GRAND RAPIDS – Forest Hills Public Schools will launch a new four-year S.T.E.M. Academy for high school students interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math-related fields. The academy includes a detailed class schedule for each group of students from freshmen to seniors and features interdisciplinary curriculum, community-based partnerships and a senior capstone design project.
Participating students will spend the last three periods of their school day taking accelerated STEM classes and working on projects with the academy’s three teachers. The program will only be available for incoming freshmen during its inaugural year.
Additional class levels will be added as the program moves forward, district officials said.
The program, which will be housed at Northern High School, is open to incoming freshmen at all three high schools in the district. In order to be eligible, eighth-grade students must complete Algebra I before their freshman year. A student may also be accepted into the academy by testing-out of the class or taking it over the summer, if applicable.
Forest Hills’ STEM Academy joins several West Michigan schools that are stepping up their classroom efforts to focus on the emerging technology fields.
At Kent Intermediate School District, local business leaders helped develop programs that feature a combination of mechanical, electronic, computer, control, and systems design engineering.
Besides mechatronics, KISD has created three Health Science Early College Academies, information technology and an alternative energy programs in the last five years. Last year, two STEM consultants were also hired with backgrounds in engineering and industry to work directly with school districts on programming. Nearly 4,100 students within 17 school districts have worked with the consultants this school year.
Ottawa Area ISD added mechatronics to its STEM offerings at Careerline Tech Center this school year. Nearly 30 students are learning engineering design and machine technologies within the program.
The 663,000-square-foot former Steelcase pyramid building is being transformed into an education hub expected to open in the fall. The Pyramid Campus Group is recruiting schools and businesses to occupy the former research facility in Gaines Township for a cutting edge curriculum in which preschool through graduate school students collaborate in their focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and math education (STEAM).
