As a result of the 2014 Legislative Session, $450,000.00 of the general fund—state appropriation for fiscal year 2015—is allocated for grants to middle schools, high schools, or skill centers, to develop or upgrade high-demand career and technical education (CTE) Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs. Grant amounts of up to $50,000 per district are intended to facilitate substantive reform and to create innovative model CTE STEM programs, suitable for replication throughout the state. The goal is to: Increase the quality and rigor of secondary CTE STEM programs in support of high demand occupational areas, improve links to postsecondary education, encourage and facilitate academic instruction through CTE STEM courses, and expand access to and awareness of the opportunities offered by high quality CTE STEM.
Within our proposal, we put in for the amount of $50,000. We are proposing a STEM Capstone course that complements and enhances a ‘students K-12 STEM learning experiences. Students propose a research question or engineering design problem and collaboratively and independently complete the project. Students work with professionals in the STEM research and industry community to guide their thinking and development. Student areas of focus will be within the five identified high demand high-wage career pathways: health science, bio-medical, green technology, engineering/manufacturing, and computer science.