By: Sheila Crowley
Murray County News Staffwriter
What is STEM? It is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach.
STEM is important because it is part of everyone’s everyday day lives and provides hands-on knowledge base in many career areas.
By exposing students to STEM activities and giving them opportunities to explore STEM-related concepts, students hopefully will acquire a passion for problem solving and maybe, one day, pursue a job in a STEM field.
The first grade teachers at Murray County Central reached out to Nobles Cooperative Electric in August and were notified on October 5th they were a recipient of the $920 grant. The funds are part of Nobles Cooperative Electric’s Round Up program.
In addition requests were sent to the Dovray American Legion Auxiliary, Currie Town and Country Booster Club, Slayton Women of Today and the Hadley Lions. An additional $970 was received between these organizations.
In mid-November Nancy Boerboom, Heather Meyer, and Christyn Vos attended a two-day conference to learn how to incorporate STEM into their classroom settings.
The goal of the first grade teachers is to expose students to additional opportunities to explore lessons that involve STEM activities. STEM’s learning environment engages students in questioning, problem solving, and collaboration. STEM students are logical thinkers, effective communicators, and are technologically, scientifically, and mathematically literate.
To read the rest of this article – pick up a copy of this weeks Murray County News or subscribe to our e-edition at http://eedition.murraycountynews.net/sub/account_login.asp.
