Inside Look: Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy’s STEM Program
If you’re looking for a school that offers a comprehensive STEM program, look no further than Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy. Their program is designed to provide students with a hands-on, project-based approach to learning science, technology, engineering, and math. In this article, we’ll take an inside look at the Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy’s STEM program, exploring what makes it unique and why it’s such a valuable educational experience for students.
The Foundations of the STEM Program
At Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy, the STEM program begins in elementary school. Students in grades K-2 focus on basic engineering concepts, then transition to robotics in grades 3-5. By the time students reach middle school, they’re able to take part in more advanced projects, such as creating and testing contraptions that will perform specific tasks. In high school, the STEM program expands to include advanced robotics, computer science, and biomedical engineering.
The heart of the STEM program at Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy is project-based learning. Engaging in hands-on projects generates excitement and a learning experience that is unique. It gives students real-world scenarios they can work from, helping translate their learned concepts into real life. This approach helps students understand how the math, science, and engineering concepts they’re learning in class can be applied to solve real-world problems.
Project-Based Learning
A hallmark of the Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy’s STEM program is project-based learning. Projects are designed to be interdisciplinary, allowing students to apply what they’re learning across several areas of science, technology, engineering, and math. Moreover, projects are presented and evaluated over several weeks. This is different from other high schools that present projects and immediately evaluate them. This enables students to learn, mold and improve their work over time. They can incorporate different ideas of what they learn on the way for their project to help the project stand out from their peers.
One example of this kind of project is Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy’s Capstone course, offered as part of the biomedical engineering track. Capstone brings together all the different tracks in senior year and presents a final project that takes a year to work on. Students are tasked to create an innovative device designed to help people with a particular medical condition. They have to work in interdisciplinary groups during the development of the plan for the device, and they also have internal and external evaluators that will check on their project every month.
STEM in the Community
Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy students are actively involved in the community, bringing their STEM skills and knowledge to help others. For example, members of Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy’s robotics club have worked to help clean up local parks. They have also held STEM education events to encourage younger students to pursue their own interests in STEM fields.
Moreover, the academy partners with local universities, businesses, and organizations to create mentorship relationships between students and community members. Simultaneously, this deepens team-building and makes mastery-in-context more possible. These kinds of partnerships help students connect their STEM education to real-world scenarios that they may be faced with after graduating.
The Future of STEM
Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy’s STEM program prepares students for a future in the STEM fields, providing them with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in an industry that is rapidly changing. As technology continues to advance at an exponential rate, losing touch or not having context to stay up-to-date can be costly. Their hands-on projects and practical learning approach help students become confident and comfortable with changing technologies to allow for ever-evolving innovation.
The program produces remarkable students with a high proficiency of teamwork, innovation, and creativity. Equipped with an innovative mindset, a Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy student has the potential to make significant contributions in the field of STEM, not only for their neighborhood community but the world.
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