STEM-ing the Tide

A year ago in a post entitled Where Are the Future Leaders, I referenced a Cardus Education Survey 2011 which pointed to the success of evangelical Christian schools in developing and nurturing the future leaders of our churches.  The 2014 version of the Cardus report, Private Schools for the Public Good,  confirms those findings while shedding some light on the state of advanced math and science as well as STEM education in private schools.

This report, drawn from a representative sample of 1,500 American high school graduates between the ages of 24 and 39 (1993-2008 high school graduates), compares evangelical protestant, catholic, and private non-religious schools with public schools in a variety of measures.  Not surprising are the findings that the private school cohort performs well in every measure when compared with their public school counterparts.  However, there are several measures where evangelical private schools fall short when compared with their private school counterparts, primarily in courses in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) sector:

• Students are likely to take higher-level math and science courses
• Students indicate interest in science and math after graduation
• High school math classes increase students' interest in math
• High school prepared students well for success in math or science courses in college or university
• Advanced degrees earned (an area which showed improvement from the 2011 survey)
• Professional or science occupation
• Management or professional occupation

This report does not prescribe a course of action; its stated goal is to "uncover differences that may be instructive for improving all schools."  The data doesn't provide the "why", but in its analysis, the Cardus report suggests a couple of things that may be in play here.

First, in noting the tendency of evangelical protestant graduates to choose "human service careers" such as social work, health care, education or vocational Christian ministry, the authors suggest that these graduates "may not be be interested in professional, science, and management positions because they may view such work to less consistent with a religious calling."  If that is truly the case, then evangelicals are teaching a limited view of calling.  It is certainly commendable that Christian schools are successful in encouraging involvement in ministry related careers, but a call to a STEM related field is as much a "religious calling" as another other profession.  Martin Luther addressed this very topic several hundred years ago:

“The works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before God by faith alone.”

At HCA, we have developed an annual Winterim program where we take four days in January to specifically focus on the subject of calling.  We believe that the creation mandate to "subdue the earth" is a broadbased call for Christ-followers to be leaders in every part of the labor force.  Like Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, we want our students to "feel God's pleasure" when they are following his calling on their lives.

A second area of concerned raised by the authors of the Cardus Report, is the potential existence of a "structural reason" for a lack of opportunity for students in evangelical schools, including lack of sufficient funding and difficulty in attracting science teachers.  Again, HCA has addressed those concerns.  Two years ago we began to develop at path to a STEM diploma which included a new Introduction to STEM Topics, offering the PLTW course curriculum (the ONLY private school in the Kansas City area to do so), and involvement in extracurricular STEM activities such as the recently concluded FTC competition in Kansas City.  HCA has made a significant budgetary commitment toward this effort and we have benefited from the generous support of several individuals and corporations in this effort.  To support this initiative, HCA has been blessed to be able to assemble a formidable lineup of passionate, qualified science and math teachers.

By God's grace, HCA will continue to "STEM the tide".

Team Charger Has Successful Rookie Season in FTC Competition

At Heritage Christian Academy we recently completed their first season competing in the FTC division of FIRST Robotics.  Our season began in September when the 2015-16 FTC game, iResQ, was announced nationally.  With that announcement, our team of 12 students in grades7-12 and 7 adult mentors began meeting weekly (and soon multiple times each week) to begin the process of designing and building our robot to compete in a qualifying tournament in early 2016.  Multiple prototypes were designed, tested, and ultimately discarded before settling on our final design in early December.  We spent the remaining weeks testing and refining this design before heading to our January 30th competition.

On January 30th we arrived early in the morning at UMKC with 44 other teams from Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.  In the morning we had our robot inspected for compliance to rules, met with FTC judges, and collaborated with other teams with whom we would be allied in actual competition.  Shortly after noon, the qualifying matches began.  At the conclusion of those matches, the top four teams in each of two divisions were allowed to invite other teams to be in their alliance for the elimination rounds.  Team Charger was excited to be one of those teams selected, largely because we had demonstrated that we were one of 4-5 teams in the entire competition capable of securing the maximum number of points by handing our robot from the "mountain."

Unfortunately, our final alliance was eliminated from the competition, but the students left with their appetites whetted and ready to tackle a new challenge next year.