GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The Green Bay Area Public School District is hoping to get kids excited about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) at an early age.
Local officials gathered at Nicolet Elementary School Library on Thursday to announce an initiative aimed at bolstering STEM opportunities, specifically for elementary age students.
The hope is that kids develop an interest in these fields through some hands-on experience.
“One of the things that they’re going to be learning about is robotics and coding,” says Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach. “That’s going to be an important aspect later in life.”
The expansion in STEM opportunities is part of the 2019 budget proposal that has been introduced by Streckenbach.
According to him, it’s not only important to expand the available opportunities but to also tailor them to children at a young age.
“We have to get them interested at an early age in order to keep them interested in it after middle school and high school,” says Streckenbach.
The opportunity for expansion is made possible through a federal grant owned by the school district and other community partnerships, including UW-Extension and 4-H STEM Collaboration.
“This new initiative will really help us with bringing forward STEM programming to our elementary students and we’ll hit about 1,000 students,” says Lisa Johnson, Summer School/Extended Learning Coordinator with Green Bay Area Public School District.
A major focus was to not only expand the existing STEM programming but to also make those opportunities available to a larger number of kids.
“They want to step this up and offer it in more of their schools as part of after-school programming,” explains Streckenbach.
Some skills featured in STEM programming, such as robotics and coding, lend directly to growing professional fields.
“Time is short and so we need to be able to get things moving as fast as we can and get our kids engaged in this type of learning,” she says. “It was a great first step.”
An annual budget hearing will be held by the entire Brown County Board of Supervisors on October 31 at 9 AM.
