By Emily Bjorklund | read it >
GRAHAM, Texas (TNN) – If you’re driving by Graham Junior High School this week, you’ll notice a big blue trailer sitting in the gymnasium parking lot.
Inside: a hands-on mobile STEM experience that travels all across the state bringing that kind of education to rural school districts.
“It’s like a field trip in the parking lot,” the education program lead said.
That field trip-like experience was exactly what Kimberly Brewster, a seventh grade science teacher, said she wanted to give her science students.
“Kind of bring some fun to school after everything we’d been dealing with,” she said.
So she found the Texas Mobile STEM Lab.
“To bring the lab to those students who normally wouldn’t get the opportunity, it’s definitely a blessing,” Desurae Matthews said.
Desurae Matthews, the lead with Learning Undefeated and the day’s teacher, worked Brewster’s students through the engineering model. Students worked to remove an invasive species, or lettuce seeds, from their ecosystems.
“The best moment is whenever kids have that ah-ha moment, that I can do this,” Matthews said.
Brewster said the lab gives kids a chance to think outside the classroom.
“What we’re learning in class is not just for this semester or for this unit,” she said, “it’s things they can build upon and use later in life.”
This is the first year the Texas Education Agency has partnered with Learning Undefeated to bring the lab across the state, which Matthews hopes allows more kids to get interested in a future in STEM.
“There’s so many different careers in STEM all we have to do is encourage,” she said, “find your passion and just go for it.”
The Texas Mobile STEM Lab aims to hit at least one school district in every region across the state.
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