The goal of the STEM is to prepare students for 21st century careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, by providing them with the content, skills, and experiences needed to succeed in college and career. Students will be given the opportunity to work in a variety of fields through internships, mentorship, and real-life experiences.
The STEM program focuses on three broad areas of study integrated into our classrooms:
- Computer Science
- The Design Process and
- Project-Based Learning.
- The Computer Science focus means that all students, including those focusing on Arts and Humanities, complete computer science courses to develop skills and learn foundationalComputer Science and programming. At Lake View, we acknowledge that technology is so deeply woven into nearly every university program and profession that teaching it as an elective, or isolated practice, will not prepare our students for the future. All students at Lake View will find Computer Science meaningfully infused into and across their career atLVHS.
- The Design Process and Project-Based Learning are interwoven, and provide a very relevant and high-impact environment and experience for LVHS students. The Design Process is all about inquiry, research, and process thinking. It’s a teaching method utilized at major universities and within strong classrooms, allowing students to fully explore problems before they start to conceive a solution. For example, LVHS students will investigate and evaluate real-world problems, right here in their own communities, and those become the projects to which they apply the design process to create real, functioning solutions as architects and designers. This fusion of “design thinking” and project-based learning is integral to our focus on inquiry in classrooms.
- Many of our students create and maintain a Wordpress-based digital portfolio of their projects, as a compendium of their high school career. This portfolio is a useful reference and compendium for the college application process. While STEM is woven through the LVHS student body experience, about one-third of students choose additional STEM courses beyond freshmen year. For others, STEM learning remains an integral part of their studies.