Midway STEM Program
As Parish strives to develop future leaders and decision-makers, knowledge and understanding of the STEM disciplines will be key as technology and advances in science and medicine continue to evolve at exponential rates. We believe STEM literacy to be vital for success in the 21st century and therefore have purposefully designed programming and curriculum in 3rd – 12th grade to afford students opportunities to apply their math and science skills in hands on labs, demonstrations and design challenges.
3rd & 4th grade have daily scheduled STEM blocks during which math and science content is taught with purposeful collaboration and subject integration to deepen student learning and inspire their innate curiosity.
In Middle School there are STEM enrichment requirements for 5th and 6th grade.
- 5th grader students have the opportunity to participate on one of the school’s FIRST®LEGO® League(FLL) robotics teams or take the Project Lead the Way* Design & Modeling course.
- All 6th grade students are required to take Parish Inc., a technology course in which students create a company, produce a product prototype of their own design, and present a business plan to potential investors.
Beginning in 6th grade and continuing through Middle School, passionate students may elect to continue to pursue their studies in STEM.
- 6th grade may participate in the FLL robotics or flight/space engineering.
- 7th & 8th grade also may take the FLL robotics enrichment, the national Rube Goldberg online challenge or forensic science.
Parish commitment to STEM in Middle School is much deeper than the host of enrichment classes offered. The science, math and technology departments meet annually to plan and create integrated STEM projects and each grade level completes at least two hands-on projects each year.
Once in Upper School, STEM options are available as trimester electives for science credit. Currently available to all students is
- Automation & Robotics
- Introduction to Engineering
- Advanced Engineering
- Engineering Design & Problem Solving also known as our Moonbuggy class. Students in this class design, fabricate, build and race a vehicle in NASA’s Great Moonbuggy Race® held each year in Huntsville, AL.