Students at Bridgman’s F.C. Reed Middle School are taking a new class this year in science, technology, engineering and math. It’s taught in the district’s new STEM lab.
The STEM lab is housed in what used to be the school’s wood shop. Principal John Truesdell said kids are still getting the chance to create.
“While we’re not building birdhouses, while we’re not carving a drilling pieces of wood necessarily, we are still building things. Kids are building solar cars, kids are building different circuit models, kids are building pneumatic can crushers.”
The lab includes a 3-D printer, stations with architecture and CAD software, and a broadcast lab. Right now kids are working within a budget to build structures out of tinker-toy type materials.
“In order to connect them you have to connect them with a triangle, a pentagon or a rectangle so it creates different shape structures.” Kerri deBest is the teacher for the STEM classes. She sees all the students 5th through 8th grade in 10 day rotations with gym and art class.
“I’m not saying, ‘ok, today we’re learning about the periodic table of the elements’ they’re choosing oh, let’s test the acidity of something or I have solar cooker ovens going right now,” deBest said. “You know, that’s a thing that I’m going to be able to teach them in the classroom and have everybody doing it at once, these kids get to take the choice and go with it wherever they want to go. It’s a lot more fun, a little bit more freedom, a little bit more chaos, but it’s a good chaos.”
Truesdell says some students who struggle in regular classrooms seem to love the STEM lab.
“One of the things that we’ve found is that, maybe some of those kids that traditionally struggle with traditional classroom structures and styles, they thrive in this space. Because it allows them to have student choice, it allows them to innovate and create.”
The lab was funded mainly with donations through the Bridgman Foundation for Educational Excellence. The total cost is about $330,000.
Truesdell said they’re still working to raise a bit more money, and they’ll continue to raise money so the lab stays up to day for students into the future.