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Photo Information

Staff Sgt. Joshua McLeod, an explosives ordinance disposal technician, with the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort EOD , allows first grade students to try on a protective helmet EOD Marines wear during operations, at Gayler Elementary, April 9. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics week offers a new way to peak the students interest and show them the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in today's world.

Photo by Pfc. Brendan Roethel

Children explore world during STEM Week

18 Apr 2013 | Pfc.Brendan Roethel Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort

Children throughout the Laurel Bay schools learned how science, technology, en­gineering and mathematics are applied in different career fields during STEM Week, April 9-11.

STEM Week gives students the opportunity to connect what they learn in school with different careers and how these subjects affect their daily lives in ways they never knew.

Teachers are always asked by their students why they have to study math and sci­ence, but this assignment gets the students out from behind their desks and gives them a broader understanding of their subjects and some of their practical uses, said Shelman Burton, the district math and science instructional systems specialist.

“This assignment allows the students to see something new and try something completely out of the ordinary,” said Bur­ton.

The seventh and eighth grade students at Bolden Mid­dle School had the opportunity to work with students from the Georgia Institute of Technol­ogy to build robots and use scratch animation to make video games is an assignment to tie in with STEM Week.

“I built a robot called the Clean and Play that is designed to play with young children, ages three to five, then clean the toys up after playing,” said Brandon Stewart, a seventh grade student at Bolden Mid­dle School. “It’s a great way to learn more about mechanics.”

The children also begin to appreciate all the hard work the service members and contractors do within the Tri-Command, said Burton. This program will start to make children question and wonder more.

“I would like to be a fighter pilot,” said Stewart. “This as­signment will help me under­stand how mechanics work and the importance of my school work, which in the end will make me a better pilot.”

President Barack Obama be­lieves math and science should have a strong role in our na­tion’s schools, said Burton. The Department of Defense has a strategic goal to get the STEM program in all of their schools, so the next genera­tion of Americans can continue being competitive globally