Henderson Mill Elementary School STEM Certification
Henderson Mill Elementary School STEM certification
Henderson Mill Elementary School STEM certification is a nice addition to the school name but what does it mean. STEM is short for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The STEM educational approach prepares our children for careers in a technologically advanced environment.
From the Georgia STEM website
In Georgia, STEM education is defined as an integrated curriculum (as opposed to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics taught in isolation) that is driven by problem solving, discovery, exploratory project/problem-based learning, and student-centered development of ideas and solutions.
Kids learn from hands on and collaborative problem solving. I am the mother of two engineers (the third is a history teacher). All three daughters received extensive exposure to science and math courses throughout high school. But when you get to college you are thrown into groups where you have to throw out formulas and memorization and get down to the nitty gritty of problem solving.
Henderson Mill Elementary School STEM Certification means these kids will have a jump start on other kids when they reach the college level. Even though other kids will have taken AP courses and aced the SAT, they will find themselves forced to think analytically to survive. It is my theory that the collaborative problem solving at Henderson Mill Elementary School will bare fruit at that level and beyond.
I was motivated to write this post after I saw the facebook remarks of one of the very sharp young moms in my neighborhood. I think she sums it up nicely:
Walking through our school this morning, my oldest is doing STEM robotics demonstrations for a tour of Georgia educators who are visiting this morning to learn from the best. A group of fifth-graders is sitting on the stage practicing their Black history month presentation while the third-graders form a long line through the cafeteria presenting their living history museum project, which both of my kids will visit. My car is packed to the brim with teacher goodie bags full of gifts from our loving students and their families. And all before 9:30 am on a Friday. Our family was almost scared to embark on a public school journey, having heard nightmare stories and stereotypes about how terrible public schools are. I’m here to tell you that our family is honored and privileged to be a part of our neighborhood school family
Oh – Almost forgot to mention – I was an Engineering Science and Math double major at Vanderbilt. Girl Engineers rock.
