STEM Expo
The Alta Vista middle school science, technology, and math departments collaborate during
the spring to present the STEM Expo. Students are asked to
explore problem solving in the
AVS community, in which they
consider what community means
to them and how to use science,
technology, engineering, and math to understand and design solutions for these needs.
Students hone in on authentic inquiries and design their own experiments, investigations, and engineering solutions that address real-world problems. While our students take direct ownership over each aspect of the project, they work closely with and are guided by STEM teacher mentors. As students engage in the problem-solving process, they model the practices of working scientists and engineers, including planning and carrying out investigations, using mathematical and computational thinking, and obtaining, evaluating and communicating information. This work culminates with a display of student experiments, prototypes, data, and conclusions to the community at large in an expo-style format.