xplore,” said Milspaw, noting that he enjoys project-based learning. “It’s definitely a lot of fun.”
STEM was introduced as a Selbyville Middle School exploratory program, allowing students to dip their toes into the fields for one marking period. It also created a feeder program for Indian River High School.
IRHS staff wanted to create a real impact, so they asked local professionals where the classes should lead, based on job opportunity and community needs. So architecture and civil engineering is the “best fit” for Year Three, Timmons said.
The senior capstone project will have students creating and presenting a new product to a board of engineers. They’ll do the research, build a prototype and test it. Nationwide, some students have even earned patents for their senior capstone projects.
They can also get college credit during high school. Every spring, students submit their project notebook and take a national test. If they pass, they could get credit for a full college course, one course per year. (Last year, only a few students didn’t get credit, Timmons said.) It’s an advanced program.
“My sister is in college for engineering and doing same stuff we are,” Saylor said.
IRHS is part of a national STEM program, Project Lead the Way. That means classrooms across the country are learning the same curriculum. So if a student moved to New England, she could continue learning almost at the same place and still submit her notebook for credit.
Federal funding paid for IR’s program and training, though Race to the Top.
IRSD Superintendent Susan Bunting said the decision to begin STEM began with today’s elementary students.
“So many of the jobs that they will be able to — I hope — qualify for when they graduate have not yet been invented. That is staggering to me, that we really have to up the ante, that our students have to be ready for what comes next.”