{"id":40386,"date":"2015-11-13T16:02:11","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T23:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=40386"},"modified":"2015-11-13T16:02:11","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T23:02:11","slug":"for-the-love-of-stem-students-volunteer-at-middle-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/for-the-love-of-stem-students-volunteer-at-middle-school\/","title":{"rendered":"For the love of STEM: Students volunteer at middle school"},"content":{"rendered":"

Engineering major Charlie Wilson<\/strong> spends time most weeks with Flagstaff middle school students, volunteering at the Sinagua Middle School Institute for Technology and Engineering, and is often joined by other members of NAU’s American Society of Civil Engineers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are eighth grade students doing a nationwide competition called Future City, where they design a 3-D model with transportation, energy, buildings and waste management,\u201d Wilson said.\u00a0\u201cMany of the eighth grade students are just learning about engineering and it is cool to be that role model for them and hopefully spark interest for them in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NAU<\/a>
NAU engineering majors, from left,\u00a0Ryan Marshall, Charlie Wilson and Mariah Paz with Sinagua Middle School\u00a0teacher Gretchen Downey.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wilson and his peers offer more than scientific insights to students by\u00a0bringing parts of the college experience into the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NAU students give us a better perspective of what college might be like and what we might be learning some day,” said eighth-grader Shea Wilson, who one day plans to pursue an engineering degree. \u201cIt is really interactive and I enjoy being hands on, building things and making a difference in society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson’s classmate Dermot Louchart agreed that engineers do work that matters and said he enjoys working with the NAU students on building a city. \u201cIt is super interactive and engaging,\u201d he said. Louchart’s part of the project focuses on money management and city government.<\/p>\n

Because of its emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, Flagstaff earned the designation as a STEM City in 2012. The STEM City Center was initially funded by NAU, with several\u00a0partners joining the effort in the last\u00a0two years. For many people, the STEM City designation is a source of pride.<\/p>\n

\"Middle<\/a>
Sinagua Middle School students Shea Wilson and Dermot Louchart.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNAU students bringing STEM into the classroom is important because my students sometimes think of science as an isolated topic but now they see college students applying it in their lives,\u201d said Gretchen Downey, a teacher at Sinagua Middle School\u2019s Institute for Technology and Engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an engineering student, it feels really good to introduce these eighth graders to engineering and science,\u201d said NAU senior Mariah Paz<\/strong>. “I wish I would have\u00a0been exposed to similar principles in middle school.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Engineering major Charlie Wilson spends time most weeks with Flagstaff middle school students, volunteering at the Sinagua Middle School Institute for Technology and Engineering, and is often joined by other members of NAU’s American Society of Civil Engineers. \u201cThese are eighth grade students doing a nationwide competition called Future City, where they design a 3-D…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":40389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}