The Georgia Department of Education is dedicated to preparing students for the 21st Century workplace careers by providing high quality educational opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In Georgia, STEM education is defined as an integrated curriculum (as opposed to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics taught in isolation) that is driven by problem solving, discovery, exploratory project/problem-based learning, and student-centered development of ideas and solutions. The saturation of technology in most fields means that all students-not just those who plan to pursue a STEM profession- will require a solid foundation in STEM to be productive members of the workforce.
The Georgia Department of Education has awarded Rex Mill Middle School STEM Certification. Rex Mill is only the second middle school in the state to receive certification for their STEM Program. Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education Director Dr. Barbara Wall presented the school with their banner as they are the only school in the state that has health care science as a component of their STEM Program. Rex Mill teachers work diligently to create integrated experiences for the students in the program to make sure they can apply math, science, and health care science. While “STEM” has engineering as part of the acronym, there are many components of a STEM Program that are applicable other than just engineering as demonstrated at Rex Mill. The school has worked for three years to accomplish this goal. They have moved from isolated classes of CTAE, math and science to the integrated curriculum provided for students today. This comes from a commitment from the teachers to provide a strong STEM education for their students.