On Sept. 28, the 9th and 10th graders had the opportunity to experience the STEM Summit experience where students were able to seek out jobs in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields. This took place during most of the school day on the 28th, so all the students got to see the options for different jobs they could enter.

Some teachers from Newport High School went to see another school in Perry County that had this experience last year. The teachers were assigned to groups who went to different sections/stations of this experience. For example, Mrs. Zeigler was the head teacher for the orange group. Each module had STEM professionals explaining the several parts of the STEM fields.

Junior Achievement from South Central, Pennsylvania, was the volunteer for this event. Junior Achievement is a school and business-based non-profit organization and is free of charge to students from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Junior Achievement has many programs including ones for Classroom-HS, Level Pre-K, STEM Summit, and YES!. 

The STEM Summit had eight sessions and over thirty professionals and volunteers helping. Some of the sessions included science experiments, technology, a biology station, trades modules, and more. This allowed students to participate in hands-on experiences and for students who want to pursue a career in the STEM field to know more about the careers.

 As one of the activities, students wired at the electrical station where they put wires together and made a lightbulb light up. Career counselor Mrs. Smith, who was in charge of this summit, commented, “I really enjoyed watching the students in the electrical station. The competition part of it was fun and it gave students true hands-on experience working on parts that professional electricians use every day.”

At the biology station, students differentiated glucose and protein in the body and identified what diseases different ‘patients’ had. The students also got to code a robot to make different shapes and make it play music. 

Once the students finished the stations, they went with their lead teacher to fill out a career pathway experience in the portfolio part of the website, Smart Futures. They wrote about what they learned about and if they thought about going into a STEM career after experiencing some parts of the field. 

For more information about Junior Achievement and the STEM Summit, visit https://www.jascpa.org/stem-summit.