This summer Atherton Community Schools was one of 16 schools which received a grant from the State of Michigan to expand STEM programs. The $10,000 grant will engage 195 middle and high school science students in project-based, place-based learning through its “Health in Our Hands” curriculum. Through this curriculum, students are introduced to a variety of STEM careers. Funding will support health summits events where students will present their research to family and community members, and provide professional learning for science teachers.
HiOH connects the science classroom to the community to give youth and adults an understanding of modern concepts in genetics. Designed to meet the Michigan Science Standards, HiOH curriculum uses Community-Inspired Project Based Learning, Students Investigate critical community health concerns and use these real-world contexts to appreciate the importance of both genetic and environmental factors in their risk for disease.
Atherton Wolverines 7 - 8 graders will learn about Diabetes and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) this Fall. Seventh graders meet Monique by video, a girl diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. They investigate how lifestyle options for healthy foods and exercise help prevent or reduce diabetes and answer the question “What controls my health.”
Eighth graders are guided through a journey to figure out how thrill seeking evolved as a survival mechanism. But because of environmental changes and modern lifestyle, thrill seeking can sometimes lead to addiction, misery and even death.
Through this grant, Atherton Community Schools and Health in Our Hands join a state-wide collaborative to develop a “Playbook”, a framework of strategies based on both research and practice, for building STEM project-based and place-based learning in K-12 schools and districts to ensure high-quality STEM experiences for students.
The grants are a collaborative effort of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity's (LEO) MiSTEM Network to expand freshwater literacy and place-based STEM education and to support innovative STEM 3-P (problem, place and project-based) learning.
