STEAM

According to the US Department of Commerce.  “STEM workers drive our nation’s innovation and competitiveness by generating new ideas, new companies and new industries. However, U.S. businesses frequently voice concerns over the supply and availability of STEM workers. Over the past 10 years, growth in STEM jobs was three times as fast as growth in non-STEM jobs.”

History

• LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT is a robotics toolset that provides endless opportunities for budding inventors, robotics fanatics and LEGO builders ages 10 and older to build and program robots that do what they want.  ​
• The aim of this program is to inspire and support students outside of the classroom setting to go beyond the basics in bringing LEGO-based engineering to all. 
• Goal: get students excited about STEM disciplines, learn problem solving skills, design, trouble-shooting, etc.

Highlights

• This competition is a great way to support schools, promote STEM learning and also promote our adult education campus.-Competition was hosted at the Willow Campus
• Children were judged by engineers and business people from the community.

On April 23, 2021, Kindergarteners through 8th graders, had a chance to participate in the Disaster Blaster Virtual STEAM Challenge.  Students created a team of at least two participants and then together chose a natural disaster to research and learn more about.  The teams then created a model that represented a scene that shows the before, during, or after stage of the natural disaster that they chose.  All the students involved enjoyed the STEAM challenge and learned valuable information about emergency preparedness.