Sierra Pacific High School is home to many different clubs, ranging from ones focused on school spirit, like Heart of the Growl, ones focused on cultural celebration, like the Asian Pacific Student Alliance, and now, ones that are more education based: the STEM Club.
The “STEM” in STEM Club stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and while the club only started this year, the advisor for the club, Stephanie Deckman, who has been teaching at Sierra Pacific for six years now, says that there is already a lot of enthusiasm for the subject.
Deckman said, “I had some motivated students that I’ve had in the past come in and just ask if I would be the advisor and provide space for them, and I was just excited because I clearly like science as a science teacher here, and just their enthusiasm for wanting to start a club that was more education based- I was very happy to support them.”
The club is a place for students interested in STEM subjects to share their expertise and become more knowledgeable in different areas, and Deckman says that they are going to do this by having students host projects based on what they’re skilled in for a certain amount of time, and then teach it to the rest of the club.
Emerson Mills, a sophomore who is a member of the STEM club, shared, “We’re gonna learn about different coding styles, and they’re gonna help with different mathematics and science projects, so I’m very excited for that.”
Students may be hesitant to join because they worry that STEM is difficult and boring, or they may not know anything about STEM at all. Deckman hopes to not only have students teach each other and become more knowledgeable, but to have students overcome that initial hesitation or and come around to actually enjoy the field.
Deckman explained, “I hope to just get more students involved, as they can hopefully recognize that science and math and technology and engineering doesn’t have to be difficult, it can be challenging and fun. And a lot of these topics are so much more interesting than what we necessarily see, like, in the classroom. So, I’m just excited to see the projects that my students come up with, and then also how we can get other students excited, or interested if they had no clue what STEM was or if they, you know, didn’t necessarily know that they could be interested in that type of field.”
Not only is the STEM club full of exciting ideas, but the friendships between the club members make for a warm, inviting environment.
“Everyone there is very welcoming and very funny,” Mills said with a smile. “We all have a pretty good relationship with each other, we’re all basically in the same classes, we all know each other pretty well. I mean there are people we don’t know, but we really enjoy getting to know them.”
So, while the STEM club is still relatively new, the club no doubt has many interesting and educational plans in store.