The Archdiocesan Schools Office is excited to be partnering with ProjectEngin for the fourth year. The ProjectEngin program, which follows the Next Generation Science Standards, aims to prepare young people to care for each other and for the planet that God has given us the privilege of sharing. Students in grades 6-8 work in groups, choosing a country and an issue or challenge that the country needs help solving. These challenges are based off of the Sustainable Development Goals created by the United Nations. Once challenges are selected, students work together to build a model of the proposed solution for our annual STEM fair. 

Using the engineering design process, students work in class with their teacher on this long term project. Students are familiarized with the steps of the engineering process, planning their solution, researching their country and challenge, and discussing their criteria and constraints for the project. 6th grade students then create a digital artifact that will spread awareness of the specific challenges their chosen country faces, and what solutions have been tried. Students in grades 7 and 8 build three dimensional models of their solutions. 

In addition to the ProjectEngin program, STEM activities are incorporated throughout our middle school. Whether they are in the form of an engineering quick build or STEM challenge in science class, building 3D models of a setting from a novel in literature, engineering a model of Roman architecture in social studies, or constructing three dimensional geometric shapes in math, STEM plays a huge part of our day to day learning.