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STEM
Page 14 Electronic Edition: www .teachingtodaywi .com

STEM for All in South Milwaukee Schools

skills in math, science this, starting as young as kindergarten,” said per year, 5-year referendum in April 2024.
and technology. It STEM Teacher Katy Casleton. In addition to security upgrades and helping
looks like groups She’s one of three teachers hired in the keep the district’s salaries competitive for
of students working 2024-25 school year by the district to start teachers, that referendum helped equip the
together to solve a kindergarten to fifth-grade STEM class STEM classrooms and hire the teachers.”
simple and complex that all students take as part of their weekly As a result, South Milwaukee now
problems while learn- enrichment classes. That means, like Art, offers some form of STEM education at
ing the first steps to Music, Library, and Physical Education, stu- every grade level.
coding and program- dents are given dedicated time by specialists “I really want students to come home
ming. It looks like like Casleton, Jennifer Haynor, and Jolene just like very excited about the possibilities
a robot named Rosie Wasilewski to focus on STEM. of the things they’re going to do in STEM
spinning around and STEM education has always been class,” Wasilewski said.
seeds flying out of the important to the community of South Mil- Parents regularly report that their students
robot’s cup to mimic waukee. The high school expands the are having just that experience. One parent
how squirrels disperse courses in technology and engineering each shared that when he asks his son, each day,
seeds in their envi- year, and the middle school recently added how school went, he gets a different answer
ronment. It looks like a second STEM course called Entrepreneur- on the days he has STEM. On those days, he
a local news meteo- ship Through STEM as data shows so many gets a lengthy explanation of all the things he
rologist visiting to talk future jobs are going to be in that field. “We gets to explore and make. The hands-on, rig-
about how clouds work wanted our elementary students to have that orous learning is working for students, staff,
and students getting same experience as an early step in career and parents in our community!
the chance to replicate exploration. What do they want to be when
it in the classroom. It they grow up? We ask little kids that all the
looks like students time, but then we don’t tie some of that to
learning how to market what we’re actually doing in schools. STEM www.sdsm.k12.wi.us
School District of South Milwaukee products they create and develop their speak- is one additional way to give our students
What does STEM (Science, Technology, ing and listening skills. opportunities to be creative, but also to see
Engineering, and Math) education look like in “STEM in the elementary setting is so where that creativity and passion can turn
a South Milwaukee elementary classroom? It exciting and South Milwaukee is really the into a real job in their future,” Superinten-
looks like students having the opportunity to first district dent Deidre Roemer said. “We are fortunate
create and make while learning future-ready in this area to be piloting a program like that the community supported a $2 million

South Milwaukee Students Participate in NASA TechRise Challenge

cold of the earth’s atmosphere at 78,000 through the trove of data — and photos —
feet above the ground, and the not-so-gentle that the device collected.
crash of the weather balloon at the end of “They are the ones who put all the
the mission. sensors in the payload. They know the code,
Beginning in February, the teens met they know the processes,” Mendiola said.
twice a week after school. On Tuesdays, Current Middle School students won’t
they did the work – soldering sensors to have to be jealous of the TechRise team.
computer boards and writing the program- They’ll soon have their own NASA projects
ming that would go into the device. On to work on. Mendiola was recently accepted
Thursdays, they held Zoom meetings with into the 2025–26 Growing Beyond Earth®
NASA engineers to report their progress and (GBE) Program, a national classroom-based
troubleshoot any issues the students ran into. citizen STEM initiative developed in part-
“The project we worked on is a device nership with NASA.
that monitors VOC levels in the atmosphere. “As a new GBE teacher, I’ll be leading
VOCs are volatile organic compounds that our students in conducting NASA-aligned
are basically dangerous gases that cause research trials across both the fall and spring
health problems like allergies, asthma, and semesters. We will explore how plants can
even cancers,” said Eighth grader Fathima be grown in controlled environments to
Sayyed. support space exploration and life beyond
“We’re also measuring temperature, Earth,” she said. “This opportunity will
humidity, methane, benzene, and fluoride provide our students with a chance to con-
School District of South Milwaukee working … I was proud of them.” levels,” adds Kaylyn Crawford, also an tribute to authentic research that supports
When South Milwaukee Middle School Her team of students – just one of 60 eighth grader. NASA’s long-term mission.”
STEM Teacher Isabel Mendiola watched in the nation and the only one from Wiscon- Now that the device has been to the
the weather balloon lift off the ground this sin — was selected for the NASA TechRise edge of the atmosphere and back, it’s been
summer, carrying her students’ weather- Challenge in January. sent home to South Milwaukee to continue www.sdsm.k12.wi.us
monitoring device, she thought of all the That challenge was to build a device the learning. “Every sensor that was there
hours of work the students put in that led to that would collect the kind of data they worked. We got beautiful photographs,”
that moment. promised in the application and that would Mendiola said.
“It was amazing, amazing work,” survive the heat of the desert launch area, the The team, even those who are now
she said. “Seeing the device, the payload, seven hour flight it would take in the frigid freshmen, will reunite in September to dig