Grant brings STEM classes to Buffalo Grove middle school students

Middle school students who are slated to go to Buffalo Grove High School will get to start their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education early, thanks to a new grant.

A $15,000 grant from Motorola Solutions Foundation will allow Northwest Suburban High School District 214 to create an after-school outreach program called Next Generation Engineers. The program is open to every student, but the district is particularly targeting middle school girls and underrepresented minorities.

The program will meet once a week after school starting in the spring and will be open to students at Thomas, Cooper and London middle schools, as well as those at St. James and St. Mary schools, officials said.

“This grant will allow us to expose incoming Buffalo Grove students to the courses and labs that will be available to them once they enter high school,” said Jeff Bott, division head of career and technical education at Buffalo Grove High School.

Next Generation Engineers has had a STEM program for middle school students at Wheeling High School since 2008, said Dan Weidner, the district's director of career and technical education

Wheeling offers four different eight- to 12-week courses for middle school students including introduction to engineering, green architecture, robotics and manufacturing.

Buffalo Grove will start out offering two courses this year and hope to expand the program later.

“A really big piece of this is bringing excitement and awareness to the various career aspects in STEM,” Weidner said.

Eighty-five percent of middle school students who have participated in the program at Wheeling have chosen a STEM career pathway in high school. Additionally, students in the program have higher GPAs in high school than those who did not participate, district officials said.

Reaching students at a young age is important, teachers said.

“Engineering is a fantastic and rewarding career, but for some reason there is a stigma out there that engineering is not cool,” Weidner said. “By catching students at an earlier age maybe we can break from some of those stereotypes before they set in.” Capturing a young student's is also crucial to their futures, school officials said.

“It opens their eyes to what STEM-related areas are available to them,” Bott said. “The quicker kids can start thinking of their postsecondary career and their educational plans, the better.”

The grant is one of Motorola's Innovation Generation Grants, a program the Schaumburg-based company started in 2007 to support STEM education in schools and nonprofits around the country, said Matt Blakely, director of Motorola Solutions Foundation.

“It's going to help them build a pipeline of students who will go on and be prepared for careers in technology and engineering,” he said. “Middle school is a key time. We're really proud to support a local school district with a program like this.”

Weidner said there has been interest in creating similar programs at other District 214 high schools and feeder middle schools, but the district would have to find additional funding to support it.