STEM Education at Blue Ridge Elementary School

Rebel's Corner

With the push for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education across Georgia and the United States, Blue Ridge Elementary School plans to take a STEM approach that will encompass environmental design. As Blue Ridge Elementary School (BRES) travels down this path of STEM education, the Cool Kids Grow Garden Club at BRES is helping to lead the way. Led by Ms. Kate George, Fannin County’s teacher of the Visually Impaired, the students of the Cool Kids Grow Garden Club at BRES take part in many STEM-related activities and projects.These activities and projects cover a vast variety of topics such as producing and utilizing healthy soil through vermicomposting (worm composting); utilizing mathematics to calculate seeding rates to optimize plant spacing in gardens; learning how vegetation prevents soil erosion; the importance of clean water and how the water cycle works; the importance of pollinators such as butterflies, bees, and birds in fruit and vegetable production; and the importance and benefit of a diverse insect population in our environment. In the near future, the students of the Cool Kids Grow Garden Club would also like to investigate the possibility of composting wasted lunchroom scraps in order to provide nutrients for their gardens. All of these activities and topics lend themselves to the hands-on approach that is required in STEM education. In order to fully engage and inspire the students of the garden club, local experts speak to and work with the students. The Cool Kids Grow Garden Club has done a fabulous job tapping into the wealth of knowledge and expertise that exists within our local community. Last year’s speakers included Tom Striker, Glen Henderson, Walter George, Eddie Ayers, and Janet Tescher. Utilizing the community is a major facet of STEM education, and the Cool Kids Grow Garden Club has provided BRES with a blueprint of how to do so. The garden club could not function without generous donations from the local businesses of Feed Fannin, Quinn’s Nursery, and the Blue Ridge Stone Depot.

In addition to what the Cool Kids Grow Garden Club is doing for STEM education at BRES, Mrs. Miranda Roof’s Alpha class is embarking on many STEM challenges. The Alpha students at BRES, as well as the Alpha students at East Fannin Elementary School and West Fannin Elementary School, will be studying STEM topics during this school year such as neuroscience, DNA, and genetics. In addition, these students will be experimenting with the STEM-related topic of coding, which is an essential phase within the process of computer programming and software engineering. Mrs. Roof would also like to introduce her students to the robotics process with a project involving sea perch.
Not only will the students of the Cool Kids Grow Garden Club and the Alpha students be consumed with STEM education, but all students at BRES will also be participating in STEM education. In order to begin the school-wide STEM process, BRES will be hosting a STEM Day on March 24th. On this day, the students will either take part in day-long, hands-on STEM challenges or present STEM projects that they have been working on for the weeks leading up to March 24th. Either way, the students will be celebrating what they have learned about STEM-related topics.

BRES will host another STEM Day during the month of May where the students will participate in STEM activities that deal with environmental design. As the students, teachers, and leaders at BRES begins delving into STEM education with an environmental focus, they plan on addressing at least five of the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges for Engineering. The faculty and staff at BRES are excited about the future of STEM education, tackling the challenges that come along with STEM education, and the lasting impact that STEM education can have on the students of Fannin County.

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