Stepping Up Our STEM Game

AUTHOR: RACHEL FROST

Region 10 ESC Director of Communications

NEARLY two million - that’s the number of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics-based job openings the Texas Workforce Commission expects in the next five years. It’s great news for the Texas economy, but there’s a problem. Each year, fewer than 10,000 Texas students are graduating with a STEM endorsement, and only 600,000 eighth-grade students are on their way toward earning a STEM endorsement.

However, through a new initiative called the Lending Library, Region 10 is taking a small step toward helping close that gap by providing elementary classrooms with STEM activities geared toward sparking interest and building a foundation for STEM skills.

“The objective of the Lending Library is to begin building those STEM skills with students in third through fifth grades, with the hope that by the time they get to middle and high school they will be in a STEM endorsement and continue on to pursue a STEM career,” explained Samantha Bradbury, Region 10 Science Consultant.

Currently, the Lending Library is equipped with 20 computer kits from a company called Piper. The kits are loaned to schools for six weeks, and include everything students need to build a computer from scratch. Throughout the hands-on process of building a fully functional computer, students learn coding, circuitry, gaming, and much more!

"Our goal is to put STEM in all core content areas of school," Bradbury said. "We are still in the early stages of building the Lending Library, and we are looking forward to adding additional STEM-based projects for schools to use in the near future."

If you would like more information about the Piper computer kits or the Lending Library, contact Samantha Bradbury.

Samantha Bradbury

Region 10 ESC Science Consultant

samantha.bradbury@region10.org

972.348.1512