Freshman students in the STEM academy are working on a hypothetical energy plan for a country they are assigned. This project is not associated with any one class, but is required for STEM academy students. These students must take into account their assigned nation’s natural and monetary resources.

Students will use the information they have collected to create a poster for the purpose of presenting their energy plan April 3. Later on, students will attend a Symposium to present their plan May 22 to their teachers and fellow students.

“I like the idea that STEM students are given harder challenges at the end of the year; I would prefer that we did not have to present them,” said Abigail Siegel, freshman.

Attending the symposium is mandatory for freshman STEM  students. History teacher Dan Hrehor likes the STEM project overall, but has one idea to improve it.

“The presentation phase probably needs to be more organized for the students,” said Hrehor. At the symposium, the freshman students present their work in the form of a poster.

“I would make the schedule more organized,” said Siegel, freshman.

California Polytechnic State University recommends three actions to increase the chance of success in any long-term project, such as the STEM project. First, they recommend that students make it very clear to themselves the end goal of their project. They should answer the question “why am I doing this?” Secondly, students should write down any concerns they have about the project. They should see if there is anything that needs to done to solve the issue. Students should write down those concerns and act on them. Third, students should plan out a strategy for completing the project.

“I would probably make grouping a little more organized because I had to switch groups,” said Siegel.  

Students in groups have to schedule weekly meetings to complete the project. All students need to be able to attend. This requires the ability to plan ahead.  

Tools like the Google Drive suite may help students complete their project. There are other competing products, like the OneDrive program produced by Microsoft. There are also other programs like Dropbox and the Amazon Cloud service available.

This project is a test of the ability of the STEM freshmen and they will do their utmost to succeed.

“Collaborate better, and students should facilitate the project among themselves better.” said Hrehor.