than 50% of our students are female, and more than 50% are socioeconomically disadvantaged. We understand how important it is for us to ensure these students are made aware of all the possible STEM careers out there, get all the extra help they need in developing employability skills, and gain self-confidence so that they may be brave and successful adults.