The SLOHS woodshop, an elective where students can go through three wood courses plus an additional construction course. Photo courtesy of the SLCUSD website.
A Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) class is a basic curriculum classroom where students participate in hands-on projects and activities, instead of merely working on a computer or on a worksheet. Some of these classes are also a part of CTE (Career Technical Education) pathways, where students are prepared to enter a specific STEM industry.
Hands-on activities are one of the best ways students can learn in these fields. These projects can be building a bottle rocket for science, building a birdhouse for a woodshop or even visualizing complex shapes via blocks in math class.
As technology advances and integrates further into our lives, people, especially bored susceptible students, will spend more and more time either trapped in a classroom or rotting and wasting away behind a screen.
Luckily, this is a fairly well known issue, and STEM integrations into classes are becoming increasingly common around the country. Over the summer however, the temptation is stronger than ever to simply just waste away on your phone the whole day.
“I came to San Luis High instead of the closer Morro Bay High partly due to the very good woodshop our school possesses,” said senior and Los Osos resident Jack Edwards. “I ended up passing wood 1 by one mark and never continued in metal or wood after! The grading can be a bit harsh and a turn down. Over the summer I will try to have fun in creative ways, but there’s not much to do STEM-wise in summer school, and the school hasn’t done much about that.”
At San Luis Obispo High School, there are many classes and courses students can take that can introduce students to STEM and diversify their high school experience and education. The problem is that it’s only in a few select courses and the classes themselves are somewhat limiting, despite their impeccable and unrivaled quality. San Luis Obispo High School needs to highly encourage and incentivize students to get involved with STEM activities.
This is the only widely reported issue students have with classes that incorporate stem, that the classes are too focused on harsh grading rather than providing students with a hands-on and enjoyable learning experience.
The truth is, many students come to STEM incorporating classes to prepare them for pursuing a job in that field, so in that sense, the wood and metal courses at San Luis High School are just fine.
The main point of students arguing the school is doing it more or less wrong is that they mostly can’t do projects like fix their own car, make their own stuff, and that it all revolves around grades instead of having fun and keeping passion alive with the future engineers. Schools have to change this and adapt to student’s developing opinions and desires. STEM should be both encouraged and incentivized during the school year and summer break.
Senior Timothy Haynes is a passionate car enthusiast. He’s taken the automotive course at SLO High, as well as passed entry level metal and wood classes.
“Most of the valuable experience apart from learning welding was what I got through learning from other people, not through the school, and I wish we had more freedom in those classes. This summer I’m gonna be finishing up my project car, as well as building a camera carrying drone to take photos from. I got the idea after doing STEM remote controlled aircraft with friends,” said Haynes.
Clubs at SLOHS would be the best route for STEM, with auto, metal, and wood clubs already existing and being run by their respective teachers. The simple solution is to have more clubs that incorporate hands on activities, such as remote controlled vehicles, more coding activities. Finally, it’s important for classes to implement hands-on lessons in normal classes whenever teachers can.
