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School / Teens/Tweens

Denver schools starting year with new STEM career classes

Denver schools starting year with new STEM career classes

As Denver students get ready for school this month, officials are preparing to spend more than $7 million on new career-education classes to benefit about 1,000 students in the first year.

Denver Public Schools will be introducing, and expanding, classes geared toward science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. The new classes include manufacturing, pre-engineering, health biotechnology and game-design coding and will be distributed among eight DPS high schools this fall.

“It’s about bringing really rigorous STEM classes to parts of the city that did not previously have these opportunities,” said Joe Saboe, director of pathways for DPS. “They’re primarily low-income parts of the city.”

The new course work is being funded through a Youth Career Connect grant from the Department of Labor and the Department of Education. The funding already has helped hire five new teachers for the new classes and a part-time assistant principal at three schools.

The grant, as well as the work the district promised it would fund, has attracted more than $2 million in donations from local companies, including Campos EPC, founded by a DPS graduate; QEP Resources, a Fortune 500 energy company; and RK Mechanical.  CLICK TO KEEP READING

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Stem stuff

Stem stuff

A look at the new science, technology, engineering and math courses that Denver high schools are getting starting this fall:

• Abraham Lincoln High School: Internet technology

• CEC Middle College: Manufacturing, health biotechnology

• East High School: Health

• Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College: Manufacturing and engineering

• George Washington High School: Finance

• West High School: Internet technology

• High Tech Early College: Internet technology

• John F. Kennedy High School: Engineering and energy

Yesenia Robles; Photo:  Aaron Montoya

Mile High Mamas
Author: Mile High Mamas

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4 Comments

  1. We need more learning like this where learning is collaborative and project-based; kids work closely together in a hands-on way to solve real-world problems. Learning problem-solving skills — and helping students develop into creative, critical thinkers — is at the core of any true STEM school.

  2. Over the past 10 years, jobs in STEM fields have grown three times as fast as jobs in non-STEM fields, according to the Department of Commerce, and STEM fields are expected to grow by 17 percent between 2008 and 2018, compared to just 9.8 percent growth for non-STEM fields in the same time frame. But without an influx of graduates in these areas, the U.S. will not have enough workers to fill those jobs. Bring on the programs!

  3. Sandra–We went to an introductory session of Engineering for Kids this summer and we loved it. I wish there were more programs that were offered in my area Golden/Arvada/Wheat Ridge.

  4. Jessica–Interesting statistic. With the need, hopefully the schools will start adapting.

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