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  • Brady Henricks practices sending his skimmer down a Duncan Middle School hallway, while Amanda Matheny and Emily Kirkland look on. Derrick Miller/The Duncan Banner

    Brady Henricks practices sending his skimmer down a Duncan Middle School hallway, while Amanda Matheny and Emily Kirkland look on.
September 17, 2012

STEM program to jump start the future

Derrick Miller The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — The future of engineering could rest on the shoulders of the Duncan Middle School eighth-graders.

This is the first year for the STEM education program at the middle school.

The program focuses on science, technology, engineering and math. It has the students learning in a different way and thinking beyond the subject material.

“It’s not an honors class; it’s a different type of class,” teacher Tammy Bennett said. “It’s a whole new frame of mind on the classroom. The classroom’s always been the same. This changes it up.”

While most middle school classes have teachers provide all information for the students. The STEM class requires students to do research to arrive at an answer.

The class also is making use of teamwork. Although some projects are done individually, students can also buddy up if additional help is needed. Bennett said when a buddy is brought in, he or she is only there to help, not to do the project for the other student.

“It’s a lot more fun than regular science class,” student Emily Kirkland said.

Brady Henricks, eighth-grader, said the STEM project is different than regular DMS science classes because it’s more involve and requires more work from the students.

“It’s a lot harder than regular science class,” Henricks said.

Something different in this science class than others is the amount of technology being used every day. Students take tests and do various work on laptop computers.  Bennett said she will also be using a iPad to aid in the learning process.

Recently, the middle school got wireless Internet for the entire building. By using the Internet, students are able to further research their class projects.

Bennett said the class does use some paper for projects. But the majority of the class has gone paperless.

With tests being on the computer, there is no need for Bennett to print any paperwork off for the students. Students save all their computer work on 4 gigabit flash drives.

One recent project was the creation of paper skimmers, which are paper vehicles students had to design to glide down the hallway of the eighth-grade electives. Students had to have accurate measurements and had to think out any problems their skimmers could encounter, whether have a tail end that is too heavy or a rough edge that could negatively impact the glide.

Several students said they had to rebuild a skimmer because it didn’t work the way it was initially meant to. Once students got their skimmers to glide down the hallway, they had to measure how far it went.

But the students didn’t measure in feet. Instead, they were learning to measure in meters.

The students said the class gives them more experience, has them be more hands-on and gets them to experiment more with their projects.

There are two sections to the STEM class. In each section, there are 28 students. Students had to apply to be in the class.

“I had some students tell me they wish they had applied,” Bennett said. “They didn’t know what it was all about.”

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