Program helps students build STEM skills

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) — As students are getting back in the classroom, the Louisiana Education Department and other state entities are continuing STEM Pathways.

It’s a program at many schools in several parishes designed to familiarize students with careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

A career in STEM is something many students aspire for; now the state of Louisiana and local schools are helping students build those skills.

STEM Pathways is a state-level program that helps students in participating Louisiana schools prepare for careers across the seven different pathways.

[What are Louisiana’s STEM Pathways?]

“The biomedical, the computing, cybersecurity, digital design and emergent media, environmental protection and sustainability, pre-engineering and pre-pharmacy,” Dr. John Underwood explained.

A goal of these pathways is to help students learn that there are careers available that correspond with their interests.

“Our real goal is to increase interest and increase exploration,” Underwood said. “What are some of the possibilities and careers? And what are some of the things that students can get involved in that are real-world, project-based learning?”

A part of this learning connects what students are learning in their pathway courses to their traditional core classes.

[STEM resources for educators and students]

“It’s really helping our students put a skeleton to what they’re learning,” Doug Scott said. “Hands-on application so that they can have an appreciation for the academics that they’re learning in the science and math classes.”

One teacher at Bossier Parish School for Technology & Innovative Learning said these pathways help students decide on if they want to pursue a certain career.

“I think like really tells them like ‘Is this what I want to do with my life? Do I want to go on in that engineering pathway?’’ And it’s just the building blocks that they need so they are very prepared when they head on to that career or college later on,” Danielle Csoma said.

[Learn about the Louisiana Regional STEM Center Network]

Another Bossier engineering teacher shows how previous STEM students have used the skills they learned to build a robotic project.

“They get to incorporate all of the engineering design process items that they learn throughout all the other courses,” Tim Butler said. “We had it running up and down the halls last spring, and each class will get to add a little something and put their thumbprint on it.”

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