Unleashing the Untapped Science Learning Potential of American Youth
The current science curriculum in many high schools in the United States does not stimulate the minds of enough students. Some capable students do not demonstrate an interest in their studies and tend to under-achieve, and some students simply just seem to fall through the cracks for whatever reason. Many of our youth do not have access to many of the traditional opportunities that are taken for granted by many others. This includes youth living in low-income or under-privileged family environments as well as youth living in rural or remote communities.
Chemistry and Measurements – An Unexplored Solution to the Problem
Chemistry is a key STEM subject and is central to the various subject disciplines within the science field that is also comprised of physics, biology and geology just to name a few. Moreover, chemistry and mathematics collectively underpin many disciplines of engineering including biomedical engineering which is now regarded by some to be one of the most valuable college majors in the United States. Integral to chemistry (especially analytical chemistry) is the concept of metrology which is defined as the science of measurement with both theoretical and applied aspects.
Metrology in Chemistry: A New and Engaging STEM Subject Theme
The first step in opening the door to new unexplored job opportunities for high school and post-secondary science students.
SAMEP-AT CLASS 100
Goals of the Stranaska® Stem Initiative
The cornerstone of SAMEP-AT is the development of a metrology in chemistry curriculum that will instill new excitement, passion and confidence in high school and post-secondary STEM students within an extended mentoring environment. The goals of the curriculum initiative are three-fold: (i) enhance the scientific experience even further for advanced and successful students, (ii) retain at-risk students who currently are either stagnating or under-achieving in their STEM studies and are prone to leaving the STEM curriculum, and (iii) capture new capable students currently outside the STEM curriculum who have the potential of becoming intrigued and motivated by the exciting prospects of new STEM-related employment opportunities that were otherwise unknown to them previously. Introducing key STEM-related opportunities to students not having current STEM access is central to the overall objective of the initiative.
The new STEM initiative will serve as a niche model of mentorship in facilitating the continued progress of advanced and self-motivated science students who already participate in STEM curricula. These students will realize a significant competitive edge in fulfilling their aspirations to succeed in getting accepted to the college or university of their choice for higher educational learning. This group of STEM “active” students provides a strong foundation representing a positive and an extremely favorable outcome. However, the new STEM initiative is far more reaching with its special focus to provide unique opportunities in a mentoring environment to reverse the downward spiral of those “lost” students by instilling new visions of hope and success that can facilitate their eventual development into productive citizens.
SAMEP-AT LEARNING EXPERIENCE
SAMEP-AT can help mitigate the despair of under-achieving science students by instilling new hope and enthusiasm into their approach to science classes while, at the same time, helping science students gain a competitive advantage in their readiness for entering college or the employment workforce. The SAMEP focus and instructional approach is unique in that it augments the knowledge gained in traditional science courses with real-world scenarios and career opportunities. Actual examples will illustrate how central the role of analytical measurement science and chemical metrology is to experimental design, testing and applied research in different fields of science. Through its mentoring environment, SAMEP is well-suited to helping level the STEM playing field for students from under-privileged and low-income family backgrounds.
The SAMEP mission objectives are currently multi-faceted and include the following:
(1) To improve academic readiness for high school science students aspiring to enter college to study chemistry or any related physical science
(2) To improve modern-day readiness of high school and college science students completing school and preparing to enter the competitive scientific and engineering employment workforce
(3) To provide high school and college science students a new awareness of different types employment workforce opportunities that often go unnoticed
