Anyone in junior high planning to attend Mr. PHS on March 12 can arrive 20 minutes earlier and earn extra credit at the annual Junior High STEM Night.
STEM night will be held in the cafeteria from 4 to 6 p.m., organized by junior high science teacher Lori Stroud and Assistant Principal Adam Stroud.
Since STEM Night will begin an hour after school, students can stay afterward to wait for the event to begin. Students wanting to stay after school should meet at the front office, and it is recommended that they bring snacks. Adam Stroud will supervise students.
When students walk into the cafeteria for STEM Night, they will be given a paper to keep track of their completed activities. Each teacher will decide how much extra credit their activity will be worth and how much time each activity will or should take.
“STEM Night is showing what we have to offer here, and it is just something fun for students,” said Lori Stroud.
One reason the school is hosting STEM Night is to help the school get STEM certified.
“There is a rubric that we go over for our STEM certification and part of the rubric deals with giving students opportunities for STEM outside of a regular day. So STEM night will help to meet that criteria,” said Adam Stroud.
Science, math, social studies, and English teachers are all planning activities for this event, but some community partners will also host activities.
“STEM Night also allows us to reach out to our community partners, and our community partners will help in this event and that might also help with STEM certification,” said Adam Stroud.
Our school will be STEM-certified by the end of the school year, and the STEM Nights have helped achieve this goal.
“Being STEM certified gives our students opportunities to be successful after school in these fields. Taking time to focus on what STEM means in the community is something that I did not have when I was in school,” said Adam Stroud
The school began the process of becoming STEM-certified last year.
“When we get STEM certified, we will be one of the very few schools in the area with that recognition,” said Adam Stroud
The Indiana Department of Education provides the steps and requirements for STEM certification on its website. One requirement is that the school create a Google Site to document evidence that the school is ready to be STEM-certified. The final step of STEM certification is a STEM Certification Site Visit. PHS is in this final step, and the site visit will take place on March 27.
Last year, seventh grade Math Teacher Kyle Chase hosted an ice cream-making station.
“I enjoyed the ice cream station, but I wanted to try something different this time,’’ said Chase.
This year, Chase decided her activity would be to let students control remote-controlled robots.
“The ice cream station was a mess to clean up,” said Chase.
Because this is the second year STEM Night will take place, many teachers, like Chase, will know what to expect and how to make sure students have a fun time.
