ABOUT THAT STEM STUFF:

 

Let's Talk About That STEM Center

Those of you who are clamoring for the proposed STEM Center to be built are simply fooling yourselves if you think this building is going  to house activities that will be anything special.

What Katy ISD does, and what a gazillion other public school districts are doing with the STEM hoopla is simply bogus. Katy ISD wouldn't know how to improve science, technology, engineering or mathematics if all of those fields collectively hit them over the head with a baseball bat!

[PS  In a Texas Tech alum newsletter/email that I got today this paragraph jumped out at me! 

"Middle school students from the Lubbock Independent School District and the region competed in the TTU/LISD Middle School Challenge last month. With the assistance of their teachers and graduate and undergraduate mathematics students from Texas Tech, the middle school students constructed boat models and completed challenges that focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The week ended with a cardboard boat challenge. This event is one of the many examples of Texas Tech’s involvement in the community and offered the opportunity of TTU students and faculty working side-by-side with LISD science and math educators."

This really bad, overworked overused idea is just getting so old!  My 40 year old son did this when he was 10!  It's a waste of time to build a paper boat that will float across a swimming pool!  PLEASE!  Think of something else to do with students!]

Because of their lack of an academic education, the administrators and some of the school board members pushing the agenda, haven't a clue about these fields!

They are simply stepping in tune with another smartless attempt by vendors to make money off of school districts. And KISD wants to ensconce that effort in a nice new building constructed by their architect of choice, PBK--you know, the one who pads the bids by 30% and takes a 6% cut off the top--THAT PBK!

Google "STEM." What you'll see are pages and pages of links to vendor-pimp efforts to part schools from their tax dollars with mindless programs.

When you are finished looking at the junk, read this article. It's long and detailed, and it is not for those of you who are intellectually challenged.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-is-a-myth

Then you should take a look at Katy ISD's existing vocational STEM efforts and decide for yourself why we taxpayers are being dunned for this proposed scam. There's nothing original going on here! What students are being asked to do has been done many times before and it's trendy. There's nothing going on here that's going to make one bit of difference regarding your child's ability to get into a respected university and obtain a meaningful college degree--or a degree at all.  Remember.  Only about 23% to 46% of Katy ISD students (depending on the high school they attended--Mayde Creek being the lowest and Taylor being the highest) who GO to a Texas college-- six years after they graduate from high school are able to obtain a college degree.

What needs to occur is to bring change to the elementary level of math instruction.  As long as Katy ISD engages in teaching "fuzzy" math, KISD students will have a hard time overcoming THAT obstacle if they want to pursue a career in STEM subject matter. When they are not taught elementary school math in the traditional, vetted and appropriate manner, they CANNOT understand algebra.  When it takes two years for them to get through a one year algebra course (and you can bet the two year program is watered down algebra), then they cannot be expected to continue down the previously normal progression through high school math. Precious few of our KISD students ever even GET to calculus, and without calculus, they aren't getting in to any STEM field of college study. What is occurring is that KISD is PREVENTING students from STEM careers, not helping them get there!

I would also like to point out that the District has cast the lot of the GT students with that of the vocational program, not to enhance academics for that group, but to lend credibility to their vocational program!  That is shameful, but just another way smart students are "used" instead of academically educated in this school district.

MCTC Spring Showcase:

Katy ISD students who attend Miller Career & Technology Center for Engineering Design & Development, the PACE business internship program, or the Gifted & Talented Online Independent Study & Mentorship course will present their year-long capstone projects at a Spring Showcase on May 20th at MCTC from 6:00-7:30 pm. The event is open to the public.

Engineering students researched and developed products in mechanical, civil, electrical, and other engineering fields. Projects include a house incorporating advanced environmental elements, a portable battery recharger that harvests Wi-Fi signals, a solar-powered water pump for third-world villages, and seismic protection for industrial plants, among others.

PACE students, who participate in a year-long internship with doctors, engineers, and business and industry professionals, will present independent research projects in the fields of health science, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), business, and law.

Online Independent Study & Mentorship students seek to identify a real-world problem and find a creative and innovative solution with the guidance of a mentor in a related field. Their wide-ranging projects include an emergency response protocol to the new MERS virus, a hydrotherapeutic brace, a tablet design for effective communication among operating room doctors, a device that allows handicapped children to experience ice skating, and a conceptual photography project to combat bullying.

Overall, approximately 90 students will showcase their work to an audience of professionals, family, friends, and the public.

[PS Katy ISD vocational students have been "building houses" since the early 1990's. MM]