San Jose Pursues More STEM education

Posted on February 28, 2012 By No Author Junior Residents

San JoseCatholic School announced it plans to integrate Lego Robotics into its middleschool science curriculum in the 2012-2013 school year.

Thedecision follows a heavy period of Science, Technology, Engineering andMathematics, known as STEM, experiences in late 2011 and early 2012.

InOctober, a group of 65 students, 37 parents and teachers from the middle schooltraveled to Huntsville, Ala. to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center to attend aweekend long Space Camp. The three-day visit included an presentationson team-building, rocketry, the history of the space program, a simulatedshuttle mission and exposure to various scientific fields — including robotics.

Thisschool year, middle school science teachers at San Jose also added LegoRobotics as an after- school program for students. Club members havelearned to build and program robots, build NXT Lego Robotics challengemissions, and conduct research as a team. A San Jose Catholic School teamwent to a Merritt Island Lego robotics competition in January, where they wonfirst place in research and presentation. The students also wererecognized in the category of “Gracious Professionalism”. The plans tohave several competition teams up and running for the next school year.