After seeing some of the inventions students from Flat Rock Middle School’s STEM program showcased at the Georgia Tech InVenture Challenge, representatives of Kids-R-Chefs, an online talk and cooking show for kids, invited the students to come by their studio to shoot an episode.
Flat Rock Middle’s STEM founder and math teacher, Dr. Monica Reckley, and 10 eighth grade students from the STEM program appeared on the show that was taped in the Kids-R-Chefs studio on April 15. The students appearing on the show were Jana Davis, Sydnni-Jade Adams, Kortney Avery, Julian Harris, Isom Hewitt, Joelle Scott, Sydney Thompson, Kaelyn Fraier, Daniela Lopez, and Arianna Watson.
On set, the students prepared three different types of pizzas while talking about the inventions they took to the Georgia Tech competition, and about their participation in the school’s STEM program. The inventions they talked about included a bulletproof vest designed specifically for female police officers, a wireless vital signs monitoring device for elderly patients that alerts caregivers to abnormal readings, a dental floss guard to make flossing teeth easier, and an extension cord and power outlet combination that reduces the number of electrical outlets needed in a home.
Dr. Reckley talked about how Flat Rock Middle students enter the program, which is through an application process that just opened up for next year. The program has 50 students per grade level. Dr. Reckley explained that in sixth grade, students get an introduction to STEM, but the real work in the program begins in seventh and eighth grades when students get to enter competitions, participate in STEM related activities, and hear from people who work in STEM fields.
The school’s STEM program started about four years ago when Dr. Reckley felt that her students were getting bored and needed more than the traditional classroom education. She said they needed to see why they were doing science, technology, engineering and mathematics so that more of them would gain an interest in career fields related to the subjects.
The episode featuring Flat Rock Middle’s STEM students can be seen at www.kidsrchefs.com.
