PLEASANT HILL, Iowa — Southeast Polk Junior High School is receiving national kudos for what it’s doing to prepare students for the careers of the future.
The school works with Project Lead the Way, an organization that develops project-driven STEM experiences. For Principal Mike Dailey, it’s all about helping kids build skills for college and career.
"We need to expose our kids to concepts and ideas, so they can take those ideas when it comes to science, technology, engineering, and math, and use those in those occupations that are going to exist once they leave high school or once they leave college," Dailey told Local 5.
Those efforts are now nationally recognized. Dailey was recently honored as Project Lead the Way’s Administrator of the Year, chosen from a pool of nominees nationwide.
"To me, the fun part is being behind the scenes, hiring those teachers, getting those kids in the classroom and then letting it happen," Dailey said.
Seventh graders learn how to code and build robots, while in eighth grade, students get to play the role of medical detective and solve medical mysteries through hands-on projects.
"We use a lot of new tech in all of our stuff that we work on here," said seventh grade student Colin Mulcahy. "We’ve done multiple projects so far, and it's a lot of fun."
Eighth grader Mccaelyn Casey says many of her friends have taken an interest in working in the medical field after taking PLTW's medical detectives course.
"I think it helps us because if you do want to go into the medical field, you will be very hands-on usually," Casey said. "It helps them know that you will have to do that if you do go into the medical field.”
The district’s motto: Success for college, career and civic life. STEM education is the tool helping make that vision a reality.