JOHN SHIBLEY / LSSU
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Aye Thee Da enjoys a gigantic soap bubble courtesy of LSSU student Kevin Mioduch during a science fair on the Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, campus.
There has always been a sure-fire way to interest kids in science.
Just blow something up.
That worked with Two Harbors, Minnesota, native Brynn Torgerson.
Now a sophomore at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Brynn got hooked on science during a Two Harbors High School advanced chemistry class when she and her lab partner designed an experiment to simulate a grain elevator and how combustible the fine grain particles might be.
They performed the demonstration for a group of sixth-graders, and it remains one of Brynn’s favorite high school memories.
“We safely blew the lid off of a paint can and explained the science behind it to this group of young students,” says Brynn. “The look of excitement and curiosity on their faces really inspired me. It was one of the most fun things I did in school. I mean, how often do you get to blow things up in class and get credit for it?”
Brynn’s experience shows that schools don’t need to be in large urban areas to meet the challenge of encouraging kids to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Those subject areas, popularly called “STEM,” have been hot topics for education as the need increases for STEM professionals. It turns out our Big Lake region schools and universities are on the cutting edge of developing curricula, innovating teacher training and offering summer programs to give our kids the best leg up into such careers.
Brynn’s blossoming interest from high school led her to major in medical laboratory sciences at Michigan Tech. “The majority of people with MLS bachelor’s degrees work in hospital labs doing the diagnostic work that truly saves lives,” she says.
COURTESY BRIAN RAUVOLA / TWO HARBORS HIGH SCHOOL
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Brynn Torgerson (in pony tail) enthusiastically embraced Rock Solid Robotics at Two Harbors High School, one way the school encourages STEM interests. She counts teacher Mark Schlangen as one of her key high school mentors.
Brynn says Two Harbors High, despite being a smaller, rural school, is known for its strong STEM program, thanks to exceptional teachers. “There was a level of personal interest in the subjects on the part of the instructors that helped make lessons more interesting and fun.”
Partnering students plays a key role at Two Harbors High. “Learning to solve problems with someone is a skill that can lead to great success in many STEM fields,” says Mark Schlangen, who teaches physical science, engineering and coaches robotics at the school.
Students also meet people in STEM fields, such as local engineers. Brynn toured the local hospital in her eighth-grade human and animal systems class and was intrigued by the radiology and phlebotomy labs. “I remember thinking that I wouldn’t mind working there someday.”
The encouragement extends beyond classwork. The high school’s extracurricular robotics team challenges students to work together to build a task-driven device, revealing that task shortly before the robot must be up and running.
“It is one thing to theorize about how a problem could be solved or how something should be created,” says Mark. “It is another thing to actually build a functioning machine that will perform as designed. It is a real-world application of working with a team to solve a problem.”
Reaching students in the primary and secondary grades spurs their interest in STEM topics. “It is about igniting the flame of curiosity,” Mark says, “or, if the flame is already there, fanning it into a roaring fire.”
Waiting until college to light that spark would be too late, say two groundbreaking professors at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth.
Jen Rosato, a business/technology professor, and Chery Lucarelli, an education professor, have helped CSS to earn thousands in grant funding to educate K-12 teachers in computer science literacy and to develop curriculum models to use nationwide.
The need for computer science training is huge. While 71 percent of all new STEM jobs are in computing, only 8 percent of STEM-based students graduate in computer science, according to code.org, a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities.
JOHN SHIBLEY / LSSU
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Paige Dugas of East Lansing keeps a sharp eye on her FANUC M10 robot at LSSU’s Women In Technology camp.
The best way to increase STEM participation, as it turns out, is early exposure. Women who try advanced placement computer science in high school are 10 times more likely to major in it in college, while Hispanic and black students are seven times more likely, code.org reports
Jen and Chery realized the best time to expose students to computer science and computational thinking is before college, and the best way to do it is with knowledgeable teachers.
“We’re not all going to become computer scientists, but we all need a certain level of understanding and education,” says Chery.
Jen and Chery’s curriculum focuses on teaching students to move from being tech users to tech creators – in other words, as President Barack Obama once encouraged young people: “Don’t just play on your phone – program it.”
To that end, CSS also has partnered with other colleges, universities and the National Science Foundation to pioneer a curriculum using App Inventor that teaches kids to create socially useful apps.
“It is really neat to see what students are thinking about,”
says Jen. “They have a sense of accomplishment when they create something on a device that for many people is a mystery.”
The apps are quite creative. A Duluth high school student designed one for coaches that brings up a soccer or football field picture on which to draw plays. Another “Feel Good App” offers reassuring quotes, playlists and tips to improve mental health.
Lest you think such curriculum means students hunched over screens writing computer code, it also emphasizes creativity, collaboration and written and oral communication skills, insists Chery. “They’re not just sitting at the screen by themselves, they’re collaborating.”
The professors’ latest project – TeachCS @ CSS – earned the college one of only three Google grants nationwide to create methods for educating teachers-in-training that emphasize computer science and computational thinking, a process of logically ordering and analysing data to create solutions.
After the Google grant ends in 2018, CSS will make the new curriculum available to teacher-prep programs throughout the country.
The idea is to ensure that whatever CSS graduates teach – from high school social studies to middle school math to third-grade science – they will be able to pass on knowledge of and skills in computational thinking. “We can see that computer science has an impact in all these different areas,” says Jen.
At Michigan Tech, Emily A. Dare has been studying how best to implement STEM in schools. The assistant professor of STEM education has found that school administrators deciding what STEM will be in their schools is as important as teachers creating a curriculum. “Conceptions of STEM vary from person to person,” says Emily, who has cited “a lot of loosey-goosey language” around the concept.
She is co-author of a recently published study about STEM education. For cohesive STEM education, says Emily, school districts should provide professional development that lets teachers collaborate on curricula.
In Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, another university is introducing middle- and high-school students to STEM subjects via summer camps.
Lake Superior State University has offered robotics camps for students, grades 8-12, since 1991. The two weeklong residential camps – Robotics Camp and Women in Technology – attract students from Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Ontario. With six sessions in the summer, they serve about 100 students each year.
“These robots were sitting around getting fat and lazy in the summer,” says LSSU Professor Jim Devaprasad. So the college put them to work exciting youngsters about STEM.
Campers get hands-on learning in the university’s robotics lab, part of its nationally accredited robotics program. LSSU faculty teach at the camps while engineering undergrads are hired to assist and mentor the campers. “These robots were sitting around getting fat and lazy in the summer,” says Professor Jim Devaprasad. “So that’s when the idea came about to reach out to the K-12 population and try to encourage and expose them (to robotics), especially in the northern Michigan region, where a lot of students don’t have opportunities to participate in the high tech area.”
Designed to encourage participants to seek a career in engineering and technology, the campers work with state-of-the-art engineering software and hardware, sampling computer programming, industrial robotics, automation, electronics, computer animation, global positioning systems and webpage design. Instructors discuss engineering careers and how to choose the right college for each profession.
On the last day, campers demonstrate a final project to family and friends. Last summer, one created a robot that played a keyboard to accompany her on guitar. Kids have programmed the robots to sword fight, putt golf balls into holes and shoot basketballs into hoops. One year, students programmed a robot to place a bagel in a toaster, retrieve it when it was done and serve it.
“We usually underestimate these young kids,” Jim says. “We say, here’s the objective, here are the robots – they go for it.”
Sometimes campers return to LSSU to pursue STEM careers. One graduate now works for Amazon Robotics and another is employed by Applied Manufacturing Technologies, a leading robotics automation company in Michigan.
Jim hopes these camps inspire kids with a natural interest in robotics toward what can be a lucrative career. LSSU engineering and engineering technology graduates with the robotics concentration have had 100 percent placement and often get multiple job offers well before graduation.
“The robotics field is experiencing explosive growth,” says Jim, emphasizing the dire need in all engineering and technology fields.
While the need is great, Jim points out, the profession’s gender bias limits its employee option (men make up about 80 precent of those in working in robotics). That’s why he hopes the Women in Technology camps interest young women toward the field.
Ultimately, Jim and his colleagues hope all the kids in the robotics camps leave with a sense of “I can do it, have fun doing it and might want to do it as my career.”
Duluth-based writer Felicia Schneiderhan regularly checks out STEM toys for her three youngsters at the public library.