Teaching STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) to younger students is still not doing too well. Oh, we’re teaching it- but the kids aren’t really learning it as well as they should. (I’ve written about this plenty. Here’s but one example.)

Here in Alexandria, we are trying a pretty cool approach to teach kids these STEM skills. We are lucky to have the Alexandria Seaport Foundation [ASF] (Alexandria, which was once known as Alexandria, DC- the Virginia portion of the District of Columbia- was an active seaport for many years.) The Foundation was awarded a 501cTECH grant to teach 100 students or so these vital skills.

For the past twenty years, ASF has provided a work-based apprentice program for the Metropolitan DC area. The program is known as Building to Teach. The goal of the program is to teach the disadvantaged who range in age from 18 to 22 boat-building skills. In this fashion, they can help provide lessons in discipline, self-confidence, and social skills to prepare them for the US workforce.

This new program, for which they obtained the grant, afforded them the ability to purchase 24 SeaPerch Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) kits. Once built, the ROV will let students explore the Potomac River. (Alexandria coastline is the Potomac River.) The program has chosen 110 students from the two Alexandria Middle Schools, who will be using the kits to learn science, robotics, engineering, and math skills. Even carpentry is thrown into the curriculum. The students will then effect water quality tests, temperature and salinity measurements, etc.

Students at the Frances Hammond and George Washington Middle Schools (there are only two in Alexandria) who score between 380 and 410 on the Virginia Standards of Learning test are chosen for the program. (While the maximum score is 600, it is scaled- and 400 is barely passing.)  Including 9th grade algebra, the program expects to augment the math proficiency of the students, but- more importantly- demonstrate to the students the innate relationship between math, problem solving, and practical applications like building the boats and other objects.

This experiential learning program hopes to expand to include student from the neighboring county, Arlington (which, until 1922, was called Alexandria County, as was also part of Alexandria, DC).

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