On Friday, Feb. 15, CSU Pueblo and the Southern Colorado Institute of Transportation Technology (SCITT) hosted the first of their spring Friday Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) classes. These classes are offered to children in 6th-8th grade on the CSU Pueblo campus.
Elena Sidorova, a railway engineer and assistant professor with SCITT, said, “The program is dedicated to providing [middle schoolers] with an understanding of railway transport. It is part of a path towards workforce development.” The Friday courses see middle schoolers engaging in a variety of hands-on activities and field trips.
“We visit a railway museum and the Transportation Technology center… the largest transportation center in the world,” Sidorova said, “We have a large and engaging popsicle stick bridge competition.”
These hands-on experiments utilize on campus technology and resources. These courses take place in the recently built SCITT wing of the technology building.
“This wing was opened just a couple of months ago, we moved here in January.” Sidrova said.
On Friday the spring batch of classes kicked off with hands-on activities, a tour of the university, games for the middle schoolers, and lunch in the cafeteria. This saw the students getting to know each other and being introduced to the material they will engage with over the coming Fridays. All of this was led by Vashti Trujillo, a student at CSU Pueblo.
Trujillo talked about her experiences teaching this program for the past few batches of Friday classes.
“STEM is such a difficult field to break into, especially if you don’t have the opportunities. That’s the great thing about this program, it’s free,” Trujillo said.
As a STEM student herself, Trujillo spoke of the challenges she faced when she became interested in STEM. She explained that she did not have many people around her who shared her interest.
Both Trujillo and Sidrova explained the benefit of teaching students about STEM during these Friday classes. They detailed how these classes help students develop an interest in STEM and other types of engineering. “Even if they don’t get into STEM, it’s a good opportunity for them to learn about college and not be scared of going to college,” said Trujillo.
Sidorova further explained that the Friday courses can help students choose their careers outside of STEM. “We’re not going to force them to be engineers. We’re going to help them decide what they want to do in their future… any result is good.” said Sidorova. The courses cover other STEM related topics such as tech and basic physics.
Many of the students in these courses are from different schools across Pueblo. Beyond learning about STEM, transportation, and engineering, Sidorova explained there is a social benefit. Students get to interact with new peers and engage in common interests.
