DeKalb Students Gain Hands-On Experience During STEM Event

DeKalb County School Officials were impressed with the turnout and student participation during Monday’s STEM Night Harvest Festival.

Dr. Kathy Bryant is the Supervisor of Instruction for DeKalb County Schools. She said having the students engage with faculty, community members, and each other helps in the long run.

“That type of collaboration is very powerful,” Bryant said. “We’ve got teacher and student interactions on all the booths. What’s very powerful is the younger students that are able to interact with the older students.”

Bryant said the district began implementing more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs and education into the system in order to prepare students of all ages after high school.

“We want our students to eventually decide on a career, and we want them to go to a technical school or we want them to go to a university,” Bryant said. “We want them to learn a skill or a trade, and then we want them to come back to our community and work here in DeKalb County.”

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said the event helps bridge the gap between the community and the school system, allowing everyone to be involved.

“It’s not just a high school program, we’re going K-12,” Cripps said. “We just hope that it can continue to grow. Last year we did it, and it seems like it’s grown from last year so we’re excited about that.”

Amy Fricks is a math teacher at DeKalb County High School and helped organize Tuesday’s event. She said the event was similar to others she participated in as a student at Tennessee Tech.

Students make 3D printed objects during the STEM Night Fall Festival at DeKalb County High School Monday (Photo: Logan Weaver)

“I think it’s just really cool any time we can get all of our kids here at the high school,” Fricks said. “There’s a lot of benefits for them to interact and their parents being here… They’re getting to kind of see those programs before they come up to the high school so they can start thinking about careers too, so that’s just another benefit of this event is for them to be thinking forward.”

High School Junior Elijah Hinsley said STEM programs have allowed him to find an interest in 3D printing technology and pursue it after graduation.

“The STEM classes I was taking had the 3D printers in there, and that’s how I got started,” Hinsley said. “My teacher saw that I was really enthused about the 3D printing [because of] the aspect that it was new technology, that people were being drawn to for different things. These are being used in the medical field and they’re being used in every field you can think of like prototyping and little things like that.”

Bryant said the event had such a large turnout Tuesday they may consider moving it to a different venue from DeKalb County High School. The district is already planning another STEM event for the spring as well.