STEM Day

Last week our students in grades 7-12 had a little bit different school day. For the first time, Wyndmere held a STEM day. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) provides students an opportunity for students to apply what they learn in everyday classes to a real life work situation.

The students met in the gym in the morning and a couple ladies from NDSCS presented a scenario to the students. The fictitious company was approaching the student groups in order to ask them to test, analyze and market their product, "Magic Sand". Magic sand was a product that was created to help clean up oil spills such as the one that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

The students were split into 14 corporations and all groups included students from every grade (7-12). The goal was to conduct testing on the magic sand and create a marketing campaign which would be presented to a panel of board members.

At the end of the day, here were a few of my observations.

1. I was very impressed with a majority of our groups. Many were well prepared and did an excellent job. And while there were some groups that didn't perform as well, I feel that this was a bit of an eye opener for our students. We plan on doing this a few times again next year and I have no doubt they will take a step forward on their second attempt.

2. I felt this was a great opportunity for students to interact with students they normally wouldn't have. Some groups functioned very effectively, while others had a few more bumps in the road. Ultimately the students were able to see the positive and negative aspects of group work and how to become a better team player.

3. We had many students who were noted for excelling in the public speaking aspect. However, we had many students who had never been asked to do anything like this. As a staff we were able to identify an area where we can improve the education of our students.

In closing, I hope your students had positive feelings about the day. I am sure there are some that had to really step outside of their comfort zone. I know this may be tough for some, but in the end it can only benefit them to get more comfortable with this type of thing as it will only benefit them in their careers after school.

I am interested in hearing parent perspectives about STEM day. Comments on the blog are always appreciated and I look forward to hearing from you.