Southern Oaks Middle pilots STEM afterschool program

Over the next couple of months, Southern Oaks Middle School teachers Jose Rivero and Lauren Kappler are planning to take students on an exciting virtual journey to the moon and Mars. Students will be doing project based STEM activities twice a week that will lead up to learning about how one day life can possibly be sustained on Mars. Mr. Rivero states that students will be learning and talking about everthing from different thrust structures, manned space flight vehicles, what it’s like to live in space, robotics and will learn how to produce food in order to survive long periods of time away from Earth using hydroponics, just to name a few. This is all part of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program. Not only will students be doing some amazing hands on activities, but will also be meeting many of the benchmarks and state standards in both science and math. Pictured is the mock space shuttle the students use in their study.